A pretrial hearing for Idaho quadruple murder suspect Bryan Kohberger that was scheduled for Friday has been postponed due to a reported illness.
In a court filing on Thursday, lawyers for Kohberger requested an order from the court “vacating the Defendant’s Motion hearings set for September 22, 2023 at 10:30AM and 1:00PM and resetting the Defendant’s Motions for October 26th, 2023.”
The Idaho Statesman reported that the hearing was postponed due to an unknown illness citing a spokesperson for the Idaho courts system. According to the newspaper, a Latah County District Court supervisor did not provide any further information on the illness, such as who specifically became ill. Newsweek reached out to the Idaho courts via email for further information and confirmation on the reporting.
The report on Thursday comes amid ongoing battles between Kohberger’s attorney and the Latah County Prosecutor’s office regarding aspects of the trial and the grand jury indictment.
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Earlier this year, Kohberger was indicted by a grand jury on charges including four counts of murder in the first-degree and one count of felony burglary. Kohberger, 28, was arrested following the November 2022 fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students: Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20 and Xana Kernodle, 20, in an off-campus residence.
Over the past few months, Kohberger’s legal team has sought to have the grand jury indictment thrown out. The suspected murderer has maintained his innocence and during his arraignment, he stood silent when the charges against him were read, which resulted in the judge overseeing the case to enter not guilty pleas on Kohberger’s behalf.
In a filing last month, Kohberger’s attorney and Kootenai County Chief Public Defender Anne Taylor motioned to have the grand jury indictment dismissed “on grounds of a biased grand jury, inadmissible evidence, lack of sufficient evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct by withholding exculpatory evidence.”
The grand jury indictment found a “statistical match” between Kohberger’s DNA taken while in custody and a DNA profile found on a knife sheath that was found at the scene of the murders. However, one of Kohberger’s attorneys, Jay Weston Logsdon, filed a motion in June saying that “there is no connection between Mr. Kohberger and the victims.”
“There is no explanation for the total lack of DNA evidence from the victims in Mr. Kohberger’s apartment, office, home, or vehicle,” Logsdon said. “Through the lack of disclosure and their motion to protect the genetic genealogy investigation, the state is hiding its entire case.”
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson previously announced that the state intends to seek the death penalty in Kohberger’s case, but the quadruple murder suspect recently waived his right to a speedy trial, postponing the previously scheduled trial start date of October 2.
Newsweek reached out to Taylor and Thompson via email for comment.
