MOSCOW, Idaho (NewsNation) — Legal teams for the Idaho college killings case continued to throw jabs back and forth in the courtroom with the prosecution urging the judge to reject suspect Bryan Kohberger’s new alibi and the defense claiming the prosecution has withheld evidence.
Kohberger faces four counts of murder in connection to the 2022 stabbing deaths of Idaho college students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Evidence withheld from the defense?
The case rocked the small town of Moscow, Idaho, and now, Kohberger’s attorneys claim the prosecution has withheld key audio evidence from the defense, according to a CBS News report.
Anne Taylor, Kohberger’s lead attorney, claimed in a recent court appearance that the defense hasn’t provided a full video that allegedly shows the suspect’s vehicle on the night the students were killed, the report said.
“This is the video that they say places this car near the residence. We’ve received little tiny pieces of that and we think Bryan’s right to a fair trial means the public needs to know that they’ve withheld the audio from a great portion of that and that it starts a long time before the little clip that we received,” Taylor said.
Taylor has also pushed for Kohberger’s trial to be made public, but Judge John Judge ruled that the upcoming hearings will be closed.
Kohberger’s new alibi
Prosecutors against Kohberger have since urged the judge to reject the new alibi defense put forth last month.
In the alibi, Kohberger’s legal team claims he likes to go out for hikes, late-night drives and that he was out watching “the moon and the stars” the night the four students were murdered.
They disputed that Kohberger was near the victims’ house when police believe the crime happened and say he was driving in the area of Pullman, Washington, several miles west of the college in Moscow, Idaho.
The prosecution, however, argued Kohberger’s alibi lacks the “specificity required” by state law, People reported. Prosecutors also claimed nothing new in the official filing from what was already known, except for the mention of Wawawai Park, the report said.
Idaho College Killings
The November 2022 stabbing deaths of the four students shocked the small town of Moscow, Idaho, as the search for a suspect moved slowly.
Authorities eventually identified Kohberger using familial DNA and other evidence, including reports of his car being seen near the crime scene.
In March, relatives of two of the slain students issued a statement expressing frustration over the continued uncertainty about the upcoming trial. The Goncalves and Kernodle families said they are tired of the delays that have been issued to avoid mistakes.
“We want to start healing, we do, we want to find justice and try to move on from this horrible tragedy so please, please, start making some decisions, get to work, and quit playing the game,” the statement read.
During pretrial hearings, Kohberger’s attorneys have pushed for the case to be dismissed and argued for the release of sealed genealogy information used to identify him. In a recent hearing, his defense team asked for a change of venue and asked for the trial to be delayed until 2025.
