Bryan Kohberger’s lawyers have requested that the venue for his trial be changed
Kohberger lawyer Anne Taylor has requested a change of venue for his trial, citing “extensive, inflammatory pretrial publicity” that could damage the defendant’s chances of a fair trial. A request filed with the court on January 31, claims “a fair and impartial jury cannot be found in Latah County” due to the area not having a “large enough population center to avoid bias in the community.” Newsweek has contacted Taylor via email for comment.
A trial date has not yet been set by the court.
Kohberger, 29, stands accused of murdering four University of Idaho students on November 13, 2022. All four victims—Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Ethan Chapin, 20—were stabbed to death at their off-campus rental home in the rural college town of Moscow.
Kohberger has been charged with four counts of murder and one count of burglary. When indicted, he declined to offer a plea, resulting in the judge entering a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
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Where the trial will take place was previously discussed at a motions hearing on January 26. Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson asked the judge to schedule the trial in summer when the University of Idaho will not be in session. Thompson also clarified that he did not believe a change of trial venue was necessary due to the ongoing national interest in the case.
“It’s not Moscow. It’s not Latah County. It’s everywhere. So, I don’t think that a change of venue is going to solve any of these problems,” Thompson, who is leading the case against Kohberger, said at the pretrial hearing. “I have people, friends in this community who have traveled to Mexico. And they say, ‘You’re from Moscow?’ And immediately, they want to talk about this case.”
Thompson continued: “We at least owe Latah County, the people of Latah County, the attempt to seat a jury here first. And not just rely on, ‘There’s been a lot of publicity.’ There’s been a lot of publicity everywhere.”
Prosecutors are seeking a trial date in summer 2024, but Kohberger’s lawyer Taylor has said the timeline was not “realistic in any way”.
“If a trial were to happen in Latah County, we would suggest looking at summer 2025,” Taylor said in court. “There are a lot of things that we have to still do.”
Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University in nearby Pullman at the time of the killings. He was tracked down by police at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania around six weeks after the killings took place in December 2022. A possible motive for the killings has not been provided by officials.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.