Bryan Kohberger’s lawyers in Idaho murders case ask for more time to make alibi decision
Bryan Kohberger is asking an Idaho judge to give him more time to decide whether to offer a formal alibi as part of his defense, according to new court documents.
Kohberger’s public defender, Anne Taylor, filed a motion Friday arguing his team had not had enough time to review the “voluminous” evidence produced by the prosecution.
Since the time of Kohberger’s arrest over the stabbing murders of four University of Idaho students in November last year, the prosecution has turned over some 51 terabytes of data as part of the discovery process.
This includes “thousands of pages of discovery, thousands of photographs, hundreds of hours of recordings, many gigabytes of electronic phone record and social media data,” according to the court records.
Taylor argued in her motion that deciding now on whether to offer an alibi would be “at a minimum, premature as wading through the extensive information that makes up the case is incomplete,” reported ABC News.
The Latah County Prosecutor’s Office demanded Kohberger’s notice of alibi after his May 22 court appearance on murder charges stemming from the Nov. 13, 2022, killings of Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, at their rental home in Moscow, Idaho.
Idaho law dictates that a defendant in a criminal case has 10 days to respond to the prosecution’s demand for a notice of alibi, but a judge can extend the deadline.
The huge data cache comes after revelations that cops swept through huge amounts of data in their search for the killer, including all surveillance data recorded on UPS delivery trucks in the area where the killings took place and the account information of 19 people who had matched with one of the victims on dating app Tinder. Authorities also sought extensive information about all the people who had bought a murder weapon like the knife used to kill the four students from Amazon, according to report in the New York Times.
Kohberger was arrested in late December after traveling to Pennsylvania to spend the holidays with his family.
“The defense needs time to make this determination and consider evidentiary rules,” Taylor wrote.
The defense’s motion went on to say that if the judge is not “inclined to grant” the request for more time, Taylor is seeking a hearing to present evidence or testimony in support of the motion.
Latah County District Judge John Judge has yet to rule on Taylor’s motion.
Judge is also expected to issue a decision on a gag order that a coalition of more than 30 media organizations has asked him to suspend, arguing that it violates the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Kohberger, dressed in a suit and tie, appeared in court Friday for a hearing concerning the gag order, which his lawyers argued prevented prejudicial news coverage that could damage their client’s right to a fair trial.
The former criminology PhD student is set to go on trial on Oct. 2.
