Bryan Kohberger’s defense in Idaho student murder case asks for change of venue for trial

Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students, has formally asked that a trial be held elsewhere than the community where the homicides took place.

Anne Taylor, Kohberger’s lead public defender, followed up on her pledge at a hearing last week to request a change of venue for the capital murder trial. She asked that Judge John Judge of Idaho’s 2nd Judicial District in Latah County to schedule a hearing no earlier than April to receive arguments on the potential move.

“A fair and impartial jury cannot be found in Latah County owing to the extensive, inflammatory pretrial publicity, allegations made about Mr. Kohberger to the public by media that will be inadmissible at his trial, the small size of the community, the salacious nature of the alleged crimes, and the severity of the charges Mr. Kohberger faces,” Taylor wrote.

Merely expanding the size of the jury pool while keeping the trial in Latah County will not “overcome that pervasive prejudicial publicity” to sidestep “bias in the community” because the local population is too small, she added. Taylor filed the formal request Tuesday evening and it posted to an Idaho courts website Wednesday.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson told Judge last week that he opposes a change of venue, stating that Latah County first deserved the chance to seat a jury because the crime occurred there. Moving the trial elsewhere would have no material effect on potential jurors’ familiarity with the case, he said, because it has already gained national and international notoriety.

“It’s not Moscow, it’s not Latah County — it’s everywhere,” Thomson said. “So I don’t think that a change of venue is going to solve any of these problems. The state’s position on venue is that the case should be held here, it’s a Latah County case, we believe that we can select an appropriate panel of jurors from Latah County.”

Thompson indicated, however, that he would be willing to consider moving the trial an hour and a half southeast to the city of Nezperce in nearby Lewis County.

“There’s been a lot of publicity everywhere,” Thompson said. “The only place I’ve heard there wasn’t publicity is in Lewis County. … So if we want to change venue, I guess we could go to Nezperce.”

At Judge’s nudging in response, Thompson acknowledged that Lewis County is “kind of small” and lacked much lodging for the large number of people — attorneys and legal staff, victims’ family members, witnesses, experts, members of the media and the public — who would need to travel in for the future trial.

Lewis County had a population of about 3,500 residents in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It has about 2,200 current active voters, county election director Karen Long told the Idaho Statesman, which acts as a rough equivalency for the maximum possible juror pool.

Latah County, meanwhile, had a population of 39,500 in 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. Its number of current active voters is about 23,500, county elections director Nancy Griffin told the Statesman.

Kohberger, 29, is accused of killing the four U of I students at an off-campus home in Moscow in November 2022. The victims were seniors Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, each 21, junior Xana Kernodle and freshman Ethan Chapin, each 20.

A trial date has yet to be set, with attorneys and Judge saying last week that one was unlikely to start before 2025. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for Kohberger if he is convicted by a jury.