The former lawyer of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger suggested “holes” in the police’s evidence list could undermine the prosecution’s case against the PhD student. Kohberger was charged with four counts of first-degree murder in connection to the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at their home in Moscow, Idaho in November. Pennsylvania lawyer Jason LaBar, who represented Kohberger in his extradition trial,
Following an interview with Mr LeBar, reporter Brian Entin highlighted the attorney suggested Kohberger’s defence team “can have a field day” dismantling the prosecution’s probable cause argument.
Mr LeBar said: “I have been talking about the biggest evidence and going step by step because the defence is going to attack each part of the evidence separately, really, because the case is really based upon circumstantial evidence.
“There’s no direct evidence against Bryan. So, there are cases in the hole, where the defence will be attacking each piece of evidence individually. I believe at least that would be my trial strategy.
“So if you talk about the sheath being found in the room, you have DNA recovered from the button of the closure of the sheath.
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“What you can say about that is it’s transferred DNA, it’s touch DNA. That DNA could be on there. Nobody knows how long, if undisturbed, certainly could be a year, it could be longer.”
The Pennsylvania lawyer told NewsNation: “Experts going to testify that obviously it was placed on there because Bryan touched it, but they can’t say when he touched it.
“Now, there could be additional evidence that comes out about that sheath, one being it could be actual DNA on it.
“State police executed a search warrant for Bryan’s blood when they were here in Pennsylvania, and we don know if that’s additional evidence that may come out there’s unidentified blood on the sheath in addition to the sheath, the knife itself obviously not found, but we don’t have the results of the autopsy.
“So we don’t know if it’s consistent with a straight-edge weapon or not. Certainly, that would change my feelings about the affidavit of probable cause, too.”
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“What if he had a friend in the area he was going to visit? There may have been a very innocent reason for why he may have been in the area.”
She added: “You don’t know. For us, that’s not enough.”
Kohberger’s phone was picked up by a cell tower showing it had started moving south through the town of Pullman, Washington, at 2.47AM on the night of the murder before either being turned off or dropping off the network.
The Idaho murder suspect was a PhD student at Washington State University, Pullman which is located 9.4 miles away from Moscow.
The initial coroner’s report said Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin were murdered between 4AM and 4.20AM.
The suspect’s phone was picked up once again at 4.47AM on Idaho State Highway 95, south of Moscow.
The cellphone tower’s record then shows Kohberger returning home at 5.30AM. Less than four hours later, his phone pinged again near the murder scene in Moscow.
