Idaho murder suspect refuses to enter plea

The man accused of killing four students during a break-in at their home near the University of Idaho declined to plead the charges. Monday, choosing to “stand still” during the first step in what promises to be a lengthy legal process.

Judge John C. Judge said he would enter a not guilty plea for the defendant, Bryan Kohberger, after Mr Kohberger’s attorney, Anne Taylor, said her client had chosen not to enter a plea at this stage. Mr Kohberger has said through a lawyer in the past that he expects to be acquitted.

A trial was set to begin in October in Moscow, the quiet college town in Idaho where no murder had been recorded in the seven years before the four students were murdered on Nov. 13.

Investigators have said in court records they linked Mr Kohberger to the murders using DNA found on a knife scabbard at the crime scene, as well as surveillance video showing a car similar to his near the home around the time of the murder. the murders.

At the time, Mr. Kohberger was studying for a doctorate in criminology at Washington State University, a few miles across the state line from the University of Idaho campus. Prosecutors have not revealed any previous connections between him and any of the four victims — Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20.

In the hours before the murders, Ms. Mogen and Ms. Goncalves were at a bar and stopped at a food truck before returning home. Mrs. Kernodle and Mr. Chapin were at a party.

Investigators said the victims and two other people living in the house were home at 2 a.m. on Nov. 13. Afterward, investigators said, surveillance video showed a white car repeatedly appearing next to the house. Mr. Kohberger drove a white Hyundai Elantra.

Authorities said Mr Kohberger’s mobile phone moved around the region in the early hours of the morning but was disconnected from mobile networks – perhaps it was turned off, they said – for a two-hour period around the time of the murders.

Detectives spent weeks looking for a suspect in the case. They eventually learned that DNA they found on the sheath of the knife was linked to DNA they found at the home of Mr. Kohberger’s family in Pennsylvania, where Mr. Kohberger had gone in early December at the end of the fall semester. gone.

The semester ended with Mr. Kohberger embroiled in unrest on his own campus, where officials were investigating two altercations he had with a professor and complaints about his behavior around women. Mr. Kohberger was fired from his teaching assistant position a few weeks after the murders. He was arrested in Pennsylvania on December 30.

Mr Kohberger’s lawyers had prepared for a lengthy preliminary hearing on the case due to take place at the end of June, but a grand jury indictment last week made that hearing unnecessary. Much of the evidence gathered by prosecutors that could have been made public at such a hearing will instead not be made public for the time being.

Mr Kohberger arrived at the hearing on Monday wearing an orange jumpsuit, cuffs around his ankles. As he looked across the crowded courtroom at a group of the victims’ relatives, they stared at him in silence.

Mr Kohberger repeatedly answered “yes” when asked if he understood each of the charges against him, and if he understood that he could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of each of the four murders.