Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Murder In Moscow: Judge Hippler Hits Bryan Kohberger With Another Disastrous Ruling
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome back to the program. Ever
- 0:03Speaker 1: since the state of Idaho announced that it was going
- 0:05Speaker 1: to be looking for capital punishment, if Brian Kohlberger was
- 0:09Speaker 1: found guilty, Brian Kohlberger and his team have done everything
- 0:13Speaker 1: humanly possible to get the death penalty taken off the table.
- 0:19Speaker 1: And at every single turn, Brian Kohlberger has been denied
- 0:22Speaker 1: by the judge. And that continues to be the case
- 0:26Speaker 1: as we creep ever closer to trial. So today we
- 0:29Speaker 1: have an article from Daily Mail talking about Judge Hippler
- 0:33Speaker 1: and his resounding denial of Brian Kohlberger and Brian Kohlberger's
- 0:38Speaker 1: request to get the death penalty and ultimately the firing
- 0:42Speaker 1: squad taken off the table. Headline, Idaho murders trial judge
- 0:48Speaker 1: damning one word response to Brian Kohlberger's bid to dodge
- 0:51Speaker 1: the firing squad. This article was authored by Rachel Sharp.
- 0:57Speaker 1: A judge has issued a damning response to Brian Kohlberger's
- 0:59Speaker 1: latest bid to dodge the firing squad if he's convicted
- 1:03Speaker 1: of the brutal stabbing murders of four University of Idaho students.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Kohlberger is due to go on trial this August charged
- 1:11Speaker 1: with the murders of Zanna Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Gonsalves,
- 1:15Speaker 1: and Madison Mogan in a crime that shocked the nation.
- 1:19Speaker 1: The four students were slaughtered in a horrific knife attack
- 1:22Speaker 1: in the early hours of November 13, 2022. inside an
- 1:26Speaker 1: off-campus student home in Moscow, Idaho. The 30-year-old criminology PhD student,
- 1:32Speaker 1: who was living just over the state border while studying
- 1:35Speaker 1: at Washington State University, is facing the death penalty if convicted. Well, yeah,
- 1:41Speaker 1: that's usually the case if you kill four people. Now,
- 1:44Speaker 1: I'm not saying that Brian Kohlberger is guilty yet. We
- 1:47Speaker 1: haven't seen all of the evidence one way or the other.
- 1:50Speaker 1: But if you're found guilty of this crime, bro, it's
- 1:53Speaker 1: time to cook. And you're lucky that I'm not in
- 1:56Speaker 1: charge because it wouldn't be the firing squad. It would
- 1:58Speaker 1: be helicopters and volcanoes. We'd strap a GoPro to his
- 2:02Speaker 1: bitch ass. We'd take him up in a helicopter over
- 2:05Speaker 1: an active volcano. And then we let the parents push
- 2:08Speaker 1: him out. And the whole entire operation? Available on live streaming. Instead, unfortunately,
- 2:15Speaker 1: what we're going to get, even if Brian Koberger is
- 2:17Speaker 1: convicted and given the death penalty, is somebody that ends
- 2:21Speaker 1: up sitting on death row for quite some time. until
- 2:24Speaker 1: at least he exhausts all of his appeals. That's how
- 2:27Speaker 1: the system is set up. So when people get the
- 2:29Speaker 1: death penalty, it's not like they get it, and then
- 2:32Speaker 1: they're taken directly to the chamber, where that punishment is administered. Instead,
- 2:37Speaker 1: it's a drawn-out process. With this high-profile trial looming, Koberger's
- 2:41Speaker 1: defense team has made a string of moves, trying to
- 2:45Speaker 1: get the capital punishment taken off the table. Now in
- 2:48Speaker 1: a new court order this week, Judge Stephen Hippler struck
- 2:51Speaker 1: down his latest attempt, and blasted Kohlberger's complaints that the
- 2:55Speaker 1: prosecution failed to hand over evidence in a timely and
- 2:58Speaker 1: accessible manner as hollow. And that's what I've been saying
- 3:02Speaker 1: from the beginning. There is not even a hint of
- 3:05Speaker 1: Brady-Gilio violations here. You want to talk about a shitshow?
- 3:10Speaker 1: Go and take a look at what's going on in Canton.
- 3:12Speaker 1: Go take a look at what's going on, or what
- 3:14Speaker 1: went on, I should say, in Indiana. That's a shitshow.
- 3:18Speaker 1: What we see here is a very methodical approach by
- 3:21Speaker 1: the prosecution and the state to make sure that there
- 3:24Speaker 1: is no rock left unturned and no way out for
- 3:27Speaker 1: Brian Kohlberger if he is convicted. And that's the way
- 3:31Speaker 1: it should go. You should not be rushing to judgment
- 3:35Speaker 1: and you should not be taking something to trial if
- 3:37Speaker 1: you don't have the goods. But we see down in
- 3:40Speaker 1: Canton how things are all screwed up and how there's
- 3:43Speaker 1: a whole bunch of questions about the investigation itself and
- 3:46Speaker 1: the judge and everybody else involved. Whereas here, that shit's
- 3:50Speaker 1: going to ring hollow. If anybody starts that nonsense up
- 3:53Speaker 1: here in Idaho, I would ignore them. Honestly, they're not
- 3:56Speaker 1: even worth talking to because the court documents make it very,
- 3:59Speaker 1: very clear what's been going on here. And we've read
- 4:02Speaker 1: them all. Now, if you want to take issue with
- 4:04Speaker 1: the state law and you want to take issue with
- 4:06Speaker 1: some of the precedent, then that's another thing entirely. But
- 4:09Speaker 1: to say that Brian Kohlberger hasn't been given a fair
- 4:11Speaker 1: shake here is absolutely absurd. And if you're somebody that's
- 4:15Speaker 1: taken that approach, you should do yourself a favor and
- 4:18Speaker 1: smack yourself directly in the face. Defendant's complaints of being
- 4:23Speaker 1: unable to meaningfully review the discovery ring hollow, the judge wrote,
- 4:27Speaker 1: defendant has been receiving discovery in the same manner for
- 4:30Speaker 1: over two years. And there's no doubt about that either.
- 4:34Speaker 1: Nothing has changed. Brian Kohlberger has received a ton of
- 4:38Speaker 1: discovery here. And unfortunately, with a complex crime like this,
- 4:42Speaker 1: there's going to be a ton of discovery. But let's
- 4:45Speaker 1: remember that the prosecution has to be overly concerned with that,
- 4:49Speaker 1: because if not, Brian Kohlberger and Ann Taylor, they're going
- 4:51Speaker 1: to make a big thing out of it and say
- 4:53Speaker 1: that there's prosecutorial misconduct, when in reality, there obviously has
- 4:58Speaker 1: not been any. Dismissing the idea that there had been
- 5:01Speaker 1: any misconduct by prosecutors, the judge pointed out that Kohlberger
- 5:05Speaker 1: had asked for everything and everything is what he received.
- 5:09Speaker 1: Defendant cannot demand everything under the sun and then complain
- 5:12Speaker 1: about the weight of all the planets. He scolded the defense. 1000%.
- 5:18Speaker 1: You want all this discovery? Well, you now have it.
- 5:20Speaker 1: So what are you going to do with it? And
- 5:22Speaker 1: if you don't have enough people to go through it,
- 5:24Speaker 1: that sounds like an Ann Taylor problem. And she should
- 5:26Speaker 1: petition the court for more money so she can bring
- 5:29Speaker 1: on some more paralegals and other staffers to help her
- 5:32Speaker 1: go through all of this evidence. And it's not like
- 5:34Speaker 1: she hasn't had an ample amount of time. We're talking about, what,
- 5:37Speaker 1: three years now? So Brian Koberger has had plenty of
- 5:40Speaker 1: time to bring on other help if he's needed to
- 5:43Speaker 1: get it. But we all know that this whole entire
- 5:46Speaker 1: process has been a delay tactic by Ann Taylor. And look,
- 5:50Speaker 1: I'm not mad at her for it. I get it.
- 5:52Speaker 1: If I was fighting for my life, I'd want my
- 5:54Speaker 1: lawyer to go the extra mile too and do as
- 5:57Speaker 1: much as she could to obscure things and obfuscate and
- 6:00Speaker 1: make things difficult on the prosecution. But at some point,
- 6:04Speaker 1: the train comes rolling into the station and it's time
- 6:07Speaker 1: to get on. And folks, we're at that point. Brian
- 6:11Speaker 1: Kohlberger better come correct with some kind of evidence that
- 6:14Speaker 1: the prosecution is playing games here and they're not giving
- 6:17Speaker 1: him everything that he deserves because he's running out of
- 6:20Speaker 1: track and he's running out of track quickly. The damning
- 6:25Speaker 1: ruling marks the latest blow to Kohlberger's defense strategy coming
- 6:29Speaker 1: after the judge last week denied a separate request to
- 6:32Speaker 1: strike the death penalty due to his recent autism diagnosis.
- 6:36Speaker 1: The defense claimed his demeanor due to his diagnosis would
- 6:39Speaker 1: place him at a greater risk of being sentenced to death,
- 6:43Speaker 1: arguing that every move Koberger makes is scrutinized and claiming
- 6:47Speaker 1: he has been presented in the media as evil and soulless.
- 6:51Speaker 1: At this point, the prosecution should point out that there's
- 6:53Speaker 1: a whole cadre of people out there that are falling
- 6:56Speaker 1: all over themselves to make excuses for Brian Koberger. Now, look,
- 7:00Speaker 1: it's one thing to say, look, I don't believe that
- 7:02Speaker 1: the evidence is pointing to Koberger yet. That's totally valid.
- 7:06Speaker 1: What isn't valid, in my opinion, is just talking a
- 7:09Speaker 1: bunch of bullshit that never even came close to happening.
- 7:13Speaker 1: You have to have evidence, okay? And I'm talking about
- 7:16Speaker 1: evidence to be admitted at trial. Because you could talk
- 7:20Speaker 1: about this, that, or the other thing, hearsay. You can
- 7:23Speaker 1: bring up, oh, this was a drug hit, or whatever
- 7:25Speaker 1: you want. But there's one problem with all of that.
- 7:29Speaker 1: There is no evidence pointing to any of it. And
- 7:32Speaker 1: if you have that evidence, let's see it. I don't
- 7:35Speaker 1: want to hear about your theory either. Let's see the evidence.
- 7:39Speaker 1: Because when we're talking about cartels and we're talking about
- 7:42Speaker 1: drug organizations, trust me when I tell you, you're in
- 7:45Speaker 1: over your head. You got people who have never even
- 7:48Speaker 1: been in the streets here in the United States talking
- 7:51Speaker 1: about drug cartels like they understand what's going on. And
- 7:54Speaker 1: as far as a localized drug hit, really? You mean
- 7:57Speaker 1: to tell me that they got hit over a couple
- 8:00Speaker 1: of bags of dope? Stop it. Nobody's doing that. Not
- 8:03Speaker 1: in Moscow, Idaho. So that whole entire theory was never
- 8:06Speaker 1: anything more than just a bunch of nonsense. But yet,
- 8:09Speaker 1: still to this day, there's people out there that are
- 8:11Speaker 1: talking that BS. The state pushed back, arguing that the
- 8:14Speaker 1: precedent previously set to strike the death penalty are for
- 8:18Speaker 1: intellectual disabilities, which autism is not. Judge Hippler ruled that
- 8:22Speaker 1: Kohlberger's diagnosis can be used as a mitigating factor at
- 8:26Speaker 1: his sentencing. but does not mean the death penalty should
- 8:29Speaker 1: be removed from the case. This week's ruling now marks
- 8:32Speaker 1: the 13th time that the judge has dismissed Koberger's efforts
- 8:35Speaker 1: to stop a jury from potentially sending him to death row.
- 8:38Speaker 1: So what does that tell you about what Judge Hippler
- 8:40Speaker 1: feels here as far as Brian Koberger standing tall before
- 8:44Speaker 1: the man? And I think that Hippler has it right.
- 8:46Speaker 1: The jury should be the ones to decide one way
- 8:49Speaker 1: or the other what the punishment is if Brian Koberger
- 8:52Speaker 1: is in fact found guilty. In the defense's latest move,
- 8:57Speaker 1: Kohlberger had accused the state of lengthy delays over handling
- 9:00Speaker 1: over evidence in the case. The legal team also argued
- 9:04Speaker 1: that when it had received the discovery, it found it
- 9:06Speaker 1: to be voluminous and unorganized, leaving them unable to prepare
- 9:11Speaker 1: properly for trial. And remember, if it was the other way,
- 9:14Speaker 1: and they didn't send them enough, or they didn't send something,
- 9:17Speaker 1: Brian Kohlberger would be making a whole entire scene about it.
- 9:21Speaker 1: So that's why you see all of this discovery that
- 9:23Speaker 1: was handed over to Kohlberger and his team. The prosecution
- 9:27Speaker 1: was well aware of the tactic, and they were well
- 9:30Speaker 1: aware that Brian Kohlberger and his team were relying on
- 9:33Speaker 1: loopholes and technicalities here. As a result, the defense claimed
- 9:37Speaker 1: Kohlberger's rights had been violated and asked the judge to
- 9:40Speaker 1: strike the death penalty and impose organizational requirements on the
- 9:44Speaker 1: state to help with the review of evidence. prosecutors pushed
- 9:48Speaker 1: back on the allegations, arguing the state had complied with
- 9:52Speaker 1: all discovery obligations. The judge sided with the state and
- 9:55Speaker 1: pointed out that Kohlberger's team has had more than two
- 9:58Speaker 1: years to prepare for trial. since his arrest back on
- 10:01Speaker 1: December 30, 2022, just six weeks from the murders. While
- 10:06Speaker 1: defendant is currently incarcerated, he has a robust defense team
- 10:10Speaker 1: and he has not faced time constraints given his speedy
- 10:13Speaker 1: trial waiver, with this case well over two years old,
- 10:16Speaker 1: the judge wrote. Defendant has had nearly as much time
- 10:20Speaker 1: as the state to review discovery. This is not a
- 10:22Speaker 1: situation where the state has had the benefit of years-long
- 10:25Speaker 1: investigation compared to defendant, who has mere months to review
- 10:29Speaker 1: the investigative material. Judge Hippler also appeared to scold the
- 10:33Speaker 1: defense team, pointing out that lead attorney Ann Taylor has
- 10:36Speaker 1: chosen to take on another capital murder trial, while claiming
- 10:40Speaker 1: her team does not have the capacity to effectively prepare
- 10:43Speaker 1: for Kohlberger's. In more than two years since his arrest,
- 10:46Speaker 1: Kohlberger has not once sought remedy from this court to
- 10:50Speaker 1: regulate discovery, such as requiring the state to provide discovery
- 10:54Speaker 1: in a different format, the judge wrote. His lead counsel insisted,
- 11:08Speaker 1: that she be allowed to take on a second high-profile
- 11:11Speaker 1: capital case, despite the voluminous discovery in this case. So
- 11:17Speaker 1: Ann Taylor has another high-profile case that she's going to
- 11:20Speaker 1: be overseeing as the lead attorney, and she's over here
- 11:23Speaker 1: complaining about this one? Sorry, that's not going to work.
- 11:26Speaker 1: And not just for us, but obviously not for the
- 11:29Speaker 1: judge either. Taylor, he added, has indicated that our practice
- 11:32Speaker 1: is to personally review the discovery herself, and these actions
- 11:36Speaker 1: are not indicative of an overburdened defense team, the judge wrote.
- 11:40Speaker 1: In fact, it is evident defendant has been able to
- 11:43Speaker 1: capably navigate the discovery given his more than robust motion practice,
- 11:47Speaker 1: the scope and breadth of the experts retained, and the
- 11:50Speaker 1: disclosures filed. Bingo, 100%. If Kohlberger didn't have all the discovery,
- 11:56Speaker 1: how's he mounting such a defense? So all of that's
- 11:59Speaker 1: nothing more than a tactic and a way to do
- 12:02Speaker 1: an end around on the gag order when it comes
- 12:04Speaker 1: to trying to build a narrative about your client. And
- 12:07Speaker 1: that's exactly what we've seen Ann Taylor do time and
- 12:09Speaker 1: time again, while at the same time complaining about bad
- 12:13Speaker 1: press towards her client. So look, again, I'm not blaming
- 12:18Speaker 1: Ann Taylor because that's what she should be doing. But
- 12:21Speaker 1: it's nice to see the judge recognizes what's going on
- 12:24Speaker 1: here and he's not buying it. The family of Gonsalves
- 12:27Speaker 1: appeared to celebrate the judge's ruling on Wednesday, writing on
- 12:31Speaker 1: their Facebook page, Thank you, Judge Hippler. Without you, I
- 12:34Speaker 1: feel like we would still be years away from trial.
- 12:37Speaker 1: Gonsalves' father, Steve Gonsalves, has previously made it clear that
- 12:41Speaker 1: the family welcomes the death penalty in the case and
- 12:44Speaker 1: the possibility of the use of the firing squad. I'll
- 12:48Speaker 1: take it a step further. If I was her dad,
- 12:50Speaker 1: I'd want to be part of the firing squad. Firing
- 12:54Speaker 1: Squad became an alternative method of execution in Idaho last
- 12:58Speaker 1: year amid a shortage of lethal injection drugs. Just get
- 13:01Speaker 1: some fentanyl. Plenty of that going around. But it was
- 13:05Speaker 1: not the primary execution method, and so no inmate has
- 13:08Speaker 1: been put to death since it was introduced. Republican state
- 13:12Speaker 1: lawmaker Bruce Scogg has since put forward a bill to
- 13:16Speaker 1: change that, and Steve Gonsalves said earlier this year he
- 13:19Speaker 1: is personally pushing to help get it over the line. Look, again,
- 13:23Speaker 1: I get it, man. There's a lot of people out
- 13:25Speaker 1: there that have bad things to say about the family
- 13:28Speaker 1: members of these kids, and that shit is absurd. We're
- 13:31Speaker 1: talking about people who were murdered here. Take a step back,
- 13:34Speaker 1: look in the mirror, do some self-evaluating, because you've obviously
- 13:38Speaker 1: lost the plot. I'll be that person to stand in
- 13:40Speaker 1: front of the camera and drum up some support, he
- 13:42Speaker 1: told News Nation in February. There is no reason to
- 13:46Speaker 1: have capital punishment if this isn't the case for it.
- 13:49Speaker 1: The latest court order comes after the defense and prosecution
- 13:52Speaker 1: went head-to-head on April 9th in a high-stakes hearing about
- 13:56Speaker 1: the key evidence in the case. Both during the hearing
- 14:00Speaker 1: and in the weeks since, the judge has made several
- 14:02Speaker 1: rulings which have shaped what jurors will see and hear
- 14:05Speaker 1: at the trial. The orders have overall been blows to
- 14:08Speaker 1: Koberger's case, ruling that jurors will hear the harrowing 911 call.
- 14:13Speaker 1: made by victims, surviving roommates, and see their panicked texts
- 14:17Speaker 1: after one of them saw the masked killer inside the home.
- 14:21Speaker 1: Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funk were also inside the home
- 14:24Speaker 1: at 1122 King Road at the time of the murders,
- 14:27Speaker 1: but escaped unscathed. Mortensen saw a man in a mask
- 14:31Speaker 1: and wearing all black walk past her bedroom door on
- 14:34Speaker 1: the second floor at around 4 a.m., court documents show.
- 14:39Speaker 1: Following a series of frantic messages and calls to Funk,
- 14:42Speaker 1: and the other roommates, none of whom responded, she ran
- 14:45Speaker 1: down to Funk's bedroom on the first floor. Kernodel and
- 14:49Speaker 1: Chapin were dead in Kernodel's room on the second floor,
- 14:52Speaker 1: while Gonsalves and Mogan were dead in Mogan's bed on
- 14:55Speaker 1: the third floor. Just before midday, the two survivors and
- 14:58Speaker 1: their friends discovered the bloodbath and called 911. As the
- 15:03Speaker 1: sole survivor who came face-to-face with the masked killer inside
- 15:06Speaker 1: the home, Mortensen's testimony is expected to be crucial at trial.
- 15:11Speaker 1: as well as the 911 call and text messages the
- 15:14Speaker 1: judges ruled against Kohlberger in allowing Mortensen to describe the
- 15:17Speaker 1: man inside the home using the term bushy eyebrows. Prosecutors
- 15:23Speaker 1: plan to show jurors the chilling selfie of Kohlberger giving
- 15:27Speaker 1: a thumbs up to the camera just six hours on
- 15:30Speaker 1: from the murders as evidence of his eyebrows. In another ruling,
- 15:34Speaker 1: the judge also ruled that jurors will be able to
- 15:37Speaker 1: see Kohlberger's Amazon shopping history Prosecutors say the shopping history
- 15:42Speaker 1: reveals he bought a K-Bar knife, sheath, and sharpener from
- 15:46Speaker 1: Amazon back in March 2022. A K-Bar leather knife sheath
- 15:51Speaker 1: was left behind by the killer next to Mogan's lifeless body.
- 15:55Speaker 1: DNA found on the sheath came back as a match
- 15:57Speaker 1: to Kohlberger. The murder weapon itself has never been found.
- 16:02Speaker 1: And they're never going to find it. I mean, the
- 16:03Speaker 1: most remedial criminal knows to get rid of a weapon.
- 16:06Speaker 1: Never mind somebody studying for their PhD in criminology. Kohlberger
- 16:12Speaker 1: was arrested six weeks on from the slayings at his
- 16:15Speaker 1: family's home in Albrightville, Pennsylvania, and charged with four murders.
- 16:19Speaker 1: As well as the DNA evidence and the eyewitness testimony,
- 16:23Speaker 1: prosecutors say Kohlberger's white Hyundai Elantra also matches a car
- 16:27Speaker 1: scene leaving the crime scene at the time of the murders,
- 16:30Speaker 1: and that his cell phone records indicate he may have
- 16:32Speaker 1: stalked the King Road home at least a dozen times
- 16:35Speaker 1: in the lead-up to the murders. Kohlberger is next due
- 16:38Speaker 1: in court in mid-May for a pretrial hearing. And finally,
- 16:42Speaker 1: after what feels like forever, this trial is only a
- 16:45Speaker 1: few weeks away at this point. And before you know it,
- 16:48Speaker 1: it's going to be August, and we're going to be
- 16:50Speaker 1: talking about Brian Kohlberger's first day in court. And obviously,
- 16:54Speaker 1: until we get there, we're going to continue to lay
- 16:56Speaker 1: the foundation and follow along because a lot of things
- 16:59Speaker 1: can happen. But over the next few weeks, we're also
- 17:02Speaker 1: going to be focusing a lot more on Diddy as well.
- 17:05Speaker 1: That trial is getting ready to kick off with jury
- 17:08Speaker 1: selection in a few days. And as you can imagine,
- 17:10Speaker 1: the fireworks are gonna be insane. And on top of
- 17:14Speaker 1: all of that, right now we have the Karen Reid
- 17:16Speaker 1: trial going on we have plenty to yap about. But
- 17:19Speaker 1: as far as this one, well, that's gonna do it.
- 17:22Speaker 1: And all of the information that goes with this episode
- 17:25Speaker 1: can be found in the description box.