A judge this week declined to throw out key evidence against the man charged in the killings of four University of Idaho students near the campus two years ago. Watch NBC6 free wherever you are. Kohberger, 30, is charged with four counts of murder in the stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, who were killed in the early morning of Nov.
Autopsies showed the four were all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times. The criminal justice graduate student was arrested in Pennsylvania weeks after the killings. Investigators were able to match his DNA to genetic material recovered from the sheath of a knife found at the rental home.
When asked to enter a plea last year, Kohberger stood silent, prompting the judge to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf. The trial was moved from rural northern Idaho to Boise after the defense expressed concerns that Kohberger couldn't get a fair trial in the county where the killings occurred.
Defense attorneys argued that police never sought warrants to analyze the DNA found at the crime scene, nor did they get warrants to analyze the DNA of potential relatives that had been submitted to genealogy databases. She argued the court should suppress the IGG identification and everything that came from it.
Hippler declined the defense's request to toss the evidence. Kohberger was a Ph. He graduated from Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania with an associate of arts degree in psychology in Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted at the trial set to start in August.
