Attorney: Kohberger was on nighttime drive during murders
Docs filed Wednesday say suspect was driving around Palouse, but wasn’t in Moscow
MOSCOW — Bryan Kohberger’s attorney claims the murder suspect was out driving the morning four University of Idaho students were murdered in November 2022, but he was not near the Moscow crime scene.
Public defender Anne Taylor filed details about Kohberger’s alibi defense Wednesday in Latah County District Court.
In it, Taylor wrote that Kohberger often took nighttime drives to hiking destinations around the Palouse. When his classes and work as a graduate students at Washington State University made him busy, he decreased his hiking and running, but didn’t stop.
“Instead, his nighttime drives increased,” according to the document.
In the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, when victims Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were killed in their King Road house, Taylor claims Kohberger was driving throughout the area south of Pullman and west of Moscow. This includes Wawawai Park, which she says was his favorite hiking destination.
The defense plans to offer testimony from Sy Ray, an expert who can explain how Kohberger’s mobile device shows his vehicle did not travel to Moscow on Nov. 13, 2022.
Thus, she wrote, his vehicle could not be the one captured on video along the Moscow-Pullman Highway near Floyd’s Cannabis shop.
Taylor wrote that additional information, including more analysis by Ray, will be provided once the prosecution provides evidence that has been requested.
“If not disclosed, Mr. Ray’s testimony will also reveal that critical exculpatory evidence, further corroborating Mr. Kohberger’s alibi, was either not preserved or has been withheld,” Taylor wrote.
According to the probable cause affidavit that detailed the police investigation into Kohberger, cell data showed him in Moscow near the King Road residence on at least 12 occasions between June and Nov. 13. Almost all of those occasions occurred in the late evening and early morning hours.
This data did not show his cellphone being used near the King Road residence between 3-5 a.m. Nov. 13, but the affidavit stated criminals may leave their phone at another location or turn their phone off prior to committing a crime.
The data did allegedly show him taking a route to and from Moscow consistent with a white Elantra police saw on video footage.
Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.
