Bryan Kohberger trial: New revelations in Idaho student murders case as defense grills lead detective in court

Two days of hearings on defense motions in the quadruple murder case against University of Idaho student stabbings suspect Bryan Kohberger ended without any official decisions but revealed new details ahead of his highly anticipated trial later this year.

The defense appeared to confirm early reports that Kohberger was spotted wearing rubber gloves in his parents' kitchen when tactical officers burst in to arrest him. A key eyewitness was accused of having memory problems, drinking and telling a conflicting story. 

The defense confirmed that Kohberger arrived at school in Pullman, Washington, in June 2022. And the judge issued a stern warning to both sides about what he expects out of their expert disclosures moving forward.

Judge Steven Hippler said he would take the arguments under advisement and issue his decisions later. Here are some key developments from the two-day hearing.

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Is there an expectation of privacy regarding DNA left at a crime scene?

Kohberger's defense wants investigative genetic genealogy evidence suppressed. Their arguments, however, did not appear to move the judge.

"I struggle with the idea that DNA left at a crime scene, that there's any expectation of privacy," Judge Steven Hippler told Kohberger's lead defense attorney, Anne Taylor.

Later, as she tried to attack other elements of a probable cause affidavit, he returned to DNA as the apparent deciding factor.

Hippler asked if DNA itself found on a knife sheath under a victim's body isn't enough to support probable cause on its own.

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"Isn't that probable cause every day and twice on Sunday?" he asked.

She said not in this case, but experts say the DNA evidence is likely Kohberger's greatest threat.

"The cellphone records certainly make him look bad, although the fact that the phone was turned off at the time of the murders helps him," said Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago attorney who has been following the case. "But I think the DNA sinks his Bismarck."

Trouble with the eyewitness?

Taylor called into question the credibility of an eyewitness, a surviving housemate who police said saw a masked man leaving after overhearing sounds of a struggle.

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Despite the massacre, she went to bed. Police weren't contacted until hours later, when a friend called 911 from one of the survivors' phones late in the morning.

In one of her statements to police, as read by Taylor in court, she said the following:

"I don't know if this was real or if my mind was just, like, playing with me," Taylor said. "But, from what I think I heard, someone was crying in the bathroom."

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The witness also said she heard a specific victim running up and down the stairs. But, according to Taylor, she couldn't have, because that victim was killed in an upstairs bed. 

And a footprint outside the witness's bedroom door, Taylor said, was not repeated anywhere else in the home. She questioned why it was even included in the police affidavit.

Latah County Deputy Prosecutor Ashley Jennings defended the eyewitness, telling the court the most important thing that came from her in the probable cause affidavit was her description of the suspect as a White male, slender and tall. And that part of her story never changed.

DNA from two unknown males

Taylor told the court police recovered two other DNA samples from unknown males, one on a handrail and one on a glove outside. 

With the source of the DNA in question, she said it could mean Kohberger is not related to the crime at all.

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Hippler seemed unconvinced as Taylor tried to argue this invalidated the probable cause used to arrest her client.

"His DNA is still on the knife sheath though. That's the problem, counsel," he said.

Countdown to Kohberger's arrest

Prior to Kohberger's arrest at his parents' house in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, the FBI arranged to have a local trash collector snag his family's garbage and deliver it to them for testing, the court heard.

Lead detectives in the case were in Pennsylvania at the time but watched local authorities conduct the tactical raid via a video feed broadcast from a drone, Payne testified.

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Jay Logsdon, one of Kohberger's defense attorneys, questioned the legitimacy of a SWAT raid on the home and said police "snipers" had been watching Kohberger walking around inside the house. He brought up the arrest of White supremacist mass shooter Dylann Roof, but Hippler cut him off before he could illustrate a point.

"As they explained in their own affidavit, they're essentially watching Mr. Kohberger as he moves around his house, via snipers," Logsdon said. "They were quite safe, and there was simply no reason to bash the doors in momentarily after yelling from their BearCat."

"There's two issues," Judge Hippler interjected. "There's officer safety. There's also destruction of evidence concerns."

Logsdon downplayed concerns that law enforcement thought Kohberger would have destroyed any evidence.

"The only thing they knew is that he's walking around room to room and that he's got kitchen gloves on," Logsdon said.

"That's not all they knew," Hippler said, adding he would not go into further detail in the open court session. 

Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson said there were additional details known to law enforcement that were "quite incriminating" and justified the rapid entry. 

"They had a no-knock warrant, signed by a judge, that allowed them to enter Kohberger’s residence using means they deemed reasonably construed to ensure both the integrity of evidence and officer safety," said Paul Mauro, a former NYPD inspector who has been closely following the case.

"Whether they were watching him with snipers or not has no legal bearing. These strike me as collateral, dilatory tactics by the defense.

"Get on with it."

Kohberger's shopping list

The defense argued that investigators improperly obtained Kohberger's Amazon history without a warrant. Prosecutors countered that a business record with a third party is not protected by an expectation of privacy.

Logsdon called the U.S. a "panopticon," essentially a large prison with few guards, and a surveillance state and warned that privacy rights needed to be protected.  

Experts say Amazon is allowed to voluntarily provide the records as part of established case law.

"That's an uphill climb for the defense," Stoltmann told Fox News Digital. 

The results

Hippler said he had not yet decided whether the defense will receive a Franks hearing but told both sides to send him a list of available dates within the next three weeks.

His decisions on most of the other motions are expected to be announced in the near future. In response to a defense request that the court either order prosecutors to hand over additional expert witness disclosures or face sanctions, Hippler said both sides should "over-disclose."

"A word of caution," he said. "Sometimes there's dissonance between what an expert thinks they're gonna talk about and what the lawyer understands from that expert."

Kohberger is scheduled for trial later this year in the home invasion murders of Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

At the time of the murders, Kohberger was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at nearby Washington State University, about 10 miles across the state line. The victims were all undergrad students at the University of Idaho.

Latah County Judge John Judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger's behalf at his arraignment in May 2023. He could face the death penalty if convicted.