Current Slasher Murders of Four University of Idaho Students - US *Bryan Kohberger Arrested

[Kurve]

Here's the probable cause docs.

 

[Munich]

So Emily D Baker and Tragos Law have said it'll be better to ask for the quick trial if they were defending Kohberger.

Let's see.

 

[TheDudeAbides]

Its a similar process in Australia, just known by differing terms.

In australia, you get arrested and charged with say murder. You then sit on remand or on bail. The court process begins to eventually moving to a committal hearing in a lower (magistrates) court.

At the committal hearing, prosecution presents its prima facie case to the judge and the defense can cross examine this evidence. Its not a process for determining guilt, but an assessment of the evidence by the judge to determine whether the evidence is strong enough to have the case proceed to be heard in a full trial in a higher court.

In Kohbergers case, he was arrested and charged with the 4 murders and burglary. He has been in custody since. In this jurisdiction, the prosecution has two options on how to proceed with the case, they can have a preliminary hearing before a judge (same as Australia's committal hearing) where the evidence is assessed by the district court and if strong enough, it moves to the higher court for the trial process, OR, the prosecution can elect to present the evidence to a Grand Jury and the grand jury decides on the strength of the evidence and ultimately decides whether the case is strong enough to go to trial.

If the Grand Jury decides the evidence is strong enough to go to trial, then the defendant is "indicted".

There has been a lot of motions in this case back and forth between the procecution / defence / and the media regarding gag orders, and the discovery process.

So while the defence has been throwing motions through the court accusing the prosecution of not providing all of the evidence they have for the preliminary hearing next month, the prosecution has evidently decided to go the route of a more secretive grand jury process. There is talk that there is sensitive evidence and that witnesses have been targeted on social media, so this grand jury was able to protect them further until trial.

 

[TheDudeAbides]

What do you mean?

It isnt the defence that brings a GJ in its the prosecution's play.

Yep , the prosecution convenes the grand jury and the defence cannot cross examine evidence or submit their own argument or provide witnesses. It is a prosecution process to present evidence

 

[TheDudeAbides]

Trying to avoid the death penalty?

This will be a death penalty case, and one of the county's only death penalty qualified public defence attorneys is his assigned lawyer for that reason.

 

[TheDudeAbides]

So Emily D Baker and Tragos Law have said it'll be better to ask for the quick trial if they were defending Kohberger.

Let's see.

Did you see that the prosecution has provided them with something like 10,000 pages of reports and other documents, 10,000 photographs, 9,000 tips and 51 terabytes of video / audio files...

Thats a massive amount of info to process...

 

[Munich]

Yep , the prosecution convenes the grand jury and the defence cannot cross examine evidence or submit their own argument or provide witnesses. It is a prosecution process to present evidence

I know who convenes it I was asking why the poster thinks this is being done to avoid the DP.

The defence absolutely can cross examine witnesses in a preliminary hearing. I'd imagine this is part of the reason the prosecution called the GJ as they don't feel their witnesses would fare well on cross right now.

 

[Munich]

Did you see that the prosecution has provided them with something like 10,000 pages of reports and other documents, 10,000 photographs, 9,000 tips and 51 terabytes of video / audio files...

Thats a massive amount of info to process...

Yep but if the defence feels there's mostly fluff in there they can put pressure on the pros. The pros have to prove beyond reasonable doubt and a faster trial is harder for them.

It's why it's a right for a defendant as it makes it harder for the pros.

 

[Munich]

This will be a death penalty case, and one of the county's only death penalty qualified public defence attorneys is his assigned lawyer for that reason.

He had two I'm pretty sure the original co-counsel was DP qualified.

And he has since added a 3rd.

 

[Pamcake1]

Idaho Murders Suspect Is Indicted by Grand Jury (Published 2023)

Instead of facing a preliminary hearing, the Ph.D. student accused of killing four University of Idaho students will be arraigned on murder charges next week.

www.nytimes.com

May 17, 2023Updated 1:37 p.m. ET
The man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students last year has been indicted by a grand jury and will be arraigned on murder charges next week, a court spokesman said Wednesday.
The suspect, Bryan Kohberger, a former graduate student in criminology at a nearby university, was arrested in the case in December but has yet to enter a plea. Defense lawyers had moved to hold an extended preliminary hearing, scheduled for next month, that would have explored much of the evidence collected by investigators, but the grand jury indictment eliminates that process.
The authorities have yet to describe a motive or lay out many details of the killings, in which the four victims were stabbed to death in the predawn hours one Sunday in November in a house not far from campus. They have not detailed any prior connections between Mr. Kohberger and the victims, Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20.

Mr. Kohberger, originally from Pennsylvania, had been a Ph.D. student studying criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, just across the state border from the Idaho campus. Investigators have said they linked him to the scene with DNA found on a knife sheath in the home, apparently matching that sample to his father after testing trash at the family’s home.

Image

Ethan Chapin, left, and Xana Kernodle.Credit...



Image

Kaylee Goncalves, left, and Madison Mogen.Credit...


Mr. Kohberger drove a white Hyundai Elantra that appeared to match a vehicle seen on surveillance footage near the home, investigators have said. An affidavit filed by the police said that Mr. Kohberger’s phone was detected moving around the region in the hours before and after the killings but that it was disconnected from cell networks, perhaps turned off, for about two hours around the time of the killings.
The case has upended life in the community of Moscow, Idaho, which had not recorded a murder in seven years. Residents of the town spent weeks in uncertainty as investigators struggled to find a suspect. In recent days, at graduation ceremonies, the University of Idaho honored the four victims with posthumous degrees or certificates.

Mr. Kohberger has said through a public defender that he expects to be exonerated. Nate Poppino, a court spokesman, said that Mr. Kohberger would be arraigned on the new indictment at a hearing scheduled for Monday morning.
Former friends and his own online postings have detailed Mr. Kohberger’s troubled past, including emotional problems and heroin use that he struggled with in his teenage years. He had appeared to turn his life around after getting clean and focusing on his studies, they reported, and he had said that he hoped to one day provide counseling for high-profile criminals.

But after arriving at Washington State University last year, he appeared to run into new trouble. The university counseled him over a verbal altercation he had with a professor and investigated his conduct with women around the time of the killings. He was ultimately fired from his job as a teaching assistant in December, shortly before his arrest at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania.
Mike Baker is the Seattle bureau chief, reporting primarily from the Northwest and Alaska. @ByMikeBaker

 

[craffles]

What do you mean?

It isnt the defence that brings a GJ in its the prosecution's play.

I dunno how the US court system works is what I mean haha

 

[Kurve]

Listening to a podcast where Bob Motta, defense attorney and host of the Defense Diaries who thinks Bryan Kohberger has a defense. He's suggesting the hours when the surviving roommates were in the house and all over the crime scene possibly with their friends coming and going, will play heavily through the trial, particularly in relation to how the knife sheath might have ended up in the bedroom.

Where the sheath was in the upstairs bedroom I think may be a bit odd. It was just lying there staring at the cops when they walked through the door. Not caught up in the bedding, on the floor or kicked under the bed as I might expect through a fight, the way I read it was that it may look as if it was placed there afterwards.

He says that the house was a well known 'rave' house and that Kohberger may say for example, that he gets his drugs there and whoever he gets them off leaves the back door open for him, that he entered the house and realised what had gone on, fled in a panic.

Edit: I suppose if he can get the knife sheath thrown out of evidence due to crime scene contamination issues he may have a chance.

 

[Munich]

Listening to a podcast where Bob Motta, defense attorney and host of the Defense Diaries who thinks Bryan Kohberger has a defense. He's suggesting the hours when the surviving roommates were in the house and all over the crime scene possibly with their friends coming and going, will play heavily through the trial, particularly in relation to how the knife sheath might have ended up in the bedroom.

Where the sheath was in the upstairs bedroom I think may be a bit odd. It was just lying there staring at the cops when they walked through the door. Not caught up in the bedding, on the floor or kicked under the bed as I might expect through a fight, the way I read it was that it may look as if it was placed there afterwards.

He says that the house was a well known 'rave' house and that Kohberger may say for example, that he gets his drugs there and whoever he gets them off leaves the back door open for him, that he entered the house and realised what had gone on, fled in a panic.

Edit: I suppose if he can get the knife sheath thrown out of evidence due to crime scene contamination issues he may have a chance.

That's all things the defence could very well look at but with the media circus this has generated I'm not sure there's an untainted jury pool out there. Regardless of what they bring up this town wants justice.

Am not suggesting he's innocent either.

 

[Kurve]

That's all things the defence could very well look at but with the media circus this has generated I'm not sure there's an untainted jury pool out there. Regardless of what they bring up this town wants justice.

Am not suggesting he's innocent either.

Yeah I'm not suggesting he's innocent either. Regards that knife sheath, I'm wondering if someone else found it in the bedroom and picked it up, placing it on the bed. Perhaps one of the housemates. If they did, I'm not sure that would be grounds for exclusion provided whoever did it, fessed up.

 

[Munich]

2am Melb time the hearing is set to start.

Anybody staying up to watch? I don't believe there's a live stream but there will be a pool feed that will be replayed right after.

Am sure there'll be plenty of activity regardless.

 

[Kurve]

2am Melb time the hearing is set to start.

Anybody staying up to watch? I don't believe there's a live stream but there will be a pool feed that will be replayed right after.

Am sure there'll be plenty of activity regardless.

Yep, I might try.

 

[ClarkeM]

2am Melb time the hearing is set to start.

Anybody staying up to watch? I don't believe there's a live stream but there will be a pool feed that will be replayed right after.

Am sure there'll be plenty of activity regardless.

Thought about it but it'll be, for lack of a better term, boring. May as well just watch it in the morning.

 

[Munich]

Thought about it but it'll be, for lack of a better term, boring. May as well just watch it in the morning.

Yep. It's more the livestreams I'm interested in hence why I want to stay up.

 

[Kurve]

Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger refused to enter a plea at his arraignment on four counts of first-degree murder and burglary.

The 28-year-old criminology PhD student’s arraignment was scheduled for 9am PT in Latah County Court in Moscow, Idaho.


Mr Kohberger was expected to enter a plea on the charges but instead his attorney said that he was “standing silent” on the charges. The judge then entered not guilty pleas on his behalf.

Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger’s ties to dead woman addressed by police

Bryan Kohberger’s parents were ordered to testify before a grand jury investigating the disappearance and death of Dana Smithers

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Kurve]

The prosecution now has 60 days to pursue the death penalty.

 

[A11dAtP0w3R]

Trial set for October 2nd...not bad...was thinking it could have been a much longer wait than that

~6 week trial they estimate.

 

[Munich]

No waiving of speedy trial either.

Hallelujah.

 

[TheDudeAbides]

Yeah I'm not suggesting he's innocent either. Regards that knife sheath, I'm wondering if someone else found it in the bedroom and picked it up, placing it on the bed. Perhaps one of the housemates. If they did, I'm not sure that would be grounds for exclusion provided whoever did it, fessed up.

Im pretty sure there was a lone male DNA left on the sheath button which later came back to being Kohbergers. I get that its not an absolute, but it will take some explaining that a knife sheath with his DNA was left at the scene.

 

[Pamcake1]

Bryan Kohberger stands silent as judge enters NOT GUILTY plea

Bryan Kohberger, 28, appeared in court in Moscow, Idaho, Monday where he 'stood silent' while entering a plea.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[kaiserchief13]

I read that defence didn't waive speedy trial, yet, because they now have to be given evidence prosecution has. Once given evidence they can then request a trial at a later date. So I guess we'll see what happens

 

[Munich]

I read that defence didn't waive speedy trial, yet, because they now have to be given evidence prosecution has. Once given evidence they can then request a trial at a later date. So I guess we'll see what happens

It puts pressure on the pros to front everything up in time for an Oct trial.

Defense can and prob will motion to extend the date out and can say pros haven't given us everything as a reason.

Plea deal talks would also be happening behind the scenes I'm sure.