Suspects in the murder of students in Idaho Bryan Kohberger Attorneys are asking a Boise judge to “sanction” the prosecutors for what his defense team calls “inadequate discovery” through the discovery process, seeking to have the experts excluded from the case as a legal remedy.
“Most of the state’s expert reports do not include opinions and reports. These inadequate disclosures greatly prejudice Mr. Kohberger who is required to submit expert testimony in the guilt phase of the defense by January 23, 2025,” Kohberger’s attorneys Anne Taylor, Jay Logsdon and Elisa Massoth wrote in a court filing. . “The sanctions contemplated must be disbarment of the expert or, at a minimum, an order requiring proper discovery and an extension of Mr. Kohberger’s term until January 23, 2025.”
Without discovery, they argued, they have no idea what expert evidence to prepare for the court battle.
IDAHO MURDER: BRYAN KOHBERGER INVESTIGATED FOR ANOTHER HOME INVASION BEFORE CAMPUS MURDER
Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for a hearing, Aug. 18, 2023, at the Latah County Courthouse in Moscow, Idaho. (August Frank/Pool via REUTERS)
While prosecutors released 25 expert witnesses, Kohberger’s defense says they only received five expert reports, none of which involved DNA.
“This is a a case of capital murder and nothing about it is clear,” the lawyers wrote. “The technical issues are complex, involving many different aspects of DNA, cell data, cell tower coverage and driving tests, car identification, crime scene and blood spatter analysis, fingerprint analysis, forensic pathology and analysis of electronic devices of suspects, victims and alternative suspects and accounts on social networks.”
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Saving Kohberger’s life would be a major victory for the defense.
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Kohberger’s team also had a deadline today for their own findings.
“They have a point,” said David Gelman, a New Jersey defense attorney and former prosecutor who followed the case. “If they violate ‘Brady,’ which means they have to, they don’t have to, but they have to turn over all the evidence, whether they consider it irrelevant or not.”
Bryan Kohberger (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital/File)
But it’s not as simple as the defense getting everything it asks for.
“If the state doesn’t have possession or the evidence just isn’t there and the defense just wants it, then you can’t sanction the state,” he said. “What’s going to pop out of thin air? It will, of course, be the devil if the state has it and hasn’t secured it yet, especially since the matter is more than a year old.”
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The court could impose tougher sanctions than those already sought by the defense, said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who is also following the case closely.
“There’s a strategic reason why the defense does this: If the judge agrees that the prosecution has not met its discovery obligations, he can sanction the prosecution,” he said. “And one of those sanctions could be the withdrawal of the death penalty.”
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared a day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
It wouldn’t be the first time this has happened in a high-profile Idaho case involving multiple homicide victims.
“That’s what happened in the recent case of doomsday cult mom Lori Vallow in Idaho,” Rahmani said. “The judge in that case overturned the death penalty because of the prosecution’s delay in turning over evidence. Saving Kohberger’s life would be a huge victory for the defense.”
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Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and aggravated burglary in connection with the November 2022 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students.
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Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were killed in a 4 a.m. home invasion at a six-bedroom home just steps from campus.
Two housemates survived, including one who told police she saw a masked man with “shaggy eyebrows” come out the back door after hearing the sounds of a struggle.
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At the time of the murders, Kohberger was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at nearby Washington State Universitywhich is about 10 miles across the state line.
