(NewsNation) — Bryan Kohberger appeared in court Tuesday, one day after prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty for charges tied to the November killings of four University of Idaho students.
Kohberger is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. The four students were found stabbed to death on Nov. 13 in an off-campus rental home.
The 28-year-old had been studying criminology at nearby Washington State University at the time of the killings. He appeared in court Tuesday on several motions related to evidence in the case.
Among those motions was a request filed by his public defender, who has asked prosecutors to turn over DNA profiles collected from three additional unidentified males during the investigation.
She also requested FBI forensic records, including a report about the information that led investigators to look for Kohberger’s Hyundai Elantra, and training records of three police officers who searched the property and conducted interviews.
Prosecutors in court Tuesday said they will try to have the forensics reports turned over by July 14, otherwise, they have shared 51 terabytes of audio and video.
The state did, however, object to turning over the officers’ training records. More than 100 officers worked on the case at some point, and turning over the training records of three officers would create the same possibility for all of them, prosecutors said.
The judge will consider both sides’ arguments and issue a written decision at a later date.
Earlier this month, Kohberger’s attorney filed a separate request to pause court proceedings on the case until records from the grand jury that indicted Kohberger are released.
He recently stood silent at his arraignment — a plea option that means the defendant neither says they are guilty nor not guilty. The decision is not out of the ordinary, a Latah County judge said during a previous hearing.
Kohberger’s choice to stand silent also “preserve(s) his right to contest the indictment,” his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, wrote in a June 15 filing.