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Murder In Moscow: Bryan Kohberger Fails To Convince The Court To Toss His Indictment · Beyond The Horizon

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the previous two episodes, we were talking about the Brian
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Kohlberger order that was just filed by Judge Judge. And
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  Speaker 1: that order had to do with Brian Kohlberger's attempt to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: get the indictment that was passed down against him by
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  Speaker 1: the grand jury tossed out. And the reasoning behind it,
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  Speaker 1: according to Kohlberger's team, was that there were many mistakes
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  Speaker 1: made by the grand jury. But the judge, after taking
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  Speaker 1: a look at everything that went down and all of
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  Speaker 1: the information that he had in front of him, decided
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  Speaker 1: that what the grand jury did was not only above board,
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  Speaker 1: but it was right in line with the statutes of
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  Speaker 1: the state law. And for Kohlberger, that eliminates one more
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  Speaker 1: avenue of possibly getting out from underneath these charges. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I never thought that he'd be successful here getting this
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  Speaker 1: stuff thrown out. There was no precedent for it, right?
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  Speaker 1: And if there's no precedent for something in a courtroom,
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  Speaker 1: very rarely are you going to see a judge make history.
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  Speaker 1: And we didn't see that here. So let's dive into
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  Speaker 1: this article from the Idaho Statesman and let's see what
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Fixler has to say. Headline, Judge in Idaho murder
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  Speaker 1: case rules on whether to toss Kohlberger grand jury indictment.
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  Speaker 1: Like I said, this article was authored by Kevin Fixler.
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  Speaker 1: The Latah County judge in the University of Idaho student
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  Speaker 1: murder case threw out all attempts by the defense to
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  Speaker 1: toss grand jury indictment of defendant Brian Koberger, shutting the
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  Speaker 1: door on delaying a future trial on those grounds. And
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  Speaker 1: like I said previously, there was no way that this
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  Speaker 1: was going to occur. There was just too much information,
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  Speaker 1: too much evidence, and too much out there for a
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  Speaker 1: judge to go against what a grand jury has already decided.
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  Speaker 1: Judge John Judge of Idaho's 2nd Judicial District issued his
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  Speaker 1: written decision late Friday to deny the defense team's request
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  Speaker 1: to dismiss the indictment on five legal grounds, including that
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  Speaker 1: the prosecution committed misconduct because it allegedly withheld evidence from
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  Speaker 1: the grand jurors. Judge's rulings were published to Idaho's court
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  Speaker 1: website Monday morning. And that's what we went over in
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  Speaker 1: the previous two episodes. That way you all have the
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  Speaker 1: actual order in front of you and then we'll go
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  Speaker 1: from there breaking it down, right? That way we have
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  Speaker 1: all of the facts, we have all of the details,
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  Speaker 1: and as much context as we possibly can have in
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  Speaker 1: front of us. Because without context, forget it. Especially in
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  Speaker 1: a case as complex as this one. In one decision,
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  Speaker 1: Judge dismissed the defense request to discard the indictment on
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  Speaker 1: four separate arguments, each debated during a closed-door hearing in
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  Speaker 1: October to protect the confidential information. as grand juries are
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  Speaker 1: an intentionally secretive judicial process. The defense had alleged prosecutorial misconduct,
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  Speaker 1: bias from the local grand jury, use of improper evidence,
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  Speaker 1: and the lack of sufficient evidence to indict Koberger in
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  Speaker 1: the killings of four college students. The victims were U
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  Speaker 1: of I seniors Madison Mogan, Kaylee Gonsalves, both 21, and
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  Speaker 1: junior Zanna Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20. They
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  Speaker 1: were stabbed to death at an off-campus home on King
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  Speaker 1: Road in Moscow. Judge accepted none of the defense's arguments
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  Speaker 1: to dump the grand jury indictment, and I never thought
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  Speaker 1: he would. Considering there were no grounds for any of
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  Speaker 1: the defense's arguments, it was going to be a monumental
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  Speaker 1: task to try to get these indictments tossed, and that's
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  Speaker 1: exactly what it proved to be. There was no way
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  Speaker 1: that Judge Judge, with all of the information that's already
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  Speaker 1: been provided with everything we know, was going to toss
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  Speaker 1: this shit out. It was just never going to happen.
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  Speaker 1: Koberger has failed to successfully challenge the indictment on grounds
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  Speaker 1: of juror bias, lack of sufficient admissible evidence, or prosecutorial misconduct,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote. Koberger was indicted by an impartial grand jury
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  Speaker 1: who had sufficient admissible evidence to find probable cause to
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  Speaker 1: believe Koberger committed the crimes alleged by the state. And
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how you could come to any conclusion.
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  Speaker 1: And that's just on what we know. Imagine what was
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  Speaker 1: presented to the grand jury in secret. And I've said
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  Speaker 1: it before, I have a sneaking suspicion that Brian Koberger's
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  Speaker 1: Wi-Fi might have connected to somebody's router in in the
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  Speaker 1: area of the King Road home. Now, I don't have
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  Speaker 1: any evidence to back that up, but it's just a
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  Speaker 1: suspicion that I've had from the very beginning. And while
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  Speaker 1: pings off of cell phone towers are circumstantial at best,
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  Speaker 1: if you're connecting to somebody's Wi-Fi from your mobile device,
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  Speaker 1: you're next to their house, right? There's only a certain
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  Speaker 1: range that those Wi-Fi receivers have. So, you know, you
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  Speaker 1: get out of the range of one of those routers
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  Speaker 1: and you're not going to be able to pick it up.
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  Speaker 1: So that means you were in the vicinity, very close
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  Speaker 1: to the location. So if they have GPS coordinates of
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  Speaker 1: his phone connecting with one of these routers, it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be all bad for Brian Koberger. And remember, we
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  Speaker 1: don't have all of the evidence. We don't know everything
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  Speaker 1: that the prosecution is holding. So my guess is they
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  Speaker 1: have a lot more than we have even seen. Judge
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  Speaker 1: noted in the order that his ruling on these four
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  Speaker 1: grounds will remain sealed but provided the results of his
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  Speaker 1: decision for the public's benefit. He acknowledged in his Friday
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  Speaker 1: court filings having reviewed sealed grand jury transcripts, recorded audio,
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  Speaker 1: and jury questionnaires to help make his decision. The defense
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  Speaker 1: has access to the same information, he wrote. The closed
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  Speaker 1: October hearing was one of two held that day to
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  Speaker 1: consider a number of legal arguments posed by the defense.
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  Speaker 1: The other hearing was left open to the public. At
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  Speaker 1: the second hearing, Judge issued an oral ruling from the
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  Speaker 1: bench concerning the defense's effort, quickly dismissing the argument from
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  Speaker 1: Koberger's attorneys that there was an error in the instructions
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  Speaker 1: given to the grand jury. They had argued that the
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  Speaker 1: indictment should be based on a higher legal threshold of
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  Speaker 1: beyond a reasonable doubt, the same as at trial. versus
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  Speaker 1: the Idaho grand jury standard of probable cause, but failed
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  Speaker 1: to convince the judge to support their claim. And as
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  Speaker 1: we talked about in the order, it's very difficult. Once
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  Speaker 1: there's precedent set, and especially if the statutes say something
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  Speaker 1: differently than your argument, you're not going to have a
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  Speaker 1: very fun time. And ultimately, you're going to lose that
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  Speaker 1: debate with the prosecution or the defense, because the judge
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  Speaker 1: is going by what the statutes of the state tell
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  Speaker 1: him he has to go by. Hail Mary legal argument.
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  Speaker 1: The argument made by Koberger's defense for the higher standard
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  Speaker 1: for a grand jury to indict was seen by legal
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  Speaker 1: experts as unlikely to succeed. Retired Idaho Supreme Court Chief
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  Speaker 1: Justice Jim Jones described the effort as some kind of
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  Speaker 1: Hail Mary thing, the statesman previously reported. Well, yeah, look,
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  Speaker 1: when you don't have much to go on, this is
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  Speaker 1: what you have to do, right? You have to throw
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  Speaker 1: as much spaghetti against the wall and hope some of
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  Speaker 1: it sticks. And that's what Kohlberger's team continues to do,
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  Speaker 1: looking for any chink in the armor that they can exploit.
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  Speaker 1: Jay Logsdon, one of Kohlberger's public defenders, signaled in his
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  Speaker 1: public comments before the court in October that the defense
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  Speaker 1: was aware tossing the indictment in favor of a preliminary
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  Speaker 1: hearing was a tall order. As your honor let me
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  Speaker 1: know this morning, we're probably not going to change your
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  Speaker 1: mind because the Idaho Supreme Court I think the court thinks,
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  Speaker 1: has gone the other way, Logsdon told Judge during the
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  Speaker 1: afternoon public hearing. And once that happens, like I stated earlier,
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  Speaker 1: it's very difficult to shake a judge off of that
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  Speaker 1: perch because precedent is huge. Boise-based criminal defense attorney Edwina
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  Speaker 1: Elcox predicted Judge's rulings related to the indictment. While there
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  Speaker 1: was a novel legal theory asserted, it just didn't comport
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  Speaker 1: with the entire jurisprudence of the state. Elcox told the
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  Speaker 1: statesman by phone on Monday. I'm not saying there's not
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  Speaker 1: a reason to obviously challenge things, but it would mean
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  Speaker 1: that both the judiciary and criminal law practitioners have gotten
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  Speaker 1: it wrong and there was no legal basis for it.
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  Speaker 1: And that's where I'm at, too. You should be able
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  Speaker 1: to challenge whatever you want, right? If there's a basis
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  Speaker 1: for a challenge and you're on trial for your life,
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  Speaker 1: you should have every remedy available to you. But Brian
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  Speaker 1: Koberger and his team, no matter what they do, they're
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  Speaker 1: going to have a very difficult time because of the sheath.
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  Speaker 1: That sheath containing Brian Koberger's DNA on it is going
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  Speaker 1: to cause them more misery than you can possibly imagine.
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  Speaker 1: So what they're trying to do is reach for any technicality,
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  Speaker 1: any loophole, to try and make sure that that doesn't happen.
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  Speaker 1: And so far, they have been unsuccessful. Koberger, who turned
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  Speaker 1: 29 last month, was arrested at his parents' home in
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  Speaker 1: eastern Pennsylvania in December. He's charged with four counts of
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  Speaker 1: first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in the
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  Speaker 1: November 2022 homicides and faces Idaho's death penalty if convicted.
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  Speaker 1: Koberger was arraigned in May after the grand jury indicted
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  Speaker 1: him on five felony charges following its secret proceedings over
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  Speaker 1: three days earlier in the month. He stayed silent when
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  Speaker 1: Judge asked him to enter a plea, which led the
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  Speaker 1: judge to enter it as not guilty on Koberger's behalf.
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  Speaker 1: And remember, he did that so that he could challenge
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  Speaker 1: this grand jury ruling. That was the basis for him
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  Speaker 1: standing silent, at least according to all of the legal
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  Speaker 1: experts that commented on it. So usually you see somebody
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  Speaker 1: get up there and enter a plea on their own behalf, right?
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  Speaker 1: How do you please so-and-so? Your Honor, I plead not guilty.
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  Speaker 1: But that didn't happen with Kohlberger. Kohlberger, at the time
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  Speaker 1: of the killings, was a graduate student at Washington State
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  Speaker 1: University in Pullman, was previously scheduled to go to trial
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  Speaker 1: in early October. That was postponed after he waived his
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  Speaker 1: right to a speedy trial in August, delaying the legal
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  Speaker 1: proceedings indefinitely. And as we all know, A trial date
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  Speaker 1: still has not been set. So we're still going through
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  Speaker 1: the motions, right? And unfortunately, due to the complexity of
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  Speaker 1: this case, it's going to take a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: time for things to wind down. And during that time,
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  Speaker 1: there's going to be a lot of arguments, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of attempts made by Brian Koberger to, you know, get
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  Speaker 1: stuff thrown out. to get a witness tossed, whatever. And
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  Speaker 1: that's because when it comes down to the evidence, they
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  Speaker 1: know that they're cooked. So it's going to be a
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  Speaker 1: battle of loopholes and technicalities. And unless Brian Koberger can
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  Speaker 1: find a loophole or a technicality to utilize and grab
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  Speaker 1: hold of, Brian Koberger, in my opinion, is as good
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  Speaker 1: as convicted. All right, folks, that's going to do it
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  Speaker 1: for this one. All of the information that goes with
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  Speaker 1: this episode can be found on In the description box.