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Murder In Moscow: Prosecutors Want To Limit Kohberger's Alibi · Beyond The Horizon

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. The
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: battle over Brian Koberger and his alibi continues to rage
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  Speaker 1: in Moscow, with the prosecutors saying that they want to
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  Speaker 1: limit Brian Koberger's alibi in the case. And the defense, well,
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  Speaker 1: they fired back that they want to have the DNA
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  Speaker 1: records unsealed. So like usual, we have a lot of
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  Speaker 1: contention up here in Idaho as both sides try to
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  Speaker 1: pound home their narrative. And I find it interesting that
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  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Brian Koberger and his team, they
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  Speaker 1: want to have things unsealed. What does that even mean?
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  Speaker 1: I thought we didn't want to prejudice the jury pool.
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  Speaker 1: So how could we have things unsealed? See, Brian Koberger
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  Speaker 1: wants it both ways. And up to this point, Judge
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  Speaker 1: Judge has pretty much bent over backwards to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that Brian Koberger gets a fair shake. And all you
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: have to do is take a look at what went
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: down with Harvey Weinstein, and you'll see why Judge Judge
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  Speaker 1: is doing what he's doing. Now, I know a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people out there are not happy with it, and
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  Speaker 1: I don't like the delay either. I think this show
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  Speaker 1: needs to get on the road. But I also think
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  Speaker 1: that the process matters, and we have to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that the prosecution is doing things the right way. And
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  Speaker 1: so far, in my opinion anyway... This has been a
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  Speaker 1: master class of how to prosecute somebody up in Idaho.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, just take a look at the shit show
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  Speaker 1: with Karen Reed or take a look at what's going
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  Speaker 1: on down in Delphi. Because that is an absolute circus
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  Speaker 1: down there. And thankfully, this hasn't descended into anything even
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  Speaker 1: close to that. So with that in mind, let's get
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  Speaker 1: right to this article from the Idaho Statesman. And let's
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  Speaker 1: see what Kevin Fixler has for us. Headline. Prosecutors want
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  Speaker 1: alibi limited in Idaho student murder case defense seeks DNA
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  Speaker 1: records unsealed. This article was authored by Kevin Fixler. Prosecutors
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  Speaker 1: are urging the judge in the Moscow college student murders
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  Speaker 1: case to reject defendant Brian Koberger's alibi submitted earlier this
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  Speaker 1: month and limit how his defense can present the evidence
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  Speaker 1: at trial. Well, you would think so, right? Considering the
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  Speaker 1: alibi is complete rubbish. Oh yeah, I was out having
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  Speaker 1: a drive. Who can confirm that? Who can corroborate that? Well,
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  Speaker 1: the answer is nobody. And that's why he used that
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  Speaker 1: as his defense, as his alibi. And furthermore, anybody who
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  Speaker 1: knows anything about taking pictures knows that Brian Kohlberger isn't
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  Speaker 1: out there snapping shots of the sky with his cell phone.
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  Speaker 1: At least not serious pictures. If you're looking to capture
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  Speaker 1: what's going on in the sky, you're going to need
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  Speaker 1: a better camera, right? But according to his team, he's
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  Speaker 1: out here taking pictures of Venus and Mercury like he's
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  Speaker 1: the human embodiment of the Hubble telescope. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: anyone's buying it. And the prosecution certainly isn't buying it.
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  Speaker 1: Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson argued in a written response
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  Speaker 1: that the defense has failed to meet the state's legal
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  Speaker 1: threshold to argue that Kohlberger was elsewhere than the crime
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  Speaker 1: scene at the time of the November 2022 quadruple homicide.
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  Speaker 1: The document was filed Friday, but not posted to an
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  Speaker 1: Idaho court website until late Monday. The defendant's supplemental alibi
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  Speaker 1: response continues to lack the specificity required by Idaho code,
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  Speaker 1: Thompson wrote. The defendant is offering nothing new to his
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  Speaker 1: initial alibi that he was simply driving around during the
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  Speaker 1: morning hours of November 13th, 2022. That's really where it's at.
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  Speaker 1: If you don't have an alibi, you don't have one.
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  Speaker 1: And if you make one up, well, people are going
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  Speaker 1: to call you out on your bullshit. Now, of course,
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  Speaker 1: nobody can say for sure. Well, Brian Kohlberger wasn't out driving.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why we have to have this trial. We
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  Speaker 1: have to figure out what's what. The state of Idaho
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  Speaker 1: has presented a whole ass tomb of evidence against Brian Kohlberger.
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  Speaker 1: And so far, I haven't seen anything from Kohlberger's team
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  Speaker 1: that challenges even a little bit of that evidence. And
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  Speaker 1: as I've said from the beginning, I doubt we're going
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  Speaker 1: to see that. How are you going to challenge that
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  Speaker 1: DNA on the knife sheath until they can figure that out? Well,
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  Speaker 1: they're going to have big problems. And of course, there
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  Speaker 1: is always prosecutorial misconduct to try and hang your hat
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  Speaker 1: on and hope that something was amiss. You know, the
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  Speaker 1: loopholes and technicalities defense. But is that something you really
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  Speaker 1: want to hang your hat on? Or do you want
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  Speaker 1: to go out there and win on the merits of
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  Speaker 1: the evidence? The problem for people sometimes, like Brian Koberger
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  Speaker 1: in my opinion, is that there's no merit of the
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  Speaker 1: evidence for him to use. Instead, all he's left with
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  Speaker 1: is the it wasn't me defense. And we all know
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  Speaker 1: that that doesn't work so well inside of a courtroom
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  Speaker 1: when there is a ton of evidence leading directly back
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  Speaker 1: to you. So you're going to have to have an alibi.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to have to have a witness, somebody that
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  Speaker 1: can say, look, I was with Koberger. We were hanging out.
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  Speaker 1: He's not the guy who did this. And we haven't
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  Speaker 1: heard anything like that. All we heard is about this
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  Speaker 1: dude out on his little night drive and taking pictures
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  Speaker 1: of the night sky in the middle of nowhere. Koberger, 29,
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  Speaker 1: is charged with four counts of first degree murder in
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  Speaker 1: the stabbing death of the four University of Idaho students
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  Speaker 1: and faces the death penalty if convicted. The victims were
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  Speaker 1: seniors Madison Mogan and Kaylee Gonsalves, both 21, junior Zanna
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  Speaker 1: Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20. Koberger's attorneys have
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  Speaker 1: said that their client, who was a graduate student at
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  Speaker 1: nearby Washington State University in Pullman at the time, was
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  Speaker 1: out driving his car alone when the crime took place.
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  Speaker 1: Police estimate the U of I undergrads were killed between
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  Speaker 1: 4 and 4.25 a.m. at an off-campus home on King
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  Speaker 1: Road in Moscow, which is located about nine miles east
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  Speaker 1: of Pullman. In response to prosecutors' demands, Koberger's public defenders
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  Speaker 1: last summer filed an alibi that he was out for
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  Speaker 1: an overnight drive by himself, as had long been his habit,
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  Speaker 1: near the Idaho-Washington state line. Oh, that's all just very convenient.
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  Speaker 1: That this happens to be his habit, right? His hobby
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  Speaker 1: is driving around at night and looking at the night sky.
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  Speaker 1: Is that really what you're going to try and convince
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  Speaker 1: the jury of? Never mind us, but the jury. So
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  Speaker 1: if that's going to be the defense, I say good luck.
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  Speaker 1: We knew that already. And if that's his alibi, so
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  Speaker 1: be it, Thompson countered at a pretrial hearing in August.
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  Speaker 1: At that time, Latah County Judge John Judge of Idaho's
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  Speaker 1: 2nd Judicial District, who is overseeing the case, also referred
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  Speaker 1: to Koberger's claimed whereabouts as a so-called alibi, not really
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  Speaker 1: an alibi. Well, yeah, if nobody's there to confirm it,
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  Speaker 1: if there's nobody to corroborate what you're saying, no video
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  Speaker 1: evidence or anything, then you can just say whatever you want, right?
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  Speaker 1: Cops show up to arrest you, you could be like, hey,
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't me. I was busy on Mars, homie. Yeah, no,
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  Speaker 1: I was up there with the rover, and we were
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  Speaker 1: looking for alien life. Oh no, I don't have anything
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  Speaker 1: that corroborates that, but just take my word for it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure the jury's gonna suck that up, folks. I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure they're just gonna be so receptive to that alibi
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  Speaker 1: that that's all they're gonna need to get Brian Kohlberger off.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's such a good alibi. It's such a
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  Speaker 1: ironclad alibi that nobody can challenge, that no holes can
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  Speaker 1: be poked in, right? right? He later granted the defense
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  Speaker 1: more time to bolster their alibi defense claim, which Idaho
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  Speaker 1: requires be claimed and filed ahead of the trial so
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  Speaker 1: prosecutors have adequate time to prepare to disprove it. Koberger
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  Speaker 1: was an avid runner, hiker, and moon and stargazer, his
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  Speaker 1: attorneys added. In the most recent filing, including around southeastern
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  Speaker 1: Washington's Wawa Wai County Park the morning of the homicides,
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  Speaker 1: Koberger's cell phone data including late-night photographs from the month
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  Speaker 1: of the homicides, prove the claim, and a cell tower
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  Speaker 1: data expert would lend partial corroboration of their client's alibi
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  Speaker 1: through testimony at trial, they wrote. Yeah, I'm sure that
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  Speaker 1: that's going to stand. I'm sure that the expert that
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  Speaker 1: the prosecution brings up isn't going to poo-poo all over
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  Speaker 1: what Koberger's expert brings to the table. See, it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be a battle of experts, and it's going to
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  Speaker 1: come down to all the other evidence, right? They're going
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  Speaker 1: to pump fake and they're going to try and make
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  Speaker 1: it about the digital evidence if it's in favor of
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  Speaker 1: Brian Koberger. But if it's not, forget it. All you're
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  Speaker 1: going to hear is how we can't trust the cell
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  Speaker 1: phone pings, the towers are bad, how none of that matters. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: his whole entire alibi is hinging on that. Since Koberger's
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  Speaker 1: arrest about seven weeks after the homicides, police and prosecutors
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  Speaker 1: have alleged that the defendant's cell phone stopped reporting to
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  Speaker 1: the area's cell tower network at the time of the
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  Speaker 1: homicides and was possibly intentionally turned off. Prosecutors asked Judge
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  Speaker 1: to deny the defense's plan to use a cell tower
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  Speaker 1: data expert at trial and only allow Kohlberger to testify
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  Speaker 1: to his whereabouts if he chooses. The location of the
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  Speaker 1: defendant's cell phone at times other than the time of
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  Speaker 1: the homicides is not proof of or relevant to the
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  Speaker 1: defendant's specific location at the time of the homicides, Thompson wrote. See,
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  Speaker 1: I think that they should let him use the data.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think any of it's going to help him.
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  Speaker 1: And for me, it's more about the appeal at this point.
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  Speaker 1: Because I think that the evidence here is just so strong.
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  Speaker 1: And unless they can get some kind of procedural victory
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  Speaker 1: where they can get rid of the knife sheath somehow,
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  Speaker 1: I don't see how they beat the DNA on that
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  Speaker 1: knife sheath. Because that's the glue that holds everything together.
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  Speaker 1: So unless he can figure out how to deal with that,
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  Speaker 1: then it's going to be a very long road. Arguments
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  Speaker 1: set over closed hearing next month. In other legal filings Friday,
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  Speaker 1: Koberger's attorneys asked Judge to allow investigators for the defense
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  Speaker 1: to review FBI's forensic genetic genealogy records. The advanced police
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  Speaker 1: investigative technique involves using DNA from a crime scene to
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  Speaker 1: build a family tree through public genealogy websites to narrow
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  Speaker 1: the list of possible suspects. The use of investigative genetic genealogy,
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  Speaker 1: or IgG, in the case was not identified in the
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  Speaker 1: probable cause affidavit for Koberger's arrest. Thompson acknowledged six months
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  Speaker 1: later that the FBI employed the technique to initially arrive
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  Speaker 1: at Koberger as the host. homicide suspect, and Judge eventually
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  Speaker 1: awarded the sealed records to the defense, but with some
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  Speaker 1: limits on who could review them. On Friday, the defense
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  Speaker 1: also requested most of the IGG records to be unsealed,
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  Speaker 1: so you can guarantee that they think that that'll help
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  Speaker 1: Brian Koberger. Will it? I don't know. I haven't seen them.
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  Speaker 1: They're sealed still. But once they're unsealed, if they are unsealed,
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  Speaker 1: we'll dive into them and break it down. But as
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  Speaker 1: of now, even if they are unsealed, what are they
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  Speaker 1: going to prove or show that we don't know already?
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  Speaker 1: There is simply no legitimate reason that the way the
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  Speaker 1: IGG procedures in the case took place should be shielded
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  Speaker 1: from the public, wrote Jay Logsdon, one of Koberger's public defenders.
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  Speaker 1: Most materials have been sealed in this case to protect
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  Speaker 1: the right of a fair trial. there is simply nothing
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  Speaker 1: unfairly prejudicial about the way in which IGG was carried
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  Speaker 1: about by the state and its associates in this case.
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  Speaker 1: Judge also scheduled a hearing for Thursday morning to help
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  Speaker 1: decide whether another pretrial hearing set for May 14th should
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  Speaker 1: be closed to the public. Prosecutors last week asked that
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  Speaker 1: the hearing be closed for arguments over the defense's demand
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  Speaker 1: for state evidence through the legal process known as discovery.
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  Speaker 1: And Dan Taylor, Koberger's lead public defender, Taylor wrote, Taylor wrote,
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  Speaker 1: Taylor wrote, All of a sudden he wants a public trial, huh? Okay,
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  Speaker 1: why don't you go and ask for the whole ass
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  Speaker 1: gag order to be removed? Let's get down with something
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  Speaker 1: like that, huh? Oh, wait, you don't want to do that? Oh, okay,
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  Speaker 1: so it's not about transparency in general. It's about what
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  Speaker 1: helps you. Got it. Judge has not set a date
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  Speaker 1: for Koberger's anticipated trial. A June 27th hearing is scheduled
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: for arguments over a possible venue change outside of Latah County.
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  Speaker 1: So I don't think he's going to get that venue change.
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  Speaker 1: Now he might get jurors from a different county to
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  Speaker 1: come and sit in as the jurors for his trial,
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  Speaker 1: but I don't think it's going to get moved. But
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  Speaker 1: after the hearing on Thursday, we'll have another recap and
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  Speaker 1: we'll see what went down and where we currently stand
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  Speaker 1: in the state of Idaho's case against Brian Koberger. All
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  Speaker 1: of the information that goes with this episode can be
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: found in the description box.