Judge sets June 2025 trial date for Bryan Kohberger, suspect in Idaho college murders
A district court judge has set a June 2025 start date for the criminal trial of Bryan Kohberger, the suspect accused in the murders of four students at the University of Idaho in 2022. Both the defense and prosecuting attorneys agreed to the court's proposed trial schedule during a hearing in Latah County, where the killings happened, on Thursday. Kohberger appeared at the hearing.
Latah County District Judge John Judge said he anticipates the trial will last three months. That would account for two weeks of jury selection, eight weeks of the trial itself, and another two weeks for the verdict, sentencing and anything else remaining, he said.
Kohberger, 29, is charged for allegedly breaking into the off-campus home of former University of Idaho students and roommates Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, early one morning in November 2022. He is accused of stabbing the three students to death along with Ethan Chapin, 20, who was Kernodle's boyfriend and was with them in the house.
At the time of his arrest in Pennsylvania about six weeks after the students were slain, Kohberger was a teaching assistant and Ph.D. candidate in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, which is a short drive from the University of Idaho campus in Moscow. He was extradited back to Idaho within weeks of being taken into custody and now faces charges that include four counts of capital murder and another count of burglary.
Kohberger's defense and the prosecution have engaged in a slow back and forth, with the scheduling hearing being the first significant development in legal proceedings in quite some time.
The suspect's public defender, Anne Taylor, reiterated that the defense does not support his trial taking place in Latah County. There is another hearing set for Aug. 29 to deliberate a change of venue. A deadline for the defense to file motions challenging the death penalty, which prosecutors are seeking in this case, will come shortly after on Sept. 5.
Judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger's behalf to all of the charges brought against him during an arraignment in May of last year. He appeared at the arraignment but did not respond to the judge when asked how he would plead.
Kohberger is being held without bond in Latah County.