A lawyer for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, said the prosecution is withholding key evidence in the case, CBS News reports.
Kohberger’s lead attorney, Anne Taylor, contends that the state has not provided the defense team with the full video that allegedly shows Kohberger’s vehicle near the Moscow home where the killings occurred.
Taylor also said the limited video clips the state has provided lacked audio.
“This is the video that they say places this car near the residence. We’re received little tiny pieces of that and we think Bryan’s right to a fair trial means the public needs to know that they’ve withheld the audio from a great portion of that and that it starts a long time before the little clip that we received,” Taylor said at a recent court hearing, according to CBS News.
Additional court hearings are scheduled for later this month, including one expected to address whether the trial should be moved out of Latah County because of pre-trial publicity.
At the time of the slayings, the 28-year-old Kohberger was a criminology Ph.D. student at the nearby Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. DNA links Kohberger to a knife sheath found at the crime scene, but his lawyers contend he was not at the house and was instead driving around alone on the night of the killings.
A judge last year entered a plea of not guilty on Kohberger’s behalf for four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
When Kohberger will go to trial has yet to be determined. His trial was expected to start in October 2023 but has been delayed indefinitely after he waived his right to a speedy trial.
Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson has said that his office planned to seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted.
[Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, listens during his arraignment hearing in Latah County District Court, Monday, May 22, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. (Zach Wilkinson/The Moscow-Pullman Daily News via AP, Pool)]