Why is Bryan Kohberger trying to get his Idaho murders trial moved?

A ‘fair and impartial jury cannot be found in Latah County,’ defence attorneys have argued

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students, is returning to court today as he seeks to move his highly-anticipated trial to a different venue.

On Wednesday, a judge will consider last month’s request from Mr Kohberger’s lawyers that the trial be moved to tap into a different jury pool outside of Latah County, Idaho — where the brutal murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin took place.

His attorneys wrote that a “fair and impartial jury cannot be found in Latah County” due to the “extensive, inflammatory pretrial publicity,” the severity of the charges and the “salacious nature” of the alleged crimes. They added that the population is too small to “avoid bias in the community”.

Prosecutors responded in a filing calling the change of venue request “premature” and saying that it lacks information to support that a jury could “not fairly and impartially” decide the case. The prosecution added that “publicity is not a stand-alone reason” for a court to change the trial venue.

On Wednesday, lawyers are also expected to discuss sealed genetic evidence to which the defence is trying to gain access – and potentially set a trial date.

On 1 February, Mr Kohberger’s defence attorney asked the court to grant three criminal investigators access to the investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) materials.

“This request is grounded in Mr. Kohberger’s 6th Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel and counsel’s ongoing duty to investigate the case brought against Mr. Kohberger,” his lawyer wrote. “Access to these materials is necessary to investigate how and when Mr. Kohberger was identified as a suspect.”

Bryan Kohberger, right, is escorted into a courtroom to appear at a hearing in Latah County District Court in September 2023 in Moscow, Idaho

The state objected to this request, taking issue with unnamed “criminal investigators,” asking for them to be named “at a minimum”. Prosecutors also accused the defence of neglecting to make an “adequate” argument as to why they needed access to these materials.

The four students were brutally stabbed to death in an-off campus home in November 2022. The weapon, a military-style knife, has never been found however a knife sheath was found near one of the victims. That sheath contained a piece of DNA which was then matched to Mr Kohberger, according to authorities.

The DNA was compared to trash found at the Kohberger family home in Pennsylvania, eventually leading to Mr Kohberger’s arrest.

“The FBI went to work building family trees of the genetic relatives to the suspect DNA left at the crime scene in an attempt to identify the contributor of the unknown DNA,” court documents said.

Through a DNA comparison, Mr Kohberger was found to be a “statistical match” with the sheath DNA, the records state.

Mr Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one burglary charge.