Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger has offered up an alibi in a bid to prove his innocence after four students were stabbed to death in their college home.
Kohberger, 28, has claimed through his attorneys that he was out driving on the night of the quadruple killings on November 13, 2022 – as he often did to ‘see the moon and stars.’
He is accused of massacring University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
In a newly released court filing, his lawyers said that his demanding schedule lecturing at Washington State University meant he didn’t have time for his normal hobbies of running and hiking.
Instead, he claims to have taken up driving at nighttime as a pastime, and says that phone records will show he frequently drove around the countryside near Wawai County Park in Whitman County.
Prosecutors say they tracked Kohberger’s phone to near the home where he allegedly murdered the students, however his attorneys also say they plan to present an expert on cellphone information to dispute this.
Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger has offered up an alibi in a bid to prove his innocence after four students were stabbed to death in their college home
Kohberger is accused of murdering University of Idaho students (L-R) Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle on November 13, 2022
Last year, Kohberger’s legal team had claimed that he was out driving alone on the night of the murders, but declined to offer specifics.
As the victim’s families spoke out over ongoing delays, a judge ordered a Wednesday deadline to provide more details, after previously saying the excuse of driving alone was insufficient – branding it a ‘so-called alibi.’
Now, Kohberger’s lawyers say they have further details of the alibi, but claimed that prosecutors haven’t shared more discovery information as requested.
They claim that without the discovery evidence, the cellphone expert’s testimony will ‘also reveal that critical exculpatory evidence, further corroborating Mr. Kohberger’s alibi, was either not preserved or has been withheld.’
Kohberger is next due in court on May 14, when a judge will decide over a change of venue motion from his attorneys, who claim the fervent attention around his case in the area would impact jury impartiality.
When Kohberger was arrested in December 2023, over a month after the slayings, cops said a key piece of evidence was a white Hyundai seen in surveillance footage driving to and from the site of the killings that matched Kohberger’s car.
However, Kohberger’s alibi filing claims that cellphone expert Sy Ray will offer testimony that shows his cellphone did not travel towards the home, and ‘thus could not be the vehicle captured on video.’
Along with the surveillance footage, another key piece of evidence put forward by prosecutors is Kohberger’s DNA allegedly found on a knife sheath left behind at the massacre.
The families of the victims have shared their frustration at the unending delays, with the mother of Kaylee Goncalves (left, with Madison Mogen) saying: ‘It’s gut-wrenching how slow everything has to go. Why does this have to be so drawn out?’
Boyfriend and girlfriend Ethan Chapin (left) and Xana Kernodle (right) were slain in bed together in the gruesome murders in November 2022
Prosecutors allege that a white Hyundai matching one owned by Kohberger was seen in surveillance footage fleeing the scene of the crime
Kohberger’s legal team have come under fire from the families of his alleged victims, amid claims they are using delay tactics to help his chances at trial, which remains in its preliminary stages over two-and-a-half years after the slayings.
Although he was initially set to stand trial in the spring of 2024, the repeat delays saw a judge in February push the court date back to at least the spring of 2025.
‘The victim families are really the sufferers with these delays,’ former FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer told DailyMail.com after the trial was pushed back for the third time.
‘Unfortunately, it looks like we’re still years away from trial.’
In December, after another previous delay, the mother of victim Kaylee Goncalves said the ongoing process has been ‘gut wrenching.’
‘It’s gut-wrenching how slow everything has to go. Why does this have to be so drawn out?’ Kaylee’s mother Krisi said in an interview with KHQ.
‘It’s important, I get it, but there are facts, we have certain facts, we have certain knowledge. I can’t believe that this is how it works.’
The off-campus home where the four grisly murders took place was torn down in December amid the delays, despite calls from the victims’ families to keep it standing
In December, Idaho officials again came under fire after the off-campus home where the four students were stabbed to death was torn down, against the victim’s families’ wishes.
Although both prosecution and defense agreed for it to be torn down, the families argued against it, with Goncalves’ loved ones fearing the move would ‘destroy one of the most critical pieces of evidence in the case.’
On the night of the murders, the four victims and their friends had been enjoying a typical night out at local college bars, and Mogen and Goncalves were last seen buying carbonara pasta from a takeout truck shortly before they returned home at around 2am.
Chapin and Kernodle had spent the evening at his Sigma Chi fraternity house, and arrived home at around the same time.
After the white Hyundai was initially seen lurking around the home earlier in the evening, it was again spotted on surveillance footage just over an hour after the friends arrived home.
At that moment, Kernodle appears to have still been awake as she had just received a DoorDash order.
Investigators also determined that she had been playing TikTok at around the same moment the white Hyundai was seen performing a three-point turn in the street outside, at 4.04am.
Kohberger’s phone had been turned off in Pullman at 2.47am, where he lived around 10 miles from the murder house in Moscow, and turned back on again at 4.48am south of Moscow, on the route back to Pullman.
The victim’s surviving roommate, Dylan Mortensen, later told police she was also awake at the time, and even heard what was likely the sounds of the murders taking place in the room upstairs.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk