Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Mega Edition: The Enormous Price Tag Attached To The Case Against Bryan Kohberger (8/19/26)

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Mega Edition: The Enormous Price Tag Attached To The Case Against Bryan Kohberger (8/19/26) · Beyond The Horizon

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
0:04
Speaker 1: this episode, we're heading back up to Idaho and we're
0:07
Speaker 1: gonna check in on the Brian Coberger case and what's
0:11
Speaker 1: going on when it comes to how much money is
0:14
Speaker 1: being spent when it comes to prosecuting Brian Cohberger and folks,
0:19
Speaker 1: we're talking about millions. So let's get to this article
0:23
Speaker 1: from the Idaho Statesman and let's see what Kevin Fixler
0:27
Speaker 1: has for US headline exclusive Brian Colberger case soars into
0:32
Speaker 1: millions in public costs ahead of murder trial. The author
0:36
Speaker 1: of this article, Kevin Fixler, Brian Coohberger, the suspect in
0:41
Speaker 1: the Moscow College student homicides, has now been jailed in
0:45
Speaker 1: Idaho for four hundred and sixty nine days following his
0:49
Speaker 1: December twenty twenty two arrest. For each day that passes
0:53
Speaker 1: as he awaits his anticipated murder trial, the public cost
0:56
Speaker 1: shouldered by Idaho taxpayers continues to financial records obtained by
1:02
Speaker 1: The Idaho Statesman through public records requests across a dozen
1:06
Speaker 1: public entities detailed the taxpayer dollars already spent on the
1:10
Speaker 1: Coburger case. The total includes costs for the nationwide law
1:15
Speaker 1: enforcement investigation and ensuing legal proceedings so far. It also
1:19
Speaker 1: accounts for the daily rate the whole Coburger in custody
1:22
Speaker 1: at the county jail while he awaits trial. Well, what
1:25
Speaker 1: are you supposed to do? Got to hold the guy somewhere, right,
1:29
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, when you have a case like this, with
1:32
Speaker 1: this notoriety and this kind of complexity, it cost a
1:36
Speaker 1: lot of money to pursue a prosecution. And whenever you
1:40
Speaker 1: have something like this happen in a state like Idaho
1:43
Speaker 1: where there's not as much tax dollar, if you will,
1:46
Speaker 1: as in a place like New York or Chicago or
1:49
Speaker 1: you know, one of these other gigantic cities, then there
1:53
Speaker 1: is going to be some budget issues that pop up.
1:56
Speaker 1: They weren't expecting this. There wasn't a murder in my mind,
2:00
Speaker 1: let's go for like seven years prior to these murders happening.
2:03
Speaker 1: So they certainly weren't prepared in the aftermath of this
2:06
Speaker 1: for the fiscal hit that they were going to take.
2:10
Speaker 1: The amount of money spent on the high profile murder
2:13
Speaker 1: case already exceeds three point six million. The Statesman's investigation
2:17
Speaker 1: found the cost of Coburger's prosecution is heightened. Financial studies
2:23
Speaker 1: have shown and legal experts to hold the statesman because
2:26
Speaker 1: the state plans to pursue the death penalty of a
2:28
Speaker 1: jury conviction them. Well, look the voters of Idaho, they
2:33
Speaker 1: voted for the death penalty, right, so they understand at
2:37
Speaker 1: least I would hope that it comes with a financial
2:40
Speaker 1: burden attached to it. You have to really prove your
2:44
Speaker 1: case in a death penalty case, right. You can't just
2:47
Speaker 1: show up and be like, oh, well, this is a
2:49
Speaker 1: guy who did it, let's put them to death. So
2:52
Speaker 1: you really have to jump through hoops. And the State
2:55
Speaker 1: of Idaho is really going through it here because as
2:58
Speaker 1: much evidence as there is, there's a lot still that
3:01
Speaker 1: has to be answered for. And if the prosecution doesn't
3:05
Speaker 1: do everything to an absolute perfect level, then someone like
3:09
Speaker 1: Ann Taylor, who is a good lawyer, they're gonna grab
3:12
Speaker 1: onto that and they're gonna use that and help with
3:15
Speaker 1: their defense. So that's why you see the prosecution's budget
3:18
Speaker 1: absolutely balloon. Judge John Judge of Idaho's second Judicial District
3:24
Speaker 1: in Layta County, who is overseeing the case, set at
3:27
Speaker 1: a hearing earlier this month that he was mindful of
3:30
Speaker 1: the public costs for the extended pre trial process. If
3:35
Speaker 1: we have to have hearings on every single thing, we've
3:37
Speaker 1: got long ways to go, he said. And it's a
3:40
Speaker 1: lot of time, it's a lot of work, and it's
3:42
Speaker 1: a lot of money, and it just makes everything more difficult.
3:46
Speaker 1: And you're a few of the numbers of costs that's
3:48
Speaker 1: been incurred thus far. Idaho State Police three hundred and
3:52
Speaker 1: forty seven thousand dollars, Moscow Police one hundred and forty
3:56
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, Leayta County one point five million, University of
4:01
Speaker 1: Idaho one point six million dollars. Still, the Coburger case
4:06
Speaker 1: appears to be bringing exceptional expenses to the state. For comparison,
4:10
Speaker 1: the combined costs for the murder cases against Chad and
4:13
Speaker 1: Lori Valo Dabel were roughly the same amount, about three
4:16
Speaker 1: point six million dollars, but over three years. East Idaho
4:20
Speaker 1: News reported in March twenty twenty three, and again it
4:24
Speaker 1: just shows you how complex this Coburger case really is.
4:29
Speaker 1: Now we know that there's a ton of evidence and
4:30
Speaker 1: it looks like coburger is cooked, but there's still a
4:34
Speaker 1: long way to go, and the low can happen and
4:36
Speaker 1: as we've already seen a lot will happen. Coburger, twenty nine,
4:41
Speaker 1: a graduate student at nearby Washington State University at the time,
4:45
Speaker 1: is accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to
4:49
Speaker 1: death at an off campus home on King Road in Moscow,
4:52
Speaker 1: and he is charged with four counts of first degree
4:55
Speaker 1: murder and one count of felony burglary. A Leita County
4:58
Speaker 1: grand jury miss Lee indicted him on five charges in
5:02
Speaker 1: May of twenty twenty three. The victims were seniors Madison
5:07
Speaker 1: Mogan and Kaylee Gonsalvis, both twenty one, junior Xana Kernodle,
5:12
Speaker 1: and freshman Eathan Chapin, both twenty The three women rented
5:16
Speaker 1: the home with two other female housemates who went unharmed
5:19
Speaker 1: in the November twenty twenty two fatal attack, while Chapin
5:23
Speaker 1: was Kernodle's boyfriend and stayed over for the night. Police said,
5:27
Speaker 1: and remember Kaylee wasn't living there at the time. She
5:30
Speaker 1: had just come to visit to show Maddie her new car.
5:34
Speaker 1: She had already moved back in with her parents. State
5:37
Speaker 1: police invoices id genetic testing lab police costs to land
5:42
Speaker 1: Coberger as a suspected killer after a nearly seven week
5:45
Speaker 1: man hunt, were at least seven hundred and forty thousand dollars,
5:49
Speaker 1: The Statesman's and analysis found, most of which covered payroll
5:53
Speaker 1: for the cadre of Idaho State Police officers. That sum
5:57
Speaker 1: also includes an overtime bill of six hundred hours for
6:00
Speaker 1: the Moscow Police Department, which led the homicide investigation, and
6:04
Speaker 1: the use of a private firm to secure the King
6:07
Speaker 1: Road property while it was still an active crime scene.
6:11
Speaker 1: That total included any police investigative work on the homicides.
6:16
Speaker 1: ISP spokesperson Aaron Snell, who relocated to Moscow to assist
6:21
Speaker 1: with public communications for most of the investigation, told The
6:24
Speaker 1: Statesman by phone, it's an expense that supports the work,
6:29
Speaker 1: the majority of which were indeed. The travel and the
6:32
Speaker 1: forensic services, the testing and that stuff isn't cheap and
6:36
Speaker 1: it's not free. These are private companies that are doing this,
6:41
Speaker 1: so it's going to be a bit of money if
6:44
Speaker 1: you want to make sure you have the best people
6:45
Speaker 1: in the field taking a look at what's going on.
6:49
Speaker 1: Those expenses exclude any cost to the FBI, which assisted
6:53
Speaker 1: with the case. As a matter of policy, the federal
6:55
Speaker 1: agency does not comment on how it pursues specific cases
6:59
Speaker 1: in vouoting the associated costs. FBI regional spokesperson Sandra Barker
7:04
Speaker 1: said in an email to The Statesman, they can't be
7:07
Speaker 1: bothered to comment on how much dough they're spending, but
7:10
Speaker 1: you're footing the bill. Since twenty twenty one, the state
7:14
Speaker 1: has had a contract with Authorum, a private lab in Texas,
7:17
Speaker 1: for forensic genetic testing services. AUTHORAM has helped Idaho solve
7:22
Speaker 1: three cold cases in that time and is assisting on
7:26
Speaker 1: other active cases. Matthew Gammett, ISP's forensic lab services director,
7:31
Speaker 1: sending an email to The Statesman, Authoram's like the top
7:35
Speaker 1: company in the business that does this. So it might
7:38
Speaker 1: cost a few bucks, but as a resident of Idaho,
7:42
Speaker 1: at least you know that money is being spent at
7:44
Speaker 1: the top company in the business. Law enforcement and prosecutors
7:49
Speaker 1: have never identified AUTHORAM by name for work on the
7:52
Speaker 1: Coburger case, including investigative Genetic Genealogy or IgG, but records
7:58
Speaker 1: a statement obtained revealed that Authorum build ISP five thousand
8:03
Speaker 1: dollars in November twenty twenty two for the RUSH service,
8:07
Speaker 1: which entailed submitting crime scene DNA to publicly accessible ancestry
8:11
Speaker 1: websites to develop suspect leads. The FBI eventually took over
8:16
Speaker 1: the advanced police technique that has run into constitutional rights questions.
8:22
Speaker 1: So here's the deal with all of that. I understand
8:25
Speaker 1: that there's questions when we're talking about people's privacy, But
8:30
Speaker 1: when we're living in a society like this and you
8:33
Speaker 1: have relatives who are uploading DNA charts and this, that
8:37
Speaker 1: the other thing you have to think and you have
8:40
Speaker 1: to be aware that the authorities are going to be
8:42
Speaker 1: able to access that one way or the other. Now
8:45
Speaker 1: I know that there's agreements between these companies, blah blah blah.
8:49
Speaker 1: Do you really think that's going to hold up in court.
8:52
Speaker 1: It's not going to hold up. And remember, the government
8:55
Speaker 1: has the ultimate power when all is said and done,
8:57
Speaker 1: and that power is the power of subpoena. They can
9:01
Speaker 1: go to a judge and get a subpoena signed off on,
9:05
Speaker 1: and before you know it, you're turning over whatever they
9:07
Speaker 1: want you to turn over. Leytai County Prosecutor Bill Thompson
9:11
Speaker 1: acknowledged six months after Coburger's arrest that IgG was employed
9:16
Speaker 1: to initially lead detectives to them as a suspect. Police
9:20
Speaker 1: made no mention of IgG in the probable cause Aviidavid
9:23
Speaker 1: for Coburger's arrest. They don't have to. The probable cause,
9:28
Speaker 1: Affidavid is simply what they use to get the probable
9:32
Speaker 1: cause to get that warrant from a judge. So they're
9:35
Speaker 1: not going to add everything they have. And remember, according
9:39
Speaker 1: to the prosecution, the IgG is an information that they
9:42
Speaker 1: plan to introduce as evidence. So why would they add
9:46
Speaker 1: that to the probable cause, Affidavid. So it's all fine
9:51
Speaker 1: and well that it wasn't added, But I wouldn't read
9:53
Speaker 1: too much into that because we all know that they
9:56
Speaker 1: didn't add everything they have to that probable cause, Affidavid.
10:01
Speaker 1: Another invoice recorded detailed the costs of the autopsies. Leta
10:05
Speaker 1: County Coroner Kathy Mabitt, had the Spokane County Medical Examiner's
10:10
Speaker 1: office conduct the examinations of the four victims, including toxicology.
10:15
Speaker 1: The four autopsies were considered complex because they required more
10:19
Speaker 1: time than a standard case, maybe sent an email to
10:23
Speaker 1: The Statesman, and the total cost came to ninety six
10:25
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, according to an invoice dated three weeks after
10:29
Speaker 1: their deaths, early into the investigation. Governor Brad Little pledged
10:35
Speaker 1: up to one million dollars in emergency funds to backfill
10:38
Speaker 1: cost two ISP and the City Police Force for each
10:42
Speaker 1: agency's dedication of expanded resources to the high profile homicide case.
10:47
Speaker 1: Total reimbursements reached about four hundred and thirty five thousand
10:51
Speaker 1: dollars from the Governor's fund between ISP and Moscow Police,
10:56
Speaker 1: said Emily Callahan, Little spokesperson. So he had this budget
11:01
Speaker 1: of one million dollars for emergency funds to cover whatever
11:05
Speaker 1: costs were incurred down here in Moscow, and that cost
11:09
Speaker 1: is still shooting through the roof. And as we now know,
11:12
Speaker 1: the one million dollars isn't going to be enough, and
11:15
Speaker 1: these costs are going to continue to accrue as we
11:18
Speaker 1: continue to wait for some movement as far as the
11:22
Speaker 1: trial date. So, as a cab driver would say, the
11:25
Speaker 1: meter is running. All right, folks, we're going to wrap
11:29
Speaker 1: up right here, and in the next episode, we're going
11:31
Speaker 1: to pick up where we left off with this article
11:34
Speaker 1: and finish it off. All of the information that goes
11:37
Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.
11:41
Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
11:45
Speaker 1: this episode, We're going to pick up where we left
11:47
Speaker 1: off with that Idaho Statesman article discussing how much money
11:52
Speaker 1: has been spent by the state of Idaho and the
11:55
Speaker 1: county and everybody else involved as they've pursued this conviction
12:00
Speaker 1: of Brian Kohberger once again. This article was authored by
12:04
Speaker 1: Kevin Fixler. U of I takes the brunt of costs.
12:09
Speaker 1: The u of I is taken on the greatest known
12:11
Speaker 1: financial burden to date from the quadruple homicide. The university
12:16
Speaker 1: is spent more than one point six million on direct
12:19
Speaker 1: impacts from the deaths of the four students. University spokesperson
12:23
Speaker 1: Jody Walker told The Statesman the vast majority of those costs,
12:28
Speaker 1: about one point four million, related to an expansion of
12:31
Speaker 1: security throughout the Moscow campus and surrounding area. The total
12:35
Speaker 1: included two hundred forty one thousand, five hundred dollars to
12:39
Speaker 1: cover charges for ISP to patrol the college community for
12:43
Speaker 1: six weeks immediately following the homicides and for room and
12:47
Speaker 1: board for its officers over that time. That money also
12:51
Speaker 1: included in the total police costs for the case. And
12:55
Speaker 1: remember they swarmed the Moscow in the aftermath of this.
12:59
Speaker 1: There were cops coming out of the Wazoo, and there
13:02
Speaker 1: was a lot of fear amongst the people who live
13:05
Speaker 1: in the community and surrounding areas that this could happen again.
13:10
Speaker 1: Whenever you have a quadruple murder and you don't have
13:13
Speaker 1: a suspecting custody for seven weeks, there's gonna be concerns
13:17
Speaker 1: and people are going to have some questions. And that's
13:20
Speaker 1: what we saw in Moscow. People were very, very concerned
13:23
Speaker 1: about what was going on. We saw people pull their
13:26
Speaker 1: kids out of school, We saw people send their kids
13:29
Speaker 1: to get karate training. People were buying guns. It was crazy.
13:34
Speaker 1: It was mayhem, But you can't really blame people, right
13:38
Speaker 1: Imagine your kid was there, your son, your daughter, and
13:41
Speaker 1: this went down and there was no answers coming from
13:43
Speaker 1: the authorities. The Idaho legislature appropriated one million dollars in
13:49
Speaker 1: additional funds to the u of I to help defray
13:52
Speaker 1: the unexpected security costs. The remaining expenses were paid for
13:56
Speaker 1: through the university's reserve funds. Walker said this did not
14:01
Speaker 1: cover all of our expenses, but was certainly appreciated, she
14:04
Speaker 1: told The Statesman. Once police released the King Road property
14:08
Speaker 1: back to its owner, it was donated to the university.
14:12
Speaker 1: The school took ownership on February twenty fourth, twenty twenty three,
14:16
Speaker 1: Walker said, which in turn placed the house ongoing twenty
14:20
Speaker 1: four to seven security costs on the university. So they
14:24
Speaker 1: talk about, oh, we wanted to heal, we want the
14:26
Speaker 1: community to be better, this, that the other thing. Really
14:29
Speaker 1: it came down to finances, right, That's why they wanted
14:32
Speaker 1: to demolish the house. In my opinion, Oh, they'll use
14:36
Speaker 1: the excuse of, oh, we want to get rid of
14:39
Speaker 1: an isore, we want to get rid of a place
14:41
Speaker 1: where people might come and lollygag and look cause trouble.
14:47
Speaker 1: But really what it comes down to is they didn't
14:49
Speaker 1: want to incur those costs any longer. While neither prosecutors
14:54
Speaker 1: nor Coburger's defense took issue with the house being demolished
14:58
Speaker 1: once their investigations were finished, some of the four victims'
15:01
Speaker 1: families wanted it to remain standing until after the trial.
15:05
Speaker 1: I think that they're not the only ones, right, they're
15:08
Speaker 1: the ones who matter the most. But I think most
15:11
Speaker 1: people who have been following along with what's going on
15:13
Speaker 1: here wanted that house to remain standing just for the
15:17
Speaker 1: simple fact that maybe, just maybe the jury is going
15:20
Speaker 1: to want to go and take a look, so instead
15:24
Speaker 1: of keeping it standing, they decide they wanted to demolish it,
15:27
Speaker 1: and of course, like I just said, it comes down
15:30
Speaker 1: to finances. They raise concerns about jurors who may ask
15:34
Speaker 1: to visit for a more complete understanding of the attack
15:37
Speaker 1: or any possible evidence that may not have been found
15:40
Speaker 1: and still could be later. With remediation work including fencing
15:45
Speaker 1: to secure the King Road property and transfer of the title,
15:49
Speaker 1: plus the private security costs of several hundreds of dollars
15:52
Speaker 1: per day, the u of I spent about three hundred
15:55
Speaker 1: and forty six thousand dollars on the house before it
15:57
Speaker 1: was torn down in late December. According to an invoice,
16:01
Speaker 1: The total included nearly fourteen thousand dollars paid the Moscow
16:05
Speaker 1: based Gurmer Construction to demolish the house. While the documented
16:10
Speaker 1: financial toll of dealing with a capital crime such as
16:13
Speaker 1: this is incredibly high, there are other costs as well,
16:16
Speaker 1: such as the emotional toll on our employees who were
16:19
Speaker 1: accountless hours to support students and keep our university as
16:22
Speaker 1: strong as possible through this tragedy. U of I President
16:26
Speaker 1: Scott Green said in a statement to The Statesman. While
16:29
Speaker 1: we know it most changed the lives of the families
16:32
Speaker 1: of the victims, it also touched and changed every employee
16:35
Speaker 1: and student at our university on that fateful day over
16:39
Speaker 1: the Idaho state line and Pullman, where Coburger lived in
16:42
Speaker 1: graduate student housing. At the time, Washington State did not
16:46
Speaker 1: track cost tied to the u OFI student homicides. University
16:50
Speaker 1: spokesperson Phil Wheeler, sending an email to The Statesman, WSU
16:54
Speaker 1: campus police had limited expenses for overtime, including helping serve
16:59
Speaker 1: search warrants's, but no additional costs were logged from officers
17:03
Speaker 1: heightened presents around the campus. Court costs rise with death
17:07
Speaker 1: penalty cases. Since arriving in Idaho, Coburger has remained at
17:12
Speaker 1: the Layta County Jail, located beneath the county courthouse. The
17:16
Speaker 1: cost to the county is about one hundred and ninety
17:19
Speaker 1: four dollars per day to house him there, the Sheriff's
17:22
Speaker 1: office said, which so far is totaled about ninety one
17:25
Speaker 1: thousand dollars since he was brought to the state in
17:28
Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty three. By comparison, the state pays
17:32
Speaker 1: an average of about eighty seven dollars and fifty cents
17:35
Speaker 1: per day to house a person in an Idaho prison.
17:39
Speaker 1: So eighty seven dollars and fifty cents a day to
17:42
Speaker 1: keep somebody incarcerated. Now, think about all of the people
17:45
Speaker 1: that are in jail in prison, and you do the
17:48
Speaker 1: math and tell me that prison is in a booming business.
17:52
Speaker 1: There's no doubt that it is. To get Coburger to Idaho,
17:56
Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania State Police escorted him aboard Snsylvania State plane
18:01
Speaker 1: from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to the Pullman Moscow Regional Airport. The
18:05
Speaker 1: cost of the flight was about fourteen thousand, one hundred dollars.
18:09
Speaker 1: KTVB reported Moscow police were not sent an invoice for
18:13
Speaker 1: the flight, the city's finance department told The Statesman, but
18:17
Speaker 1: it's unclear whether any agency in Idaho was billed for
18:20
Speaker 1: those costs, which were excluded from the Statesmen's total. Pennsylvania
18:25
Speaker 1: State Police have yet to fulfill the Statesman's request for
18:29
Speaker 1: public records. The Lata County Sheriff's Office, which manages the
18:33
Speaker 1: jail and provides the bailiffs for court, has not experienced
18:37
Speaker 1: any other cost increases associated with Coburger or the case.
18:41
Speaker 1: Jail personnel told The Statesman by email, the Idaho court
18:45
Speaker 1: system covers the expenses at the Layta County Courthouse, including
18:50
Speaker 1: judge's salary, and the state court system is unable to
18:53
Speaker 1: distinguish the cost of specific case, including for two appeals
18:57
Speaker 1: filed in the Coburger case with the idol Oh Supreme Court.
19:01
Speaker 1: Nate Peppino, spokesperson for the state Court systems, told The Statesman,
19:05
Speaker 1: and remember, the taxpayer of Idaho is getting clabbered at
19:08
Speaker 1: both ends here. Not only are they on the hook
19:12
Speaker 1: for whatever costs are incurred, they're paying for Brian Colberger's
19:15
Speaker 1: defense team as well. The sam would apply to the
19:18
Speaker 1: grand jury seated by Thompson in May twenty twenty three
19:22
Speaker 1: exclusively for the Coburger case to review the four first
19:26
Speaker 1: degree murder charges and one count of felony burglary against them.
19:30
Speaker 1: The grand jury unanimously indicted Coburger during three days of
19:34
Speaker 1: hearings overseen by Senior Judge Jay Gaskill of the Second
19:38
Speaker 1: Judicial District in nez Percy County. According to court records,
19:43
Speaker 1: the running tally for the Coburger case excluded the judges time,
19:47
Speaker 1: but court costs are among those that the financial studies
19:51
Speaker 1: showed increased in a death penalty case. Those cases were
19:55
Speaker 1: as much as eight times more expensive for the judicial system,
19:59
Speaker 1: according to the Washington study, which was co authored by
20:02
Speaker 1: Bob Barakowitz, director of the Defender Initiative at Seattle University's
20:07
Speaker 1: Law School. Overall, the studies found that pursuit of death
20:11
Speaker 1: sentence on average cost taxpayers upward of one million dollars
20:16
Speaker 1: more than when prosecutors sought life imprisonment in aggravated first
20:19
Speaker 1: degree murder cases. So there is that to think about, right,
20:24
Speaker 1: And if you're looking at it from a purely financial aspect,
20:28
Speaker 1: then yeah, it's very cost restrictive. You know, who doesn't
20:31
Speaker 1: give it damn how much it costs though, the families
20:34
Speaker 1: of the victims. That's who they want justice here, and
20:37
Speaker 1: to them, at least some of the family members, they
20:40
Speaker 1: believe that justice is capital punishment. Regardless of what one
20:45
Speaker 1: feels about the death penalty. If you're spending millions of
20:49
Speaker 1: dollars to kill one person, how is that a good investment?
20:52
Speaker 1: Barakowitz previously told The Statesman. Thompson is leading the prosecution
20:57
Speaker 1: of Coburger and is joined on the case by Ashley
20:59
Speaker 1: Jennings his office Senior Deputy Prosecutor. Thompson earns about one
21:04
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand dollars each year, while Jennings is
21:07
Speaker 1: paid one hundred and four thousand annually, according to Layta
21:10
Speaker 1: County Clerk's office. In April twenty twenty three, Thompson requested
21:15
Speaker 1: help from the Idaho Attorney General's Office on the case,
21:18
Speaker 1: which judge granted. Idaho Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye, who
21:23
Speaker 1: leads the office's Criminal Law division, and Ingrid Beatty were
21:26
Speaker 1: appointed to the Coburger case. And of course all of
21:29
Speaker 1: that costs money too, right, None of this is free.
21:32
Speaker 1: Everything has a price tag. The agreement between the Attorney
21:37
Speaker 1: General's Office and Leayta County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, which the
21:40
Speaker 1: statesmen obtained from the prosecutor's office, stipulates at the Attorney
21:45
Speaker 1: General's office covers travel to and from North Idaho by
21:49
Speaker 1: state vehicle, including gas and in office printing costs. The
21:53
Speaker 1: Prosecutor's office reimburses for hotel stays and meal costs. So far,
21:58
Speaker 1: the Attorney General's Office has built for about sixty five
22:02
Speaker 1: hundred and incurred about three hundred and eighty dollars in
22:05
Speaker 1: expenses for gas according to invoice records. That doesn't seem
22:09
Speaker 1: too crazy to me, honestly, considering all the traveling that's
22:13
Speaker 1: been done and considering the complexity that we see here,
22:17
Speaker 1: sixty five hundred seems about in line. Ny makes one
22:20
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty six thousand in an annual salary, while
22:23
Speaker 1: Beatty earns one hundred and ten thousand each. According to
22:26
Speaker 1: Transparent Idaho. It's unclear how many hours a week the
22:30
Speaker 1: two work the Coburger case. Niam Beatty did not respond
22:35
Speaker 1: to The Statesman, and neither did Dan Estes, spokesperson for
22:39
Speaker 1: the Attorney General's office, despite repeat requests over a month.
22:43
Speaker 1: Unlike defense Attorney's, most prosecuted office don't tall you the
22:47
Speaker 1: time they spend on capital cases, death penalty costs. Studies
22:51
Speaker 1: from Washington in twenty fifteen and Oregon in twenty sixteen found,
22:56
Speaker 1: as a result, settling on public costs for prosecutors in
23:00
Speaker 1: addition to court is challenging, said Los Angeles based criminal
23:04
Speaker 1: defense attorney Joshua Ritter, who previously worked as a county prosecutor.
23:10
Speaker 1: The problem with calculating costs with a government agency, including
23:14
Speaker 1: with man hours is no one keeps track of it.
23:17
Speaker 1: Ridder told The Statesman in a phone interview. It's just
23:19
Speaker 1: government workers doing their job. There's no kind of billable
23:23
Speaker 1: hours and invoicing of the work even over time. And
23:27
Speaker 1: that's because most of them are on salary, right and
23:30
Speaker 1: once you're on salary, forget it. The work never ends.
23:34
Speaker 1: Defending Coburger an enormous undertaking. After Coburger's arrest, Magistrate Judge
23:40
Speaker 1: Megan Marshall of the second Judicial District in Leta County,
23:44
Speaker 1: appointed Ann Taylor, Cootney County's chief public defender, to represent Coburger.
23:50
Speaker 1: Jay Logsdon, Taylor's chief deputy, joined her on the case.
23:54
Speaker 1: Both their death penalty qualified attorneys per state requirements for
23:58
Speaker 1: capital cases, and Taylor's pay rate was set at two
24:02
Speaker 1: hundred dollars per hour, while logs In will make one
24:05
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty per hour. In comparison, the salaries for
24:08
Speaker 1: prosecuting attorneys on the case amount to about fifty to
24:12
Speaker 1: fifty seven per hour based on forty hour work weeks.
24:16
Speaker 1: The highest paid attorney from the Attorney General's Office assigned
24:19
Speaker 1: to the case makes about eighty bucks an hour. Well,
24:22
Speaker 1: if you're looking to make dough and you're a lawyer.
24:25
Speaker 1: Private practice is where it's at. If you're going to
24:28
Speaker 1: work for the state, you can expect state funds. Coburger
24:32
Speaker 1: is considered an indigen defendant because he can't afford legal representation,
24:37
Speaker 1: so the cost of his public defense team is covered
24:39
Speaker 1: by the county. The money for that is paid out
24:43
Speaker 1: of its general fund, and the county received no emergency
24:46
Speaker 1: funds to help with those costs. Leayta County Clerk Julie
24:49
Speaker 1: Frye told The Statesman the taxpayers have to cover the
24:52
Speaker 1: costs the Layta County taxpayers, fry said by phone. In
24:57
Speaker 1: March twenty twenty three. Marshall All also appointed to Coburger's
25:01
Speaker 1: defense a third attorney, multigation expert, Alyssa Massov, who maintains
25:06
Speaker 1: a private practice in Piot County. Like logsd In, Massif
25:10
Speaker 1: is paid one hundred and eighty dollars per hour for
25:12
Speaker 1: her work on the case, according to a record obtained
25:16
Speaker 1: by the Leata County Clerk's office. Mitigation involves research work
25:21
Speaker 1: into a defendant's background, completed in preparation for sentencing. If
25:25
Speaker 1: a jury returns with a guilty verdict, oh well if huh.
25:29
Speaker 1: You know the jury's going to return with a guilty
25:31
Speaker 1: verdict here, at least that's what all signs are pointing to.
25:35
Speaker 1: It's an enormous undertaking, Barakowitz said. They need to document
25:40
Speaker 1: every single part of the client's life. For the sentencing
25:42
Speaker 1: phase is much greater when death is on the table.
25:46
Speaker 1: The prosecutor needs to know it too. But the defenders
25:49
Speaker 1: have got to spend considerable time, energy, and funds doing that.
25:53
Speaker 1: It's unclear how many hours each public defender has committed
25:57
Speaker 1: to the case. Attorneys on both sides of the case
26:00
Speaker 1: remained subject to the court's gag order, and Taylor told
26:03
Speaker 1: judge at a pre trial hearing earlier this month that
26:06
Speaker 1: the defense hasn't responded to media inquiries. There are things
26:11
Speaker 1: that we can say publicly, but we choose not to,
26:13
Speaker 1: she said. Our team doesn't even so much as answer
26:16
Speaker 1: no comment to emails, to calls to people trying to
26:20
Speaker 1: talk to us, because we don't want to do that.
26:22
Speaker 1: It's easier to say nothing. She's not wrong about that.
26:25
Speaker 1: You want to avoid all bs. Don't say a word.
26:29
Speaker 1: After Coburger's legal defense was appointed, Leta County established a
26:33
Speaker 1: public Defense Extraordinary Services account. The fund essentially acts as
26:38
Speaker 1: a budget from which his public defenders can cover costs
26:41
Speaker 1: to prepare for trial. Shortly thereafter, Judge appointed an out
26:45
Speaker 1: of county judge to oversee and approve of the defense's
26:49
Speaker 1: use of the county fund for expenses. Judge selected Mark
26:53
Speaker 1: Monson of the second Judicial District in nez Percy County
26:57
Speaker 1: as the case resource judge. According to a Layta County
27:01
Speaker 1: District court record obtained by The Statesman, one of the
27:04
Speaker 1: things that I'm concerned about is about how much this
27:07
Speaker 1: cost taxpayers, Judge said at a pre trial hearing this month.
27:12
Speaker 1: The possible defense expenses Monson would review include salaries, travel,
27:16
Speaker 1: investigative charges, and fees for expert witnesses. Each of those
27:20
Speaker 1: specific costs and expenses are sealed per a January twenty
27:24
Speaker 1: twenty three order Monson issued because he determined the interest
27:27
Speaker 1: in privacy outweighs the interest of public disclosure and cited
27:31
Speaker 1: a desire to preserve the right to a fair trial. However,
27:35
Speaker 1: through last week, Coberger's defense has spent almost one point
27:39
Speaker 1: four million according to Laytai County budget records. Ritter estimated
27:43
Speaker 1: the cost so far for the prosecution on the case
27:46
Speaker 1: would be roughly similar. It would not surprise me at all,
27:50
Speaker 1: he told The Statesman. None of this viewed as a cost,
27:53
Speaker 1: even though it's a cost to taxpayers, because it's not
27:56
Speaker 1: seen as above and beyond the normal budget. If it
28:00
Speaker 1: was a private enterprise, it's something you would absolutely be
28:03
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on. When it's the government, it's a
28:06
Speaker 1: whatever it takes kind of mentality. Last week, Judge rescheduled
28:11
Speaker 1: a hearing for arguments over a trial change of venue
28:14
Speaker 1: for June twenty seventh. Coberger's trial date has not been set.
28:18
Speaker 1: It isn't expected to start until at least the spring
28:22
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five. So we've talked about the cost before,
28:26
Speaker 1: and we really haven't had any information as far as
28:30
Speaker 1: how much has been spent. So this gives us a
28:32
Speaker 1: little look at least behind the curtain when it comes
28:35
Speaker 1: to the financials, and considering the gag order and the
28:38
Speaker 1: secrecy surrounding the case, anytime we can get a little
28:42
Speaker 1: look behind the curtain, it's a good thing. So we'll
28:45
Speaker 1: see where this all goes, and we'll see what the
28:47
Speaker 1: final tally is when all is said, none, but my
28:50
Speaker 1: guess is it's gonna be a gigantic number and more
28:54
Speaker 1: than likely will end up being the most expensive prosecution
28:57
Speaker 1: in the State of Idaho's history. All right, folks, that's
29:00
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this one. All of the information
29:03
Speaker 1: that goes with this episode can be found in the
29:05
Speaker 1: description box. What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program.
29:11
Speaker 1: When it comes to Brian Colberger, the main question on
29:14
Speaker 1: everybody's mind at this point is will he get the
29:17
Speaker 1: death penalty or woni? Well, According to a new report,
29:22
Speaker 1: if he does get the death penalty, going by how
29:25
Speaker 1: the State of Idaho has dealt with other inmates on
29:28
Speaker 1: death row, there is an estimate about how much it
29:31
Speaker 1: would cost to give Brian Colberger the death penalty. And
29:35
Speaker 1: for me, that's all fine and well. But the problem
29:38
Speaker 1: is that after these guys get the death penalty, they
29:41
Speaker 1: sit around on death row waiting to get put to
29:44
Speaker 1: death for decades sometimes and that has to change. You
29:48
Speaker 1: get yourself an appeal or two, and then that's the
29:51
Speaker 1: end of it. Right. This isn't a life sentence. This
29:55
Speaker 1: is a death penalty, so that should be carried out
29:58
Speaker 1: the second that all appeals and all of the other
30:01
Speaker 1: moves that could be made by the person who is
30:03
Speaker 1: being put to death have been exhausted. But instead what
30:07
Speaker 1: we see is this process get dragged on and we
30:11
Speaker 1: end up seeing how expensive it is to keep somebody
30:14
Speaker 1: incarcerated on death row. It's certainly more expensive than keeping
30:18
Speaker 1: somebody in a regular prison. But the idea of death row,
30:21
Speaker 1: now hang with me here, folks for a second, if
30:23
Speaker 1: you will, is to actually execute the inmates that are
30:26
Speaker 1: on death row, not have them sit around and marinate
30:30
Speaker 1: and waste taxpayer dollars. If the death penalty is on
30:34
Speaker 1: the books in the state and the people decide that
30:36
Speaker 1: that's the way they're going to go, then what's the
30:39
Speaker 1: hold up? Today's article is from Fox News headline Brian
30:44
Speaker 1: Colberger death penalty would cost one million dollars more than
30:48
Speaker 1: life in prison, according to a report. Well, yeah, that's
30:52
Speaker 1: if you let him rot on death row. Here's an idea,
30:55
Speaker 1: helicopter volcano. This article was authored by Michael Ruiz. Seeking
31:03
Speaker 1: the death penalty rather than life imprisonment for Idaho's student
31:06
Speaker 1: murder suspect Brian Colberger could cost taxpayers an additional one
31:11
Speaker 1: million dollars if he's convicted. According to a new report,
31:15
Speaker 1: Leyta County prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson notified the court and
31:19
Speaker 1: the defense on June twenty sixth that his office intended
31:23
Speaker 1: to seek death if Colburger is convicted in the November
31:26
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two slayings of four University of Idaho students.
31:31
Speaker 1: And if there has ever been a case that deserves
31:34
Speaker 1: to be a death penalty case, this is it. If
31:37
Speaker 1: they have the evidence that they're telling us they have,
31:40
Speaker 1: then there's no doubt in my mind that this fits
31:42
Speaker 1: the parameters of what a death penalty case should be.
31:46
Speaker 1: And as far as the financial cost of it, well,
31:49
Speaker 1: I think that could be mitigated by following some of
31:52
Speaker 1: the steps we discussed earlier, like, you know, executing somebody
31:56
Speaker 1: in a timely manner when they're found guilty convicted killer,
32:00
Speaker 1: stack up hefty medical bills as they await execution. Gerald Pizzuto,
32:05
Speaker 1: a sixty seven year old inmate, has been on death
32:08
Speaker 1: row in Idaho since nineteen eighty six, while battling numerous
32:11
Speaker 1: health conditions, including most recently terminal cancer. His post sentencing
32:16
Speaker 1: incarceration has caused taxpayers one point three million dollars, according
32:21
Speaker 1: to the Idaho Statesman. All right, so, considering I'm done
32:24
Speaker 1: being cordial. You mean to tell me that they're wasting
32:27
Speaker 1: money on this guy. He has terminal cancer, he's been
32:29
Speaker 1: found guilty, he's been given the death sentence, and you're
32:32
Speaker 1: going to waste taxpayer dollars on treatment. Here's an idea
32:36
Speaker 1: directly to the death penalty chamber for this guy and
32:39
Speaker 1: be done with it. I mean, either you have the
32:41
Speaker 1: death penalty on the books or you don't. In addition
32:44
Speaker 1: to the legal delays keeping inmates on death row longer,
32:47
Speaker 1: there is also a shortage of lethal injections, which prompted
32:50
Speaker 1: Idaho to reinstate the firing squad earlier this year. The
32:55
Speaker 1: state's longest serving death row inmate has been held for
32:58
Speaker 1: more than forty years, with a tab of one point
33:01
Speaker 1: five million dollars. The state has themselves to blame for that,
33:04
Speaker 1: nobody else's fault. Why are you holding this guy for
33:07
Speaker 1: so long? Do what you gotta do, either execute him
33:11
Speaker 1: or grant them a stay or whatever, and let him
33:13
Speaker 1: go to a general population for a life sentence. But
33:17
Speaker 1: all this bullshitting around keeping people on death row for
33:20
Speaker 1: twenty years, thirty years, forty years, Enough is enough already.
33:24
Speaker 1: Coburger twenty eight was a criminology PhD student at Washington
33:28
Speaker 1: State University last year, when police alleged he drove to
33:32
Speaker 1: the neighboring University of Idaho and killed four undergrads with
33:35
Speaker 1: a knife in their off campus apartment. He is now
33:39
Speaker 1: accused of burglary and four counts of first degree murder
33:42
Speaker 1: in the deaths of Kailee Gonsalvice, Madison Mogan, Xanakernodle, and
33:47
Speaker 1: Ethan Chapin. Authorities have not publicly revealed the potential motive
33:52
Speaker 1: for the massacre, but they gave conflicting statements early in
33:55
Speaker 1: the investigation about whether the house or someone inside had
34:00
Speaker 1: been targeted. According to court documents, Coburger allegedly stalked the
34:05
Speaker 1: King Road rental home a dozen times before the murders,
34:08
Speaker 1: and returned once more hours after the slayings, but before
34:12
Speaker 1: police arrived. Now remember the police didn't get there till
34:16
Speaker 1: like eleven or twelve o'clock the next day, So Brian
34:19
Speaker 1: Coburger showed back up at like nine o'clock according to
34:22
Speaker 1: the affid David anyway, and was checking out what was
34:26
Speaker 1: going on, you know, getting a lay of the land,
34:28
Speaker 1: going back to examine his work, if you will, and
34:32
Speaker 1: imagine what he ran into when he showed up there
34:34
Speaker 1: no cops. He must have been like, what the hell happened?
34:37
Speaker 1: I just murdered a whole house full of people and
34:39
Speaker 1: there's no police here. Must have been a very disquieting
34:43
Speaker 1: experience for bitch ass Coburger. A judge entered a not
34:47
Speaker 1: guilty plea on his behalf to all charges. At Coburger's
34:51
Speaker 1: arraignment in May. A different judge ordered him held without
34:54
Speaker 1: bond in January after his arrest in Pennsylvania, where he
34:58
Speaker 1: is from. Prosecutors then had sixty days to decide whether
35:03
Speaker 1: they would seek the death penalty, and it was a
35:05
Speaker 1: foregone conclusion. There was no doubt that if they were
35:09
Speaker 1: going to go after Coburger, it was going to be
35:12
Speaker 1: in the capital punishment realm. When you have murders that
35:17
Speaker 1: occur the way that these murders occurred, there's no way
35:20
Speaker 1: that a state with the death penalty on the books
35:23
Speaker 1: is not going to pursue the death penalty. And if
35:26
Speaker 1: you don't want the death penalty on the books, I'm
35:28
Speaker 1: totally fine with that as well. But if it's the law,
35:32
Speaker 1: and that's what the people of Idaho have voted on
35:35
Speaker 1: and that's what the people of Idaho want. Then why
35:37
Speaker 1: is it taking so long to get people executed who
35:40
Speaker 1: obviously should have been executed a very long time ago.
35:44
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised, said Nyama Rockmani, a former federal prosecutor
35:49
Speaker 1: and Los Angeles based trial attorney, said after Thompson's office
35:53
Speaker 1: made the announcement, this is one of the most heinous
35:56
Speaker 1: murders in Idaho state history. And when you have that
36:00
Speaker 1: designation on the murder, then it's something that has to
36:03
Speaker 1: be addressed as far as legally right. So, what is
36:07
Speaker 1: the highest punishment that you could possibly dish out? Capital
36:12
Speaker 1: punishment killing the person who is responsible for killing these
36:17
Speaker 1: other people? And according to the State of Idaho, that
36:21
Speaker 1: is the maximum penalty for this crime. And the State
36:25
Speaker 1: of Idaho now is attempting to get the maximum penalty
36:29
Speaker 1: for this crime. There are many aggravating factors supporting the
36:34
Speaker 1: imposition of the death penalty, including multiple victims who were
36:37
Speaker 1: brutally and senselessly stabbed. He added, a six week trial
36:42
Speaker 1: is scheduled to begin on October second, and I just
36:46
Speaker 1: doubt that the trial is going to kick off on
36:48
Speaker 1: October second. That's a very big ass considering all of
36:52
Speaker 1: the discovery material that they have to go through, how
36:55
Speaker 1: complex this case is, and how many different twists and
36:59
Speaker 1: turns are still on the way. So I don't think
37:02
Speaker 1: they're going to be able to hit that target date
37:05
Speaker 1: of October second, and I think we'll see a postponement here,
37:08
Speaker 1: and I think this trial will kick off next summer.
37:12
Speaker 1: The prosecution's intent to seek the death penalty come on
37:15
Speaker 1: the same day. Coberger's defense team claim their client had
37:18
Speaker 1: no connection with the victims, and we know that that
37:21
Speaker 1: has been called into question considering what we heard about
37:25
Speaker 1: the mad Greek and the University of Idaho, and the
37:28
Speaker 1: fact that Coberger allegedly had pictures of at least a
37:31
Speaker 1: couple of these victims on his phone. So it might
37:34
Speaker 1: be a loose connection, but to act like there's no
37:37
Speaker 1: connection here is a bit ridiculous. The defense team took
37:41
Speaker 1: issue with the prosecution's DNA collection and use of genetic genealogy.
37:47
Speaker 1: Defense attorney Jay Lodgson wrote in a court filing that
37:51
Speaker 1: DNA from three other unidentified males was found at the
37:54
Speaker 1: crime scene, including on a glove outside the home which
37:58
Speaker 1: stands at the edge of cap and the heart of
38:01
Speaker 1: the Universities, Greek Row nightlife. The defense also questioned the
38:06
Speaker 1: tracking of a white Hondai sedan authority say links Coburger
38:11
Speaker 1: to the murders. So all this stuff that they're challenging,
38:14
Speaker 1: you expect them to do that. There was no doubt
38:17
Speaker 1: that they were going to challenge the DNA, they were
38:19
Speaker 1: going to challenge the alantra. They were going to challenge
38:22
Speaker 1: every last thing. And if it was just one bit
38:25
Speaker 1: of this evidence standing on its own, then Colburger would
38:29
Speaker 1: have a real good chance of beating this case. But
38:33
Speaker 1: when you add everything together and you ball it all up,
38:36
Speaker 1: it's very difficult to just go after one aspect of
38:40
Speaker 1: this evidence that has been provided, considering that it's all
38:44
Speaker 1: glued together by the DNA. No matter what came first,
38:48
Speaker 1: the car or the genetic genealogy, the investigation has provided
38:52
Speaker 1: precious little. Coberger's defense team has argued there is no
38:56
Speaker 1: connection between mister Colberger and the victims. However, according to prosecutors,
39:01
Speaker 1: DNA found on the knife sheath discovered next to Mogen's
39:04
Speaker 1: body contained Coburger's DNA, and therein lies the whole case. Folks.
39:10
Speaker 1: The DNA on the knife sheath the prosecution. They're gonna
39:14
Speaker 1: push that as the glue that binds and the defense.
39:17
Speaker 1: It's gonna be up to them to try and pull
39:19
Speaker 1: coals in that narrative. The question is will Ann Taylor
39:23
Speaker 1: and company be able to do that? All right, folks,
39:27
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for this one. All of the
39:29
Speaker 1: information that goes with the episode can be found in
39:32
Speaker 1: the description box.