Kohberger had already stated his alibi in court documents: he was driving at the time of the 4 a.m. murders. The filing Wednesday by Kohberger’s attorney, Anne Taylor, suggests he will attempt to prove it through testimony from a cell phone expert who will claim Kohberger’s cell phone was in the wrong place to link him to the murders .
That testimony would contradict prosecutors’ allegation that cellphone data placed Kohberger on a highway heading away from the town where the killings took place that night.
Kohberger, 29, is accused of fatally stabbing Ethan Chapin and searched for the killer for nearly seven weeks, a long-term hunt that attracted national attention and set the nearby college towns of Moscow, Idaho and Pullman, Washington on edge.
They arrested Kohberger, a criminal justice student at Washington State University in Pullman, at his family’s home in Pennsylvania in late December. He was later indicted by a grand jury.
Kohberger has maintained his innocence. He pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder and one count of burglary in May. Lawyers are barred from speaking about most aspects of the case under a judge’s order.
Kohberger was charged with the crime after being linked to DNA from a snap from a knife sheath left at the scene, according to court records. Prosecutors also seized other items from Kohberger’s home and car and alleged his physical attributes matched a rough description of the intruder given by a surviving roommate.
Additionally, authorities said cellphone records showed Kohberger had been near the victims’ off-campus home at least 12 times in the months before the killings. On the night of the murders, Kohberger’s phone was spotted as he left his residence just before 3 a.m. before he stopped communicating with the network, authorities alleged in the criminal affidavit.
A car matching Kohberger’s was seen on surveillance footage driving past the victims’ home four times and was seen speeding away about 15 minutes after he last arrived at the home. Less than half an hour later, Kohberger’s phone began communicating with the cellular network again, putting him on a highway connecting Moscow and Pullman, according to the affidavit.
The defense expert testimony Kohberger plans to offer will show, according to his defense attorney’s new filing, that his mobile device was not driven on that highway. Instead, it will claim that Kohberger “was located south of Pullman, Washington and west of Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.”
Taylor said in the filing that Kohberger frequently took nighttime walks after starting graduate school to hike, run or “see the moon and stars” and that he did so that night.
The next hearing in this case is set for May 14. No trial date has been set.
washingtonpost
