Idaho college murders: Trial will be moved to Ada County, state Supreme Court orders
The trial of the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students will be moved out of the county where the killings took place in late 2022 to more than 300 miles south, the Idaho Supreme Court ordered Thursday.
The decision to transfer the trial to Ada County, home to Idaho's capital, Boise, came days after Latah County District Judge John Judge ruled in favor of lawyers for Bryan Kohberger, who argued a trial in Latah County would be unfair.
At the end of a change of venue hearing last month, Judge said that it would be the “most difficult decision” of his career and that he would study the law and arguments before he rules.
Judge in his order said he ultimately based his decision to change venues on “presumed prejudice” if the trial were to remain in Latah County.
The state Supreme Court also said in its ruling that the case would be reassigned to a new judge in Ada County, Steven Hippler, and Kohberger would be transferred into the custody of the Ada County Sheriff's Office.
Latah County prosecutors are still expected to remain on the case through the trial.
Lawyers for Kohberger, 29, had called defense experts who said that potential jurors from Latah County would most likely have biased views of the case because of the intense media coverage and that they would be unable to provide an impartial verdict.
Defense attorneys argued there is a severe “mob mentality” against Kohberger in Latah County, and, in a filing, they included some of the reactions they said they received from a telephone survey conducted as part of a request to move the trial.
According to the defense expert who conducted the survey, one respondent said, “There would likely be a riot and he wouldn’t last long outside because someone would do the good ole’ boy justice.” Another remarked: “They’d burn the courthouse down.”
Kohberger’s public defender, Anne Taylor, argued that coverage of the case is “not a mere passing story.”
“The content is not benign, rather, it is inflammatory, emotion-evoking and often misleading, false, and poorly sourced,” she wrote in a filing.
In his ruling, Judge agreed with defense experts’ testimonies that research has shown the best way to shield against a potentially biased jury is to change venues.
Given Latah County’s smaller population of 41,000, of which just over half are eligible to serve on a jury, Judge said “it is far more likely” that residents there would have connections to someone involved in the case, making it “more likely” that they would have discussed it — and thus it would be “more difficult to make the identities of jurors private.”
“While the issue of extensive, sensationalized coverage is not unique to Latah County,” Judge added, “it is potentially more impactful given the volume of coverage coupled with the smaller population.”
Judge identified other concerns with keeping the trial in Latah, including a modestly staffed sheriff’s office handling security for the high-profile case; the small number of court clerks in Latah County, who would have to oversee a jury selection process that would involve a pool of about 6,000 people; and a county courthouse lacking sufficient space.
The “interest of justice requires that the trial be moved to a venue with the resources, both in terms of personnel and space, necessary to effectively and efficiently handle a trial of this magnitude and length so that the parties and the Court can focus on the case and not on peripheral issues,” Judge wrote.
Prosecutors argued against moving the trial, but in previous court filings they also offered a compromise for it to convene in Nez Perce or Kootenai counties, which are closer to Latah County.
Some relatives of the four students killed — Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — have said they don’t want the trial to be moved because the local community deserves to be part of the jury.
The Goncalves family said Monday it was “incredibly disappointed” in Judge’s ruling.
“The only good thing about this decision is it will be Judge Judge's last decision in this case,” the family said in a statement, adding, “If the judge knew Latah County could not handle this trial for safety reasons, not enough court clerks, logistics and lacking space, why did we waste over a year in a county he knew was not going to handle the trial. The points he mentioned didn’t all of a sudden jump up and bite him in the rear.”
Moscow police announced the arrest of Kohberger more than a month after the four friends were fatally stabbed early Nov. 13, 2022, at an apartment house on the edge of the University of Idaho campus. Kohberger was a resident of nearby Pullman, Washington, and then a doctoral student at Washington State University.
A not guilty plea on four counts of first-degree murder and burglary was entered on his behalf in May 2023; a possible motive for the murders remains murky. The trial is tentatively set for next June.
Judge has said his trial could last about three months.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted, but Kohberger’s defense said in a filing last week that capital punishment would violate the U.S. Constitution. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Nov. 7.
The prosecution anticipates providing DNA evidence, details about cellphone use and security videos to connect Kohberger to the crime.
Kohberger’s defense has suggested that he often went on late-night drives and that cellphone tower data would show that he had been doing so miles away when the four students were killed.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com