Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Murder In Moscow: Bryan Kohberger And The April 9th Hearing
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome back to the program. Over
- 0:04Speaker 1: the past few months, there has been a lot of
- 0:06Speaker 1: activity when it comes to the docket and Brian Koberger. Well,
- 0:11Speaker 1: today he's headed back to court and there's going to
- 0:13Speaker 1: be an evidentiary hearing where a lot of the stuff
- 0:16Speaker 1: that's been discussed is going to be looked at by
- 0:19Speaker 1: the judge. And a lot of the topics at issue
- 0:22Speaker 1: are the filings that we've been going over for the
- 0:24Speaker 1: past few weeks. So now when you hear about all
- 0:28Speaker 1: this stuff in the evidentiary hearing, you're going to know
- 0:31Speaker 1: exactly what they're talking about because we've went over all
- 0:34Speaker 1: of these documents already. And whenever you have a complex
- 0:37Speaker 1: case like this, the more context you can have, the
- 0:40Speaker 1: better off you are, right? Because there's a lot of
- 0:42Speaker 1: evidence here. There's a lot going on, a lot of
- 0:44Speaker 1: moving parts, a lot of allegations, and certainly a lot
- 0:48Speaker 1: of rebuttals to those allegations that have been made by
- 0:51Speaker 1: Brian Kohlberger and his team. And if you're not familiar
- 0:53Speaker 1: with the court documents, then you're not going to have
- 0:55Speaker 1: any idea what's going on inside of these hearings. So
- 0:59Speaker 1: today we have an article from the Idaho Statesman and
- 1:02Speaker 1: the headline, Momentous Evidentiary Hearings Away Brian Kohlberger Ahead of
- 1:07Speaker 1: Idaho Student Murder Trial. This article was authored by Kevin
- 1:11Speaker 1: Fixler and Alex Brizzi. More than 170 legal filings with
- 1:17Speaker 1: considerable implications for trial in the University of Idaho student
- 1:21Speaker 1: homicides case are set to near their resolution as defendant
- 1:24Speaker 1: Brian Kohlberger returns to the courtroom on Wednesday. Since February,
- 1:29Speaker 1: the prosecution and defense have traded more than a thousand
- 1:32Speaker 1: pages of court records over a variety of evidence. Each
- 1:37Speaker 1: side has postured to limit the way certain details may
- 1:40Speaker 1: be presented to a jury, while ensuring their own elements,
- 1:43Speaker 1: including data and witness testimony, make the cut. And when
- 1:47Speaker 1: you talk about throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at
- 1:49Speaker 1: the prosecution, that's what Brian Koberger's team has done from
- 1:53Speaker 1: the very beginning. And of course, that's because they know
- 1:56Speaker 1: they're up against it. We've talked about that from the
- 1:59Speaker 1: start here. When it comes to the evidence that has
- 2:02Speaker 1: been laid out against Brian Kohlberger, there is no doubt
- 2:05Speaker 1: that that evidence is strong as hell. And honestly, it
- 2:08Speaker 1: seems like every day that we learn something new, the
- 2:11Speaker 1: implications for Brian Kohlberger become more dire. I haven't seen
- 2:15Speaker 1: one bit of evidence that has been helpful for Brian Kohlberger,
- 2:18Speaker 1: and the last time he had any kind of help
- 2:20Speaker 1: from the court was when he got the venue changed.
- 2:22Speaker 1: But besides that, there's not really much here for Brian
- 2:25Speaker 1: Kohlberger to celebrate. Judge Stephen Hippler has scheduled oral arguments
- 2:30Speaker 1: that could extend into Thursday to hear a final justification
- 2:33Speaker 1: for which evidence to include his decision on the so-called
- 2:37Speaker 1: motions in Limonet could prove to be the difference of
- 2:41Speaker 1: a conviction at Koberger's summer capital murder trial. And again,
- 2:45Speaker 1: all of those motions in Limonet are going to be
- 2:48Speaker 1: very important later on down the road. That's why we've
- 2:52Speaker 1: added them all to the catalog as we move forward.
- 2:55Speaker 1: Because without that context, forget it. we would be absolutely lost. Koberger, 30,
- 3:00Speaker 1: is accused of fatally stabbing four U of I undergraduates
- 3:04Speaker 1: at an off-campus home in Moscow in November of 2022.
- 3:08Speaker 1: He's charged with four counts of first-degree murder and prosecutors
- 3:12Speaker 1: intend to seek the death penalty if he's found guilty. Well, yeah,
- 3:16Speaker 1: they should be seeking the death penalty. I mean, the
- 3:18Speaker 1: precedent has already been set in Idaho. Chad Daybell got
- 3:21Speaker 1: the death penalty, right? So I would say that Brian Koberger,
- 3:25Speaker 1: if found guilty, deserves the same. The students were victims
- 3:30Speaker 1: Madison Mogan of Coeur d'Alene, Kaylee Gonsalves of Rathdrum, Zanna
- 3:35Speaker 1: Kernodle of Post Falls, and Ethan Chapin of Mount Vernon, Washington.
- 3:39Speaker 1: The three women lived in the three-story home with two
- 3:43Speaker 1: other female roommates who went physically unharmed while Chapin was
- 3:46Speaker 1: Kernodle's boyfriend and slept over for the night. Among the
- 3:51Speaker 1: leading information the defense seeks to block at trial is
- 3:54Speaker 1: digital data from their client's Amazon account. And we all
- 3:57Speaker 1: know why they're trying to block that You want to
- 3:59Speaker 1: talk about damning? Imagine being charged with murder, and they
- 4:04Speaker 1: say that you used a K-Bar knife, and then they
- 4:06Speaker 1: find information and receipts saying that you purchased that same
- 4:10Speaker 1: kind of knife. Not looking good for you, is it?
- 4:13Speaker 1: Then you add that lame-ass alibi to the mix, and
- 4:16Speaker 1: I don't think that there's a jury on the planet
- 4:19Speaker 1: that's going to buy what you're selling them. And that's
- 4:22Speaker 1: because all of it leads back to this K-Bar and
- 4:24Speaker 1: the knife sheath. And the fact that his DNA was
- 4:27Speaker 1: on that knife sheath is a gigantic deal. Especially when
- 4:31Speaker 1: you look at it in context with this other evidence.
- 4:34Speaker 1: So his DNA is on the knife sheath of a
- 4:36Speaker 1: knife he purchased on Amazon. Nothing to see here though, folks.
- 4:40Speaker 1: Just a coincidence according to his team. And anyone in
- 4:42Speaker 1: his house could have bought the knife in the sheath.
- 4:45Speaker 1: I mean, it's more likely that Brian Kohlberger's mom was
- 4:47Speaker 1: on there shopping for a K-Bar, right? That's going to
- 4:49Speaker 1: be the narrative. That's what they're going to say. That
- 4:52Speaker 1: there's no way that you can prove that it was
- 4:54Speaker 1: Brian who bought that knife. on the Amazon account. And
- 4:57Speaker 1: of course, the prosecution is going to say, well, the
- 4:59Speaker 1: DNA might give us a few clues. The defense also
- 5:05Speaker 1: asked to exclude testimony of an Idaho State Police crime
- 5:08Speaker 1: lab manager on behalf of the prosecution about the ways
- 5:12Speaker 1: in which so-called touch or contact DNA can arrive on
- 5:15Speaker 1: an item. Based on the defense's submitted expert witness list,
- 5:19Speaker 1: prosecutors asserted Kohlberger's attorneys will argue at trial that the
- 5:23Speaker 1: sheath with Kohlberger's DNA was planted at the crime scene.
- 5:27Speaker 1: That is some wild work. You're going to say that
- 5:30Speaker 1: this sheath was planted and have nothing else to go on?
- 5:34Speaker 1: How do you think that that's going to be admitted
- 5:36Speaker 1: into the trial? You're going to have to have some
- 5:38Speaker 1: kind of basis, right? You can't just say so-and-so did it.
- 5:42Speaker 1: It wasn't me. There is no evidence pointing at anybody else.
- 5:47Speaker 1: So who planted it and why? and so far we
- 5:50Speaker 1: haven't heard anything that even points us in that direction,
- 5:53Speaker 1: but I guess that's the way they're going to go
- 5:54Speaker 1: come trial time. The two sides are also expected to
- 5:57Speaker 1: square off over how text messages between two surviving roommates
- 6:01Speaker 1: and a 911 call made on one of their cell
- 6:03Speaker 1: phones factor into the state's time frame of the killings.
- 6:07Speaker 1: Transcripts of the early morning texts and audio of the
- 6:10Speaker 1: 911 call were both publicly released for the first time
- 6:13Speaker 1: last month, and both the defense and prosecution reported have
- 6:16Speaker 1: picked over elements of the evidence to carve out pieces
- 6:19Speaker 1: they would like to include at trial. In addition, whether
- 6:23Speaker 1: to allow specific testimony from one of the surviving roommates,
- 6:26Speaker 1: who told police she saw a masked man in all
- 6:29Speaker 1: black in the home on the morning of the homicides,
- 6:32Speaker 1: will play a central role during this week's hearings. The
- 6:35Speaker 1: roommate said she saw a man with bushy eyebrows, which
- 6:38Speaker 1: the defense argued jurors would believe directly identifies him as
- 6:42Speaker 1: the perpetrator. The defense is going to fail here too.
- 6:46Speaker 1: There's no way that the judge is going to bar
- 6:49Speaker 1: one of the surviving roommates from giving testimony. I just
- 6:52Speaker 1: don't see it happening. Now, her testimony, I don't think
- 6:55Speaker 1: is going to be that impactful as far as pure
- 6:58Speaker 1: evidence goes. But what it does is it ties up
- 7:01Speaker 1: a few loose ends and it also points to somebody
- 7:04Speaker 1: who looks like Brian Kohlberger. So if that was all
- 7:07Speaker 1: the evidence they had, then I'd say their case was garbage.
- 7:11Speaker 1: But that's not all the evidence they have, is it?
- 7:13Speaker 1: And when you add all the evidence together here, that's
- 7:16Speaker 1: the big problem for Brian Kohlberger. It's not just one
- 7:19Speaker 1: piece of evidence, well, besides the sheath, but it's all
- 7:23Speaker 1: the evidence together that's causing him the big problem. And
- 7:27Speaker 1: unless he can find a way to get that sheath
- 7:29Speaker 1: kept out of the trial, then I don't think Brian
- 7:32Speaker 1: Kohlberger has a chance here to get off. Unless there
- 7:35Speaker 1: is some sort of egregious mistake made by the prosecution,
- 7:38Speaker 1: which is always possible. But besides that, I don't see
- 7:41Speaker 1: Brian Kohlberger having any way out here. Led by Latah
- 7:46Speaker 1: County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, prosecutors asked to place limits on
- 7:50Speaker 1: an alibi defense previously submitted by Kohlberger that he was
- 7:54Speaker 1: out driving alone at the time of the homicides outside
- 7:57Speaker 1: of Moscow. They seek to force Kohlberger to testify to
- 8:00Speaker 1: make such an argument, while the defense plans to provide
- 8:03Speaker 1: partial corroboration from a cell phone data expert and rejects
- 8:07Speaker 1: that only their client, could speak about his whereabouts on
- 8:10Speaker 1: the stand at trial. Well, who else could speak about them?
- 8:14Speaker 1: All of a sudden we should believe what the cell
- 8:16Speaker 1: phone experts say, but not when the state is providing
- 8:20Speaker 1: the evidence, only when it's Brian Koberger's expert. That's basically
- 8:24Speaker 1: what Ann Taylor is going to pitch, and I don't
- 8:26Speaker 1: think it's going to work out so well for her,
- 8:28Speaker 1: and certainly not for Brian Koberger. Hipler, a fourth judicial
- 8:32Speaker 1: judge in Ada County, also will take up arguments over
- 8:35Speaker 1: the possible use of a not-to-scale 3D model, of the
- 8:39Speaker 1: unconventional home where the victims died that prosecutors planned to
- 8:42Speaker 1: use at trial, for illustrative purposes, the defense has objected,
- 8:47Speaker 1: noting a lack of information about its design and sufficient
- 8:50Speaker 1: time to review the exhibit ahead of trial four months out.
- 8:54Speaker 1: You know what? Brian Kohlberger and his team can save
- 8:56Speaker 1: it when it comes to the house. They could have
- 8:59Speaker 1: objected to the house being demolished. They didn't. They had
- 9:02Speaker 1: their chance. They had the ability to do so. And
- 9:05Speaker 1: they went along with what's going on here. So I
- 9:08Speaker 1: don't want to hear anything about, oh, well, we don't
- 9:11Speaker 1: have a chance to look at the crime scene anymore.
- 9:13Speaker 1: The house was torn down. All of you folks agreed
- 9:16Speaker 1: to it, including Brian Kohlberger. That's it. So what's left
- 9:21Speaker 1: is the model. Now, to be clear, I never thought
- 9:24Speaker 1: that the house should have been torn down. Not until
- 9:26Speaker 1: after the trial. Seemed pretty counterproductive to me. And I
- 9:30Speaker 1: knew that Brian Kohlberger and his team were going to
- 9:33Speaker 1: make a big deal out of it. But again, I
- 9:35Speaker 1: think this strategy is going to fall flat on its face,
- 9:38Speaker 1: and that's because they had the ability to go through
- 9:40Speaker 1: the House previously, they had the ability to do everything
- 9:43Speaker 1: that the prosecution did, and if they didn't do that,
- 9:46Speaker 1: that's on them. The Latah County Prosecutor's Office denied a
- 9:50Speaker 1: public records request from the statesman for an image of
- 9:52Speaker 1: the model, citing the active judge's gag order in the case.
- 9:57Speaker 1: Release of the image could interfere with court proceedings. and
- 10:00Speaker 1: also jeopardize Kohlberger's right to a fair trial, the denial read.
- 10:05Speaker 1: The defense again pushes to strike the death penalty. Defense
- 10:08Speaker 1: attorney Ann Taylor has filed two more attempts to remove
- 10:11Speaker 1: the death penalty as a possible sentencing option for Kohlberger
- 10:14Speaker 1: if a jury convicts him on the four murder charges
- 10:17Speaker 1: he faces. Hipler previously denied efforts to do so late
- 10:22Speaker 1: last year. And again, I don't think it's going to
- 10:24Speaker 1: be removed. The people of Idaho have spoken. And Judge
- 10:28Speaker 1: Hipler has been pretty clear when he says that the
- 10:31Speaker 1: precedent has already been set. In one filing, Kohlberger's attorneys
- 10:36Speaker 1: argued that prosecutors have failed on several occasions to turn
- 10:39Speaker 1: over evidence to meet various deadlines through the legal process
- 10:42Speaker 1: known as discovery proceedings. As a penalty for repeat discovery
- 10:46Speaker 1: violations by the state, capital punishment was dropped in Lori
- 10:49Speaker 1: Vallow Daybell's 2023 murder trial, which set a new precedent
- 10:54Speaker 1: the defense is now attempting to apply to Kohlberger's case.
- 10:58Speaker 1: Prosecutors in the high-profile case have flat-out denied that they
- 11:01Speaker 1: have missed discovery deadlines or that resulting delays mean the
- 11:04Speaker 1: defense lacks enough time to prepare for Kohlberger's trial, which
- 11:08Speaker 1: starts with jury selection in late July. Any contention that
- 11:13Speaker 1: the defendant has been prejudiced or does not have adequate
- 11:16Speaker 1: time to respond is wholly unsupported. Latah County Senior Deputy
- 11:20Speaker 1: Prosecutor Ashley Jennings wrote, in an objection, The defense has
- 11:25Speaker 1: also asserted that their client is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder,
- 11:29Speaker 1: which should preclude the state from being able to seek
- 11:31Speaker 1: the death penalty for Kohlberger. The novel argument hopes to
- 11:35Speaker 1: expand on the U.S. Supreme Court's definition of intellectual disabilities
- 11:39Speaker 1: that prohibit a person convicted of murder from execution because
- 11:43Speaker 1: it would violate their 8th Amendment rights against cruel and
- 11:46Speaker 1: unusual punishment. What about the cruel and unusual punishment inflicted
- 11:50Speaker 1: on the victims? Because if Kohlberger is found guilty, I
- 11:54Speaker 1: don't really give a shit about the cruel and unusual
- 11:57Speaker 1: punishment that he thinks is coming his way. Because if
- 11:59Speaker 1: you're guilty of this heinous crime, then you're lucky it's
- 12:02Speaker 1: only the firing squad that you're getting. Because in my opinion,
- 12:06Speaker 1: anyone that's capable of doing this deserves a much worse
- 12:09Speaker 1: fate than a firing squad. Colleen Berryessa, a criminal justice
- 12:13Speaker 1: professor at Rutgers University, told the statesman that while misconceptions
- 12:17Speaker 1: about autism aren't as pervasive as they once were, they
- 12:21Speaker 1: can be stigmatizing. In a criminal justice setting, they can
- 12:24Speaker 1: lead juries and judges and attorneys to believe someone might
- 12:28Speaker 1: not be able to control their behavior or be rehabilitated.
- 12:32Speaker 1: Such BS. Nobody's buying this. Who's buying this? Maybe if
- 12:35Speaker 1: you had, you know, non-functioning autism... Bro was a PhD candidate.
- 12:40Speaker 1: Graduated from college. Stop it. She pointed to Sandy Hook
- 12:45Speaker 1: shooter Adam Lanza and how his autism diagnosis led to
- 12:48Speaker 1: scapegoating of the disorder and non-neurotypical behavior. Given the nature
- 12:53Speaker 1: of the crime in Kohlberger's case, she added the prosecution
- 12:56Speaker 1: could amplify those negative stereotypes during his trial. If someone
- 13:01Speaker 1: already has assumptions or has stigmas towards people with autism
- 13:05Speaker 1: and they believe them to be violent, the fact that
- 13:07Speaker 1: he is on trial for such incredibly brutal crime, Berryessa
- 13:11Speaker 1: said in a phone interview, unfortunately, might just play that up.
- 13:16Speaker 1: Who thinks that people who have autism are violent? I
- 13:19Speaker 1: never even heard that before. That's crazy. Still legal experts
- 13:23Speaker 1: told the statesman they're skeptical of the defense strategy regarding
- 13:26Speaker 1: Kohlberger's medical diagnosis. They're desperate to get the death penalty
- 13:31Speaker 1: off the table, Daniel Medwood, a criminal justice and law
- 13:34Speaker 1: professor at Northeastern University in Boston, said in a phone interview.
- 13:38Speaker 1: Koberger's autism may act as the defense entry point into
- 13:42Speaker 1: broadening the legal precedent that prohibits people with intellectual disabilities
- 13:47Speaker 1: from facing the death penalty, but Medwood said it's unlikely
- 13:50Speaker 1: they'll win that argument. The fact that he has autism
- 13:54Speaker 1: in and of itself is not going to be a
- 13:56Speaker 1: basis for withdrawing the death penalty, Medwood said, But there's
- 14:00Speaker 1: a strong possibility Koberger's right to a fair trial could
- 14:03Speaker 1: be impacted if the jury isn't informed about his autism
- 14:07Speaker 1: diagnosis and the way it affects him, said Rose Neville,
- 14:10Speaker 1: a licensed clinical psychologist whose research focuses on enhancing evaluations
- 14:15Speaker 1: for people with autism. That could be a real bias
- 14:18Speaker 1: against him, which would be, of course, problematic, Neville said
- 14:22Speaker 1: by phone. Oh, give me a break. So basically what
- 14:25Speaker 1: they're all doing here is is laying the groundwork for
- 14:27Speaker 1: the conviction coming back as guilty, and then during the
- 14:31Speaker 1: appeal using all of this as the basis for that appeal.
- 14:35Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to work out the way
- 14:36Speaker 1: they think it's going to work out. New attorneys added
- 14:40Speaker 1: for each side. Since Kohlberger's last appearance in late January,
- 14:44Speaker 1: the defense and prosecution have both made changes to their
- 14:47Speaker 1: legal teams. The defense added San Francisco-based attorney Bicca Barlow,
- 14:52Speaker 1: who has expertise in forensic DNA evidence cases, She replaced
- 14:56Speaker 1: North Idaho State Public Defender Jay Logsdon, who remained a
- 14:59Speaker 1: consultant for the defense, but not for trial, a February
- 15:03Speaker 1: filing read. Taylor and fellow defense attorney Elisa Massoff remain
- 15:08Speaker 1: as part of Kohlberger's defense team. Then, last week in
- 15:11Speaker 1: a court filing, former Idaho U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit was
- 15:15Speaker 1: formally announced as a new member of the prosecution. State
- 15:19Speaker 1: Deputy Attorney General Madison Allen also was named to the
- 15:22Speaker 1: team to assist with jury selection. So they're bolstering up
- 15:26Speaker 1: both sides, and they're bringing in experts who are well-versed
- 15:30Speaker 1: when it comes to the death penalty. So Jay Logsdon
- 15:34Speaker 1: is taking a step back, but you have Bicca Barlow
- 15:36Speaker 1: stepping in, and she's going to take over this portion.
- 15:40Speaker 1: And as far as the prosecution goes, you have Hurwit
- 15:42Speaker 1: coming on, who is a former federal prosecutor, and then
- 15:46Speaker 1: they're also bringing in the state deputy attorney general, who's
- 15:49Speaker 1: going to help them out with jury selection. However, Madison
- 15:53Speaker 1: Allen isn't going to be part of the actual trial,
- 15:56Speaker 1: just going to be helping out with jury selection. Hurwit
- 16:00Speaker 1: agreed to the post last month with an April 1st
- 16:02Speaker 1: start date, according to the Latah County new hire form
- 16:05Speaker 1: obtained by the statesman through a public records request. Hurwit
- 16:09Speaker 1: is now the lowest paid attorney on the prosecution team,
- 16:12Speaker 1: earning a prorated annual salary of just over $ 99, 000 after
- 16:17Speaker 1: he left the U.S. attorney role in February last In
- 16:20Speaker 1: that federal position, which he is appointed by the president,
- 16:23Speaker 1: he was paid about $ 192, 000 per year. Thompson, who continues
- 16:27Speaker 1: to lead the prosecution, earns nearly $ 120, 000 in annual salary,
- 16:32Speaker 1: while Jennings is paid about $ 104, 000 per year. The statesman
- 16:36Speaker 1: previously reported, Special Assistant Attorney General Jeff Nye, Chief of
- 16:41Speaker 1: the Criminal Division in the Idaho Attorney General's Office, and
- 16:44Speaker 1: also assigned to the case, has an annual salary of
- 16:47Speaker 1: about $ 170, 000. All are expected to be present at this
- 16:52Speaker 1: week's hearings before Hippler at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise.
- 16:56Speaker 1: Wednesday's hearing is set for 9 a.m. Mountain Time, as
- 17:00Speaker 1: is Thursday's if necessary, and both can be watched live
- 17:03Speaker 1: on the court's website. And obviously, we're going to be
- 17:05Speaker 1: watching this, and after we have the hearings wrap up
- 17:09Speaker 1: and we have some new information, we'll get that added
- 17:12Speaker 1: to the catalog as well. But until then, that's going
- 17:15Speaker 1: to do it for this one. All of the information
- 17:17Speaker 1: that goes with this episode... can be found in the
- 17:20Speaker 1: description box.