Bryan Kohberger — the suspect accused of stabbing four University of Idaho student to death in their home — is making a last ditch effort to try and have his trial to a new, neutral location.
According to Fox News, Kohberger’s defense team has filed a motion to have his trial moved from Latah County, citing the “mob mentality” within the county where the trial is happening.
Kohberger’s defense argues that the pressure to convict the 29-year-old criminology Ph.D. student is so intense that survey respondents said the community would “burn the courthouse down” if he was acquitted.
“They would probably find him and kill him,” said one Latah County survey respondent, according to the filing.
“There would likely be a riot, and he wouldn’t last long outside because someone would do the good ole’ boy justice,” another respondent said.
A third community member said that there would be “riots” if Kohberger weren’t convicted, and the victims’ “parents would take care of him.”
“The mob mentality within the community if the exact reason that statutory grounds, prior to selecting the jury, exist to move venue,” Kohberger’s defense wrote in the filing. “Given these responses from potential jurors in Moscow and the State’s acknowledgment that a remedy is needed for a jury to be selected, the state recognizes the obvious: an enormous venue problem exists.”
The defense further argued that jurors would be biased by media coverage of the event, which is the “highest” in Latah County and “does not wane.” According to the filing, there are at least 1,300 media stories covering the November 2022 slayings.
Kohberger is accused of killing 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, along with 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. All four suffered multiple wounds from a large knife.
The team also argues that there is a precedent of changing venue in high-profile Idaho cases: the double murder trials of Idaho’s “cult mom” Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell were found guilty of killing Vallow’s two children after their trial was moved out of the county.
Kohberger’s attorneys wrote that the accused quadruple murderer would “gladly agree to venue change to any of Ada, Canyon or Bannock counties,” writing that Ada “is the most rational due to factors of population size, courtroom security and layout [and] cost/convenience.”
Idaho prosecutors have formally objected to Kohberger’s motion to change venue, per a filing signed by Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson and Special Assistant Attorney General Ingrid Bately.
This is an on-going development. Check back for further updates on the trial.