Surviving Idaho roommate fights against testifying in Kohberger court proceedings
Former criminology PhD student Bryan Kohberger is charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students
A surviving roommate of the University of Idaho stabbing victims is fighting a subpoena requiring her to give evidence in the June court proceedings scheduled for Bryan Kohberger, the 28-year-old Pennsylvania man charged in the deaths of four young co-eds.
Bethany Funke, a Nevada resident, was left physically unharmed at the off-campus residence where Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21, were found fatally stabbed on 13 November 2022. All three female victims had lived at the residence in Moscow, while Mr Chapin – Ms Kernodle’s boyfriend – is believed to have been visiting.
Along with Ms Funke, another roommate, Dylan Mortenson, was home at the time of the murders, which are believed to have occurred around 4am after the students returned to the residence following a night on the town. According to an affidavit, Ms Mortenson opened her door after hearing what sounded like crying “and saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her.”
Ms Mortenson described the figure, according to the document, “as 5/10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows.” He walked past her as she “remained in a frozen shock phase,” the affidavit continued.
Ms Funke has been subpoenaed to give evidence on 28 June during the first week of court proceedings scheduled for the case against Kohberger, who is charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
According to an investigator for his defence team, Ms Funke was “interviewed by police on several occasions ... She disclosed things she heard and things she saw,” Richard Bitonti wrote in an affidavit, according to NBC News.
The investigator also claimed the surviving roommate “has information material to the charges against Mr. Kohberger; portions of information Ms. Funke has is exculpatory to the defendant. Ms. Funke’s information is unique to her experiences and cannot be provided by another witness.”
Lawyers for the college student responded by filing a motion to “quash foreign subpoena.”
“Importantly here, there is no certification by any judge of any court of record in any state (Nevada or Idaho) that clearly states Bethany Grace Funke is a material witness in such prosecution, or grand jury investigation,” Kelli Anne Viloria, an attorney for Ms Funke, argued in documents filed last week in Washoe County and obtained by NewsNation. “A close reading of the certification purported to be from a judge, merely states Ms Funke ‘may’ be a material witness. This [is] insufficient under the law for this foreign subpoena to stand.”
A woman who answered the phone at the office number for Ms Viloria told The Independent on Monday that the attorney would not be commenting further.
Preliminary court hearings for Mr Kohberger are scheduled to begin 26 June in Moscow and are expected to last around a week. His attorney could not immediately be reached by The Independent.
The family of the suspect, who was arrested on 30 December in his home state of Pennsylvania, issued a statement promoting “his presumption of innocence” in the days after he was taken into custody. The murder charges could carry the death penalty in Idaho.