The defense team for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students more than a year ago, has pushed for a summer trial date set in 2025.
This comes after the prosecution pushed for a trial date for this summer, to avoid interfering with Moscow High School and other Moscow students.
In a pretrial court proceeding on Friday, the defense asked the judge to reconsider their earlier motion to dismiss the grand jury indictment against Kohberger. The defense attorney Jay Logsdon argued that the Idaho Supreme Court should decide whether the standard of proof should be set at “beyond a reasonable doubt” or “probable cause.”
Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye, who is a member of the prosecution, argued that even if the defense won the appeal, there would be no positive advancement in litigation and that doing this would put a significant pause in litigation.
Judge John Judge was confident in his prior decision not to dismiss the Grand Jury indictment. He also added that there was no differing opinion on the matter across Idaho. He denied the reconsideration.
The next part of the hearing discussed future trial scheduling. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Tompson said that the prosecution is ready for a summer trial date for this year. Kootenai County public defender Anne Taylor argued that the defense is not ready for a 2024 trial date.
She explained that the defense has more than 51 terabytes of data to review before a trial can happen. She also discussed some of the difficulties surrounding discovery, hiring experts, interviewing witnesses, and alibi defense that would increase the amount of time they would need to prepare for a trial. She stated that a trial date set for the summer of 2025 is the soonest possible date that the defense could be ready for a trial.
The prosecution then stated that Taylor was not exaggerating and was correct about the long waiting times for discovery and data analysis. The prosecution then agreed that a trial date of summer 2025 would be appropriate.
Judge Judge expressed concern about the trial date, stating, “I’d rather have this sooner than later.”
Judge Judge did not officially set a trial date. He also stated, “It’s demoralizing to think we will have a case so far in the future.”
Ben DeWitt can be reached at [email protected] or on X @BenDeWitt123