Bryan Kohberger Faces Double Court Date

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused in the murders of four University of Idaho students, will return to court on Friday in another bid to have his indictment thrown out.

Kohberger, 29, is charged with four counts of murder and one count of burglary in connection with the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. The four were found fatally stabbed in an off-campus rental home near the university site in Moscow on November 13, 2022.

Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University in nearby Pullman at the time of the slayings. He was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania in December 2022 after investigators pieced together DNA evidence, cellphone data and surveillance video that they say linked him to the crime.

The judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger's behalf last year. He faces the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors are seeking a trial date in the summer.

Kohberger's attorneys sought to throw out the grand jury indictment against Kohberger last year, alleging that the prosecution improperly withheld evidence from grand jurors. They also argued that the jurors were biased and that there was insufficient evidence to justify the indictment.

Judge John Judge rejected their arguments in December, but he will hear arguments in motions to reconsider his previous orders on Friday.

A closed-door hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. PT to hear arguments regarding the motion seeking to dismiss the indictment on the grounds of a biased grand jury, inadmissible evidence, lack of sufficient evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.

"This hearing will be sealed and closed to the public to protect the privacy of the grand jurors and the grand jury's procedures," Judge wrote in an order on December 28.

At the same time, arguments will be heard on Kohberger's bid to unseal the motion to reconsider orders denying motions to dismiss the indictment. Those proceedings will also be closed to the public "to protect the privacy of the grand jury proceedings," Judge wrote in an order on Tuesday.

Another hearing is also scheduled at 1 p.m. to hear arguments on the order denying the motion to dismiss the indictment for inaccurate instructions given to the grand jury. That hearing is open to the public.

After arguments in that hearing conclude, a scheduling conference will be held that will also be open.

In a December 15 ruling rejecting Kohberger's bid to have his indictment tossed, Judge wrote that his defense attorneys had "failed to successfully challenge the indictment on grounds of juror bias, lack of sufficient admissible evidence, or prosecutorial misconduct."

Kohberger "was indicted by an impartial grand jury who had sufficient admissible evidence to find probable cause to believe Kohberger committed the crimes alleged by the State," he wrote. "Further, the State did not engage in prosecutorial misconduct in presenting their case to the jury."

A gag order imposed in the case bars the prosecution, defense attorneys and law enforcement officials from discussing it.