BOISE, Idaho — The judge overseeing the trial of the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students agreed Wednesday that the terms “sociopath” and “psychopath” should not be used to describe him in court but declined to agree with his defense to bar the use of the word “murderer.”
“These murders, whoever committed them, were brutal and horrific,” Ada County Judge Steven Hippler said. “And I suspect the evidence will reflect that.”
The argument over the use of “inflammatory” evidence and words that might prejudice the jury at Bryan Kohberger’s trial kicked off a motions hearing that will shape the proceedings and, if they are successful for his defense, remove the death penalty as punishment. The trial is expected to begin in August.
Prosecutors and the defense team for Kohberger, 30, have clashed in court filings over what should be admissible, sharing new information that has filled in some gaps since the killings in late 2022 stunned the college town of Moscow. A sweeping gag order in the wake of the students’ deaths has prevented many attached to the case from speaking publicly.
Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing housemates Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Xana Kernodle, 20; as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, with a large fixed-blade knife at an off-campus home on Nov. 13, 2022.
Latah County prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted. In recent days, the state has also added another member to its team: Josh Hurwit, the U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho during the Biden administration.
Among the revelations in recent weeks is that Kohberger has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. His lawyers wrote that his autism has “significant impact on his daily life” and that jurors may unfairly scrutinize his reactions in court as he maintains a “flat affect” and “does not show emotion on his face,” among other attributes.
“Due to his ASD, Mr. Kohberger simply cannot comport himself in a manner that aligns with societal expectations of normalcy,” his legal team argued in calling for the death penalty to be stricken as a sentencing option. “This creates an unconscionable risk that he will be executed because of his disability rather than his culpability.”
Prosecutors responded in a filing that Kohberger was shown to be diagnosed with the least severe form of autism that comes “without accompanying intellectual or language impairment” and that he has failed to show his diagnosis “would in any way make him less culpable for murder.”
At Wednesday’s hearing, Kohberger sat flanked by his lawyers, dressed in a blue button-down shirt.
The court did not immediately take up whether the death penalty could be removed from the punishment phase completely, but prosecutors agreed that they would not bring up Kohberger’s autism diagnosis as an “aggravator” to bolster why he deserves the death penalty.
“We have much better evidence” for aggravating factors during the penalty phase, prosecutor Jeff Nye said.
Experts have said challenging the death penalty can be difficult in Idaho, where the law does not allow defendants to mount insanity defenses in criminal cases.
But defendants in other high-profile trials have been successful in getting the death penalty dismissed, including “doomsday mom” Lori Vallow, who was convicted in 2023 in the deaths of her two children and her husband’s first wife. A judge removed the death penalty in her case because of late disclosure of evidence by state prosecutors.
Idaho has not executed anyone since 2012. Legislators legalized death by firing squad as an option in 2023 amid a shortage of lethal injection drugs.
Prosecutors revealed Wednesday they intend to call “a few” of Kohberger’s family members at trial for “certain purposes.”
His defense said his immediate family, who lives in Pennsylvania, would be at his hearings regularly if not for the distance and the cost of traveling.
“I can only imagine Mr. Kohberger’s family is devastated,” Hippler said.
Throughout the hearing, prosecutors and the defense also sparred over descriptions of Kohberger that they want avoided at trial.
Prosecutors intend to show a smiling selfie of Kohberger, which they say was taken roughly six hours after the students were killed, to help jurors determine whether he has “bushy eyebrows.”
That facial feature was provided to police by one of two housemates who survived the night of the killings and said she saw a masked intruder dressed in black walking past her.
But Kohberger’s defense team said Wednesday that it wants to exclude any evidence referring to “bushy eyebrows,” arguing it would be “unfairly prejudicial” to jurors.
Anne Taylor, the lead attorney for the defense, said the roommate who used the term “bushy eyebrows” told investigators she had been drinking since the morning and that she had been intoxicated and was sleepy at the time she saw the intruder.
Prosecutors said that the roommate’s descriptions of the intruder were consistent and that her use of the term “bushy eyebrows” is relevant.
Hippler, however, declined to immediately rule on the use of the phrase.
He also said he would take time before he rules on other motions, including whether text messages between the surviving roommates at the time of the killings and audio from a 911 call made about eight hours later are hearsay.
The texts highlight a chaotic early morning in which the two roommates tried unsuccessfully to call the others, who were on separate floors of the home.
“I’m so freaked out,” one of them wrote.
The defense said in a filing that the messages the prosecution wants to include are selective and that the surviving roommates were also on social media and “were not asleep for 8 hours,” according to phone records.
Hippler also did not immediately rule on another potential element of the trial: a 3-D model of the victims’ home that prosecutors want to introduce.
While prosecutors said Wednesday using the FBI-built model would help jurors understand the layout of the crime scene during testimony, Taylor questioned whether the structure would be accurate to the home since it would not include furniture and other real-life details.
The defense had said in court filings that there is “no connection” between Kohberger and the students and that other men’s DNA was also found at the scene.
How DNA evidence may be used at trial could also emerge at Wednesday’s hearing. Authorities say that DNA was found on a knife sheath at the crime scene and that it is a statistical match to Kohberger’s.
In a court filing, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson wrote that a defense expert’s disclosure revealed that Kohberger’s lawyers will not challenge that the DNA found on the sheath belongs to the suspect. Instead, Thompson wrote, “the defense plans to argue the DNA on the knife sheath does not prove Defendant was ever at the crime scene and the knife sheath itself could have been planted by the real perpetrator.”
Prosecutors said in recent court documents that Kohberger purchased a Ka-Bar knife from Amazon eight months before the murders and that it was the same type of knife sheath found on the bed next to Mogen’s body. The murder weapon had not been recovered, Moscow police have said.
Other motions surrounding Kohberger’s online purchases and prosecutors seeking to prohibit the defense from presenting testimony on the neurological and psychiatric evaluation of Kohberger may also be discussed Wednesday. The hearing could continue into Thursday.
Shanshan Dong reported from Boise and Erik Ortiz from New York.
