Bryan Kohberger Defense Team’s Move Slammed by Prosecutor: ‘Half-Baked’

Prosecutors in the Bryan Kohberger murder case have objected to “half baked” results of a phone poll being released.

“I just did not want this to come willy nilly into the public record in a half-baked fashion,” Bill Thompson said at a hearing in Idaho on Wednesday.

The controversial poll of potential jurors was commissioned by Kohberger’s defense team to assess the attitudes of potential jurors in Latah County, where four students were stabbed to death.

400 people were asked about the evidence in the case and the defense had planned to ask several hundred more.

Thompson said the poll of potential jurors has not been completed and he did not want partial results being entered into the public record.

He said he wanted the wording of the survey to be changed before it is allowed to continue.

However, he said that the defense told him by emails two days previously that it could not be changed.

“I would have been happy to discuss some middle ground but the line has been drawn in black and white,” he said.

He added that presenting the partial results in court would be premature.

Kohberger, 29, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection with the fatal stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. The bodies of the four University of Idaho students were found in an off-campus residence on November 13, 2022.

Kohberger has maintained his innocence in the case, previously standing silent during his arraignment. Judge John Judge, who is overseeing the case, entered “not guilty” pleas for each of the charges against him in response.

The defense team was hoping that the phone survey of potential jurors would prove that local people were prejudiced against their client and that the trial should, therefore, be moved to another county.

Thompson was speaking before the court heard evidence from Dr Bryan Edelman, the co-founder of a jury consultancy business, Trial Innovations, and the person who oversaw the phone polling of 400 potential jurors. The defense had been planning to poll more potential jurors in the area.

Thompson said that Edelman could present a slide presentation of his methodology but he did not want him to release the results of a survey that has not been completed.

“The rest of it is fine,” he said.

Kohberger’s defense team had hired Edelman’s company to assess if people in Latah County, Idaho, had a negative opinion of Kohberger, who has been charged with the murders.

During a heated exchange after the slide presentation, Edelman agreed that one of the questions asked if potential jurors had read, seen or heard that Kohberger stalked one of the victims.

Edelman said he wasn’t interested in whether it was true or not, merely that it was being spread by the media and was therefore contaminating potential jurors in the case.

Edelman said it would be “ridiculous” to ask the potential jurors about their knowledge of stalking reports in the media and then tell them the reports weren’t true.

Thompson was seeking to establish that the defense has been spreading false information about the case.

Thompson said that Edelman appeared emotionally upset by the questions on Wednesday and appeared to be almost breaking down. He said he was surprised that someone of Edelman’s experience had reacted to the questions in this way.

Edelman retorted: “I’m not crying, I’m angry.” He said that he has been accused of saturating potential jurors with prejudicial information when, in reality, he was trying to assess what effect media coverage has had on potential jurors.

During an intense examination, Kohberger’s attorney, Anne Taylor, objected and, at one point, accused Thompson of “badgering” Edelman.

Judge John Judge agreed that people should speak one at a time and told Thompson to “lower the tone a little bit.”

At a hearing on April 4, Thompson told Judge John Judge that a polling company hired by Kohberger’s defense team had asked nine “reckless” and “outrageous” questions to 400 potential jurors in Latah County.

A concerned member of the public recorded one of the phone calls and contacted the local district attorney’s office to make a complaint, he said.

In asking the questions, they have planted negative opinions of Kohberger in potential jurors’ minds, according to prosecutors.

A transcript of the recorded phone call reveals that pollsters asked nine questions about the case to potential jurors.

Judge will decide at a later date whether to move the trial venue.