The new judge overseeing next year’s trial of the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students has moved back its tentative start date to August from June.
Ada County District Court Judge Steven Hippler’s order, dated Tuesday, comes after suspect Bryan Kohberger made his first appearance in a Boise court on Sept. 26.
The judge wants the trial to begin Aug. 11 and said it could run through Nov. 7, including a penalty phase if Kohberger is convicted.
A previous judge agreed with Kohberger’s defense lawyers who requested to move the trial venue to Idaho’s capital about 300 miles away from Latah County, arguing potential bias in jury selection if it is held in the same small college town where the killings occurred in November 2022.
After a series of delays in the case, the previous judge wanted the trial to begin in June of next year so that it could run through the summer in Latah County and avoid coinciding with students in school and becoming a distraction for them.
But Hippler said at Kohberger’s first hearing last month in Boise that a June start could influence jury selection, as possible jurors contend with their summer plans and the start of school for those with young children.
Ann Taylor, Kohberger’s public defender, also told Hippler that she would need more time to process additional discovery and get a new defense witness up to speed after a previous one died.
At the hearing, Hippler set the ground rules for defense lawyers and Latah County prosecutors as they navigate his courtroom in the high-profile case.
“I expect for you at all times to remain civil to each other, that you not engage in personal attacks, ad hominem attacks, that you not engage in theatrics, not misstate facts or the law to the court,” Hippler said.
The judge must still decide whether the death penalty can be among the punishment for Kohberger, 29, if he is found guilty in the killings of the four college students: Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20.
A hearing remains scheduled for next month to discuss allowing for the death penalty.
The four friends were fatally stabbed in an off-campus apartment house in Moscow. Kohberger, a resident of nearby Pullman, Washington, and then a doctoral student at Washington State University, was arrested more than a month later, with prosecutors saying DNA evidence, cellphone use and security videos can connect him to the crime.
A potential motive remains unclear, and Kohberger’s defense denies he was involved.
