Lawyers for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of stabbing four Idaho college students to death in 2022, can continue their inquiry to potential jurors in the state, the judge in his case ruled.
Kohberger’s lawyers had hired a consultant to conduct a telephone survey of the community before his upcoming capital murder trial, to gauge the attitudes and potential biases of people who might one day decide his fate.
That investigation — which had become a source of contention before the trial — can now proceed without changing any of the issues, including nine that prosecutors took issue with.
“The defense can continue its investigations without changing the questions of the investigation,” said Judge John Judge, presiding over the case, in his order filed Friday and published on the docket Monday afternoon.
The judge had put the so-called non-publication order in place to preserve Kohberger’s right to a fair trial in the high-profile case.
The “purpose” of the silence order “is to ensure that a fair and impartial jury can be impaneled so that the accused receives a fair trial,” the judge said. “If defense counsel believes that asking these investigative questions, which arguably contain damaging or erroneous information about the defendant, is more beneficial than harmful, as defendant’s expert stated, this Court will not does not have, at this stage, sufficient information or evidence to call this strategy into question.
Previously, prosecutor Bill Thompson, who led the case against Kohberger, argued that some of the questions in the investigation commissioned by Kohberger’s defense had effectively poisoned the views of 400 members of the local community beyond repair. He said in documents and in court that some of the pollsters’ questions not only violated the silence order, but that some of the questions spread false information about the case and could foster a “false impression” among potential jurors.
Kohberger’s lead attorney, Anne Taylor, argued that their survey questions were based on information obtained from the “public record” and discussed in the media — and, what’s more, the fact that some of the information was false was part of of the problem since, Taylor said, the rumor mill can influence opinion as effectively as facts, and assessing bias is exactly their goal in determining whether a local jury could be fair and impartial.
Bryan Kohberger is escorted into a courtroom for a hearing in Latah County District Court, Sept. 13, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho.
Ted S. Warren/AP, FILE
Here is how the judge assessed the nine issues “at issue” in his decision:
Six of the questions came from the probable cause affidavit, which is publicly available; thus, asking questions about it does not violate the order of silence.
One of the questions “was not based on admissible or inadmissible ‘evidence,’ but rather was about the feelings” of members of the community in Moscow, Idaho, where the murders allegedly took place – it did not violate therefore no order of silence.
The two remaining questions, which related to certain “media elements,” were “read into the public record and discussed at length” during recent hearings into the inquiry, “including the fact that these ‘media elements’ might not be true.” said the judge. “Given that the information is now public, the Court sees no advantage in preventing the defense from continuing its investigations or in requiring that the two issues at issue be eliminated.”
Kohberger’s team will now be able to continue its investigation, which is part of a broader attempt to convince the judge to move the trial to another county, arguing that the composition of local jurors was tainted by pre-trial publicity. That investigation, Kohberger’s attorney Taylor said, has already determined that Latah County’s pool of potential jurors would not be able to be fair and impartial in his case. Now, Taylor said, they want to assess potential bias in other parts of the state, where it might be heard by jurors who haven’t been exposed to more than a year of media coverage of the case . Prosecutors, for their part, argued that the “national and even international attention” the case received made it unnecessary to move it from one Idaho county to another.
Objecting to some questions in the investigation, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson read nine examples aloud in court that he said were of “great concern” to their team:
“Question. Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania?” Thompson read at an April 4 hearing.
Additional questions that concerned Thompson’s team include:
“Question: Have you read, seen or heard if the police found a knife case on the bed next to one of the victims?”
“Question. Have you read, seen or heard that the DNA found on the knife sheath was later matched to that of Bryan Kohberger?”
“Question: Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger owned the same type of car captured on video while he was driving in the neighborhood where the murders occurred?”
“Did you see – read, see or hear – whether cell tower data showed that Bryan Kohberger made several trips near the victims’ home in the month before the murder?”
“Have you read, seen or heard whether Moscow university students and their parents lived in fear until Bryan Kohberger was arrested for the murders?”
“Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger said he was driving alone the night of the murders?”
“Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger stalked any of the victims?”
“Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger followed any of the victims on social media?”
Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, Kohberger, then a Ph.D. in criminology. student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus house and stabbed to death four University of Idaho students: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
After a six-week investigation, police identified Kohberger as a suspect and arrested him in December 2022 at his family’s home in Pennsylvania. He was indicted in May 2023 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he refused to plead guilty, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Kohberger faces the death penalty if convicted.
His lawyers said their client was not at the house where the killings took place and was driving that night. The lawyers also say they will have expert analysis of cell tower data to back up their claims.
A trial date has not yet been set.
A hearing on Kohberger’s change of venue request is scheduled for June 27.
ABC News’ Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
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