Bryan Kohberger's defense team has secured a cell phone data expert who will allegedly show that Kohberger was nowhere near the house in Moscow, Idaho where four college students were killed on the night in question.
Kohberger, 29, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection with the fatal stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. The four University of Idaho students were found dead in an off-campus home on November 13, 2022.
Kohberger was hiking or star gazing that night, his lawyers have now claimed in court.
A defense affidavit filed in court on Wednesday states that Kohberger told his lawyers he "was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars. He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho including Wawawai Park."
Cell phone data expert Sy Ray will testify about Kohberger's cell tower data on the night of the murders, according to the affidavit.
Ray will testify that "Bryan Kohberger's mobile device was south of Pullman, Washington and west of Moscow, Idaho on November 13, 2022; that Bryan Kohberger's mobile device did not travel east on the Moscow-Pullman Highway in the early morning hours of November 13th, and thus could not be the vehicle captured on video along the Moscow-Pullman highway near Floyd's Cannabis shop."
Police obtained footage of a white Hyundai car, similar to Kohberger's, traveling on the Moscow-Pullman road after the killings.
Kohberger was studying and living in Pullman, Washington, at the time.
Ray is a well-respected cell phone data expert who has been used as a prosecution witness in several high-profile cases, in which he was able to show that a suspect's mobile phone was near the scene of a murder.
The former police detective will give defense evidence for the first time at Kohberger's trial.
Under Idaho law, lawyers for an accused must disclose alibi evidence to the court if they intend to use it at trial. That gives time for prosecutors to rebut the evidence if possible.
On Wednesday, Kohberger's defense team, led by attorney Anne Taylor, filed a document in court responding to the state's demand for an alibi.
The affidavit states that prosecutors must disclose more phone data evidence and if they don't, Ray will present evidence to show that vital evidence has been withheld or lost.
"If not disclosed, [Ray]'s testimony will also reveal that critical exculpatory evidence, further corroborating Mr. Kohberger's alibi, was either not preserved or has been withheld," the affidavit says.
The affidavit states that on the day of the murders, Kohberger's cell pinged near his off-campus Washington State University apartment at 630 Northeast Valley Road at 2:42 a.m.
At 2:44 a.m., Kohberger was seen on surveillance footage from Washington State University "traveling north on southeast Nevada Street at northeast Stadium Way."
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Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more
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