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Murder In Moscow: Bryan Kohberger And The Arrest When He Was 19 · Beyond The Horizon

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  Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program. We're
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  Speaker 1: getting some new information about Brian Cohberger and how he
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  Speaker 1: was arrested in twenty and fourteen. Now, the arrest in
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  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen wasn't for anything violent. He was arrested in
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  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen for stealing a cell phone from his sister,
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  Speaker 1: and according to this report, it was his father who
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  Speaker 1: turned him in. Now, the reason we didn't know about
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  Speaker 1: this previously is because his record was expunged under a
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  Speaker 1: program that's offered in the state of Pennsylvania. So let's
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  Speaker 1: dive into this article from ABC News and let's get
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  Speaker 1: caught up. Headline. Idaho college killing suspect was first arrested
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  Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen, record show. Colberger's father reported the incident
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  Speaker 1: to police. Record show this article was authored by Cana Whitworth,
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  Speaker 1: Josh Margolin, and Sasha Peasanik. Nine years before he was
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  Speaker 1: accused of killing four college students in Idaho, Brian Colberger
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  Speaker 1: was arrested in his native Pennsylvania and charged with misdemeanor
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  Speaker 1: theft for allegedly stealing his sister's iPhone, according to records
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  Speaker 1: reviewed by ABC News, When You're on drugs You'll do
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  Speaker 1: some wild shit. You'll steal from your sister, you'll steal
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  Speaker 1: from your grandmother, your best friend, It does not matter.
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  Speaker 1: It was Coburger's father, Michael, who reported the incident to police,
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  Speaker 1: according to court records. According to the records, Michael Coberger
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  Speaker 1: told law enforcement Brian had warned him not to do
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  Speaker 1: anything stupid after learning his son had taken the phone,
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  Speaker 1: adding that his son had struggled with drug addiction. Don't
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  Speaker 1: do anything stupid. Sounds like a threat to me. Brian
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  Speaker 1: Coberger's earlier run in with the law, as described in
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  Speaker 1: these records, is only now coming to light as he
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  Speaker 1: prepares to defend himself against charges he killed four University
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  Speaker 1: of Idaho students last fall. According to the records, Brian
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  Speaker 1: Kohberger was nineteen years old when he was arrested for
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  Speaker 1: the alleged theft in twenty fourteen. He served no jail time,
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  Speaker 1: according to officials, there is now no public record of
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  Speaker 1: that arrest or the outcome of the case. So nineteen
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  Speaker 1: years old and he's out here, still still in his
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  Speaker 1: sister's cell phone. Not exactly a solid mark in the
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  Speaker 1: category of character building. Monroe County, Pennsylvania, offers first time
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  Speaker 1: offenders the opportunity to enter into a pre trial program
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  Speaker 1: called Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, which allows for charges to be
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  Speaker 1: dropped and the record to be expunged once the accused
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  Speaker 1: successfully completes probation. I think that's a pretty good program. Honestly,
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  Speaker 1: as long as we're not talking about violent offenders here,
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  Speaker 1: I think that getting your record exploded is a good thing,
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  Speaker 1: and it helps society as long as you're somebody who's
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  Speaker 1: looking to change. If not, well, it doesn't matter because
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  Speaker 1: you're going to get another charge eventually and your ass
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  Speaker 1: is gonna end up in jail. But for people who
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  Speaker 1: just make one mistake, I think a program like this
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  Speaker 1: is a solid idea, especially for those who aren't committing
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  Speaker 1: violent crimes. Now, when we start talking about violent crime,
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  Speaker 1: that's a different story. If you're going to go out
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  Speaker 1: there and cause all kinds of chaos and be a
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  Speaker 1: violent scumbag, well you deserve to sit behind bars. Martin
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  Speaker 1: Sodo Diaz, an attorney representing the Coburger family, declined to
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  Speaker 1: comment on the record describing the earlier arrest. The District
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  Speaker 1: Attorney's office in Monroe County also had no comment, and
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't expect the county to have any comment whatsoever,
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  Speaker 1: especially because this record was expunged, so they're not going
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  Speaker 1: to really comment on anything like that besides to say, hey,
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  Speaker 1: go look at the official record. In a court filing Monday,
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  Speaker 1: Idaho prosecutor Is announced they intend to seek the death
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  Speaker 1: penalty against Brian Kolberger for the alleged murders. It remains
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  Speaker 1: to be seen whether the alleged incident in twenty fourteen
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  Speaker 1: and his previous alleged history with substance abuse will have
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  Speaker 1: any bearing or offer any clues in relation to what
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  Speaker 1: happened in the early morning hours of November thirteenth, twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty two, when four college students Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogan,
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  Speaker 1: Xana Kernodle, and Kaylee Gonsalvez were stabbed to death at
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  Speaker 1: an off campus home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think it'll have any direct bearing, but I
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  Speaker 1: think it goes towards the character of the person who's
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  Speaker 1: in question here. What kind of dirtbag steals from their sister. Now,
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  Speaker 1: of course, stealing from your sister doesn't make you a murderer,
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  Speaker 1: But when you're building a profile of somebody, you have
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  Speaker 1: to go back to their teenage years and take a
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  Speaker 1: look at how they were behaving and then work from there.
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  Speaker 1: And now that this record is becoming available, it certainly
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  Speaker 1: adds to the fact that Brian Colberger was a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a degenerate, right, A source briefed on the case
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  Speaker 1: told ABC News the alleged twenty fourteen incident is now
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  Speaker 1: subject of inquiry for prosecutors in Idaho as they prepare
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  Speaker 1: for an impending capital trial that could start as early
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  Speaker 1: as October. And while that's when the trial is set
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  Speaker 1: to kick off, I have my doubts that we're going
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  Speaker 1: to see this thing kick off on time. You want
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  Speaker 1: to get all the puzzle pieces figured out, even as
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  Speaker 1: you keep finding new pieces, said ABC News Law enforcement
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  Speaker 1: contributor Richard Frankel, a retired senior FBI official and former
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  Speaker 1: prosecutor in the New York City suburb of Suffolk County.
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  Speaker 1: You're working to figure out how they all fit together,
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  Speaker 1: Frankel said, speaking generally on investigative procedure for building a case.
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  Speaker 1: And that's that's what it is. It's a gigantic puzzle.
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  Speaker 1: As an investigator, you start at the corners and you
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  Speaker 1: build it piece by piece until an image begins to emerge.
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  Speaker 1: And to do that effectively, you can't leave any stone unturned.
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  Speaker 1: As an investigator, one that's a big jump to go
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  Speaker 1: from an alleged non violent theft and from a family
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  Speaker 1: member to being charged with multiple homicides, and two eight
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  Speaker 1: years is a long time for nothing to happen, Frankel said,
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  Speaker 1: So I would want to know, both as a prosecutor
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  Speaker 1: and as an investigator, what he did in those years
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  Speaker 1: in between. And I still think that's a pretty big
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  Speaker 1: mystery what Brian Cohberger was up to all these years
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  Speaker 1: before these murders happened. Now we've heard from some people
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  Speaker 1: that knew him, some people that used to hang out
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  Speaker 1: with them, But how many people really knew Brian Cohberger
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  Speaker 1: and what he was up to or what sort of
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  Speaker 1: thoughts he was really Harboring ABC News contributor Robert Boyd,
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  Speaker 1: the retired chief of detectives for the New York City
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  Speaker 1: Police Department, said what you look for now is was
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  Speaker 1: this a foundational moment and was this a precursor for
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  Speaker 1: things to come? You know, I think that's a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a leap While this news is a little piece
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  Speaker 1: of the puzzle, it certainly isn't some kind of groundbreaking
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  Speaker 1: bombshell that tells us that Brian Coberger is capable of
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  Speaker 1: committing for homicides. Just because you steal from your sister
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're capable of murdering people. It makes you
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  Speaker 1: a scumbag, of course, but it doesn't mean that you're
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  Speaker 1: capable of doing what we saw happen in Moscow. A
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  Speaker 1: trial in the quadruple homicide has been set for October second,
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  Speaker 1: though that could be delayed. Brian Coberger is due to
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  Speaker 1: appear at the Layta County Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon for
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  Speaker 1: another in an ongoing series of pre trial hearings connected
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  Speaker 1: to the murder case. He is being held without bail
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  Speaker 1: at the Layta County Jail. Brian Koberger's team is pushing
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  Speaker 1: for a pause in his case while the defense and
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  Speaker 1: prosecution argue over the scope of which grand jury materials
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  Speaker 1: can or should be released. His lawyers are looking to
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  Speaker 1: determine whether there are grounds to dismiss his indictment based
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  Speaker 1: on the way the grand jury was selected according to
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  Speaker 1: court documents, and nobody should be shocked by this loopholes
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  Speaker 1: being exploited, loopholes being navigated. That's what happens when you
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  Speaker 1: don't have the evidence on your side. But with that said,
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  Speaker 1: if the prosecution did make any missteps, if they're stepping
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  Speaker 1: on Brian Colberger's constitutional rights, then they need to be
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  Speaker 1: dealt with as well. The defense is asking Idaho prosecutors
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  Speaker 1: to disclose more information about their investigation, including more detail
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  Speaker 1: on their forensic DNA analysis and information obtained from cell
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  Speaker 1: phone records, according to court filings. The hearing Tuesday is
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  Speaker 1: also expected to focus on Brian Coolberger's requests for more
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  Speaker 1: time to decide whether to offer an alibi a trial,
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  Speaker 1: as his attorneys say they are trying to navigate the
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  Speaker 1: large and still ongoing discovery process. According to recent court filings,
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  Speaker 1: doesn't that go directly in the face of what they're
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  Speaker 1: saying that they're not getting enough discovery material. If you
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  Speaker 1: have all these mountains of discovery to get through, then
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  Speaker 1: what are you even talking about when you're trying to
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  Speaker 1: infer that the prosecution is holding stuff back. Prosecutors said
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  Speaker 1: they wouldn't object to a reasonable extension to decide so
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  Speaker 1: long as any potential alibi is offered within the next month.
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  Speaker 1: Back in Pennsylvania, on Saturday, February eighth, twenty fourteen, Brian
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  Speaker 1: Colberger had recently exited a rehab center and rejoined the family,
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  Speaker 1: his father told police, according to the records reviewed by
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  Speaker 1: ABC News, home from rehab, Brian took his sister Melissa's iPhone,
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  Speaker 1: which had an estimated value of four hundred dollars, Michael
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  Speaker 1: Colberger told police, According to the records, authority said. According
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  Speaker 1: to the records, Brian Colberger paid a friend twenty dollars
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  Speaker 1: to pick him up and take him to a local mall,
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  Speaker 1: where he sold the phone for two hundred dollars at
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  Speaker 1: an automated Kiosk for used electronics. The records say Brian
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  Speaker 1: Colberger was charged with misdemeanor theft and offer no further
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  Speaker 1: explanation about what happened from there. With any case, we'd
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  Speaker 1: always do a timeline, and on this case, I'd want
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  Speaker 1: to do the timeline not just of the actual alleged
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  Speaker 1: Tomiside incident, minute by minute, but also I would want
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  Speaker 1: to do a behavioral timeline from his teens into his adulthood,
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  Speaker 1: because I want to know who this guy is. Frankel said,
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  Speaker 1: it all goes to the assessment of his character. It
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  Speaker 1: may also help me when I interview other people about him,
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  Speaker 1: because I may know what the right questions are going in.
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  Speaker 1: Frankel added, and that's why it's important to go through
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  Speaker 1: somebody's whole ass life and figure out what they were
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  Speaker 1: up to. Now, it doesn't mean that because you were
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  Speaker 1: on drugs or you stole from your sister that you're
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  Speaker 1: a murderer. I just want to reiterate that. But when
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  Speaker 1: you're building a profile of somebody, you have to add
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  Speaker 1: all of it in so that you get a complete
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  Speaker 1: and robust picture of who this person is. Brian Coberger,
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  Speaker 1: now twenty eight, was indicted in Idaho last month and
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  Speaker 1: charged with four counts of first degree murder and one
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  Speaker 1: count of burglary. At his Idaho arraignment in late May,
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  Speaker 1: Brian Colberger declined to offer a plea, so the judge
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  Speaker 1: entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Authorities alleged
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  Speaker 1: that in the early morning hours of November thirteenth, Brian Cohberger,
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  Speaker 1: a criminology PhD student at Washington State University, broke into
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  Speaker 1: an off campus home and stabbed to death of four
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  Speaker 1: students from the nearby University of Idaho. After a more
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  Speaker 1: than six week hunt, according to police documents, police zeroed
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  Speaker 1: in on Brian Colberger as a suspect, tracking is why
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  Speaker 1: Honda a Lantra cell phone signal data and recovering what
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  Speaker 1: authorities say was his DNA on a knife sheath found
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  Speaker 1: next to one of the victim's bodies. And that's the
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  Speaker 1: evidence that looms the largest against Brian Coberger. It's the
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  Speaker 1: glue that binds all of this together. And if they
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  Speaker 1: can find a way to challenge that DNA on the
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  Speaker 1: knife sheath, then we have a whole different conversation. But
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  Speaker 1: so far they haven't offered anything in the way of
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  Speaker 1: evidence that that knife sheath didn't belong to Brian Coberger,
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  Speaker 1: and they certainly didn't say in those court filings that
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  Speaker 1: one of those three unknown male DNA profiles was the
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  Speaker 1: real killer. The DNA evidence taken from the knife sheath
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  Speaker 1: at the crime scene showed a statistical match with a
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  Speaker 1: cheek swab taken directly from Brian Coberger after his arrest,
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  Speaker 1: authority said in a recent filing, and that was what
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  Speaker 1: the bukele swab was. When they went and arrested him.
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  Speaker 1: They brought the cheek swab with them so they could
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  Speaker 1: take that DNA swab right there at the scene. Brian
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  Speaker 1: Coberger's attorneys pushed back on that analysis in several recent
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  Speaker 1: court filings, casting doubt on whether that DNA evidence irrefutability
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  Speaker 1: implicates their client, saying the statistical probability is not an
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  Speaker 1: absolute and pointing to what they called a total lack
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  Speaker 1: of DNA evidence from the victims in Coburger's home or car.
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  Speaker 1: He was arrested on December thirtieth, twenty twenty two, at
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  Speaker 1: his family's home in Pennsylvania, after driving cross country to
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  Speaker 1: spend the holidays in all Brightsville. Some of Brian Colberger's
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  Speaker 1: childhood acquaintances have recalled to ABC News that the quiet,
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  Speaker 1: but funny person they knew began to alienate some of
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  Speaker 1: his friends in high school as his drug habit developed.
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  Speaker 1: Casey Arnes, who went to high school with Coburger, told
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  Speaker 1: ABC News he would ask her for rides that she
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  Speaker 1: later found out were to buy drugs. Brian used me to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, drive him around to get heroin. Aren't said.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of people are like, well, why are you
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  Speaker 1: still friends with them? After that, and I'm like, because
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  Speaker 1: you gotta forgive him. I mean, you can't fault him
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  Speaker 1: for being so sucked down this hole. And I did.
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  Speaker 1: I did forgive him. So while this new revelation of
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  Speaker 1: Brian Cohberger being arrested at nineteen years old for stealing
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  Speaker 1: the iPod certainly isn't earth shattering, it is worth discussing
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  Speaker 1: and adding to the catalog as we continue to build
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  Speaker 1: a profile and see who Brian Colberger is and who
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  Speaker 1: Brian Cohberger was. All Right, folks, that's gonna do it
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  Speaker 1: for this one. All of the information that goes with
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  Speaker 1: the episode can be found in the description box.