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UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO | DEAD STUDENTS
In the days immediately following the tragedy that claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students about a year ago, memorials composed of flowers and mementos symbolizing the victims spontaneously emerged in grim Moscow, Idaho.
One of them is the entrance to the site of the homicides, a space on King Road with unique architecture that has temporarily become nationally recognizable. Another hung from the thin wooden tables outside the center’s Mad Greek restaurant, where two of the academics worked.
For months, giant white candles dedicated to each of the four victims (Maddie, Kaylee, Xana, Ethan) have become a constant among other pieces left as tributes. The eternal flames kept their memories alive, reminding passersby of the lives lost. .
One night in mid-January, Isla Lester, a waitress at the Greek restaurant, took a few moments among the customers to scribble the letters K-A-Y-L-E-E in orange marker on the side of a chilled candle. She took it outside to check in for 3 others that were already lit up as a souvenir. A sign hung in the window that read “call for help. “
By August, nine months after the massacres, the candles had gone out. Inside the restaurant that expired last month, next to a frame with now-family photographs of the four students, a sign told customers: “Believe there’s something smart in the world. “”.
A year after the students’ deaths, Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of their murders, remains in custody. But the case remains largely unsolved and without a trial date, pending closure decided by the victims’ families. Prestige of the case:
Kohberger is facing four murder charges
Kohberger, 28, faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of trespassing on Nov. 13, 2022, the deaths of University of Idaho scholars Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20. At the time, Kohberger was a graduate student at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, about nine miles west of Moscow.
Kohberger was arrested in late December in eastern Pennsylvania in connection with the fatal stabbings. His arrest ended a nearly seven-week manhunt that garnered attention nationwide.
Four days later, in early January, Kohberger agreed to travel to Idaho to face the charges.
He made his first appearance at the Latah County Courthouse on Jan. 5.
An initial hearing was scheduled for June, but was canceled after a grand jury indicted him in May. Kohberger was arraigned the following week, where Judge John Judge pleaded not guilty on his behalf.
The judge, of Idaho’s second judicial district in Latah County, opted to uphold a gag order issued through a justice of the peace. Attorneys for the prosecution, defense, witnesses, and families of victims are not allowed to talk about the case outside of court documents. As prosecutors, members of law enforcement also have no right to speak about their investigation.
Trial postponed indefinitely
Kohberger last gave that impression in court in early November. The ruling provided prosecutors and their public defense team with an update after first ruling that the defense deserved to obtain at least some of the DNA records produced through the FBI that aided investigators. Identify your consumer as suspicious.
The ruling set Dec. 1 as the deadline for the FBI to turn over its files to prosecutors. From there, it will review the records and make a final decision on which ones will be turned over to the defense as part of the legal process. A procedure known as discovery.
Kohberger’s murder trial was indefinitely postponed after he waived his right in August for it to begin within six months of the entry of a plea. His trial was originally scheduled to start the first week of October.
Prosecutors already have stated their intent to seek the death penalty for Kohberger if he is convicted by a jury. Idaho is one of 24 U.S. states that maintain active capital punishment.
Kohberger’s Alibi: He Went Alone
In early August, the defense presented Kohberger’s alibi. They said their consumer “used to go for walks alone” and “often walked at night. “
The defense said Kohberger was on one of the routes the night of last year’s murders (Nov. 12-13) and there were no explicit witnesses to say where Kohberger was at the time of the killings.
“We already knew, and if that’s their alibi, so be it,” Latah County District Attorney Bill Thompson told the court in August. “We’ll settle for what the defendant said: he was driving a car,” stipulating that he won’t be able to say later in the trial, he said. Kohberger had in the past refused to provide a pretrial alibi after the state requested it, and his defense argued that the move to provide an alibi was an attempt through the state to “force the defense to open its records of hard work products and let the state take a look inside. “
Kohberger’s defense said the alibi filed regarding Kohberger’s driving habits is the only one that can be “firmly stated” for now.
Cameras Allowed in the Courtroom
Judge is banning members of the media and the public from using cameras and audio recording devices in the courtroom, saying they jeopardize the defendant’s right to a fair trial. He said the court would, however, operate a livestream, available on its YouTube channel, that would ensure members of the public can observe the proceedings.
The court had allowed data cameras in the courtroom during the hearings under strict conditions, but granted Kohberger’s lawyers’ request to ban them. The court wrote that some of the photo and video reports had focused on Kohberger. , despite his instructions that the footage showed the entire courtroom, and that some footage showed him entering or leaving the courtroom, despite orders that the footage would only be taken when the courtroom was being recorded and not during recess.
University of Idaho plans to demolish home
The university had originally planned to demolish the King Road space where the four students died after a donation to the school through its former owner.
The University of Ottawa planned to raze the space early in the fall semester in August, but after two postponements, there is still no set date for its demolition. University spokeswoman Jodi Walker told The Statesman that the school would wait until at least the end of the fall semester, which ends in mid-December.
The latest heist allowed the FBI and prosecutors to return to the King Road home in early November to download more “materials for building visual and audio exhibits, as well as the physical style of the house,” the university said in a news release.
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