BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A decide entered not responsible pleas Monday for a person charged within the stabbing deaths of 4 College of Idaho college students, setting the stage for a trial wherein he might doubtlessly face the dying penalty.
The Nov. 13, 2022, killings shocked the agricultural neighborhood of Moscow, Idaho, and prompted many college students to go away campus early, switching to distant studying for the rest of the semester.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested late final yr and charged with housebreaking and 4 counts of first-degree homicide in reference to with the slayings of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at a rental house close to the College of Idaho campus.
Kohberger refused to enter pleas in Latah County District Courtroom, prompting the decide to make them on his behalf.
The decide set the trial date for Oct. 2, though it might be delayed.
He was a graduate scholar learning criminology at close by Washington State College on the time, however prosecutors haven’t launched any details about how he might have chosen the victims or whether or not he had met any of them beforehand.
Police launched few particulars concerning the investigation till after Kohberger was arrested at his mother and father’ house in jap Pennsylvania early Dec. 30, 2022. Courtroom paperwork detailed how police pieced collectively DNA proof, cellphone information and surveillance video that they are saying hyperlinks Kohberger to the slayings.
Investigators stated traces of DNA discovered on a knife sheath inside the house the place the scholars have been killed matches Kohberger, and {that a} cellphone belonging to Kohberger was close to the victims’ house on a dozen events previous to the killings. A white sedan allegedly matching one owned by Kohberger was caught on surveillance footage repeatedly cruising previous the rental house across the time of the killings.
Kernodle, Chapin, Mogen and Goncalves have been buddies and members of the college’s Greek system, and the three ladies lived collectively within the rental house simply throughout the road from campus. Chapin — Kernodle’s boyfriend — was there visiting on the evening of the assault.
Latah County Prosecutor Invoice Thompson now has 60 days to tell the courtroom whether or not he’ll search the dying penalty within the case.