In a recent development that has dealt a further blow to the families of the victims, the judge presiding over the murder trial of Bryan Kohberger in Idaho has consented to a change of venue.
Kohberger's defense had argued that an unbiased jury would be unattainable in the county where the murders took place, going as far as to suggest that Kohberger would be 'lynched' if acquitted in Latah County.
According to the Daily Mail, Judge John C. Judge has approved the request for a change of venue, leaving the final decision on the trial's new location to the state's Supreme Court. The trial is slated for June 2025. This decision marks the latest in a series of setbacks in the protracted legal proceedings surrounding the brutal murders that took place in November 2022.
The Goncalves family, one of the victims' families, had expressed their desire for the trial to remain in Moscow. Steve Goncalves, father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, stated his faith in the community, saying, "I have total faith in the people of this community. Theyre not biased. Theyre gonna figure it out."
In his decision, Judge Judge cited the Latah County courthouse's inadequacy for a trial of such magnitude and duration. He also pointed to the 'extensive negative publicity surrounding Kohberger.' Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, is facing four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves.
The defense team argued that the intense emotions and constant news coverage in the tight-knit community would make it impossible to find an impartial jury in the small university town where the murders occurred. Prosecutors, on the other hand, proposed that potential bias could be mitigated by calling a larger pool of potential jurors and conducting thorough questioning.
The defense's first witness, James 'Todd' Murphy, president of media tracking company Truescope, testified that news coverage of the case has been more concentrated in Latah County than in other parts of the state. He revealed that while Latah County comprises about 3 percent of the states population, it accounted for about 36 percent of the media exposure to the case.
Prosecutors countered that the survey data did not provide compelling evidence to warrant moving the trial. Special Assistant Attorney General Ingrid Batey argued that at certain points, Ada County, where Boise is located, had higher levels of media coverage than Latah County. Batey suggested that potential bias and pressure could be managed by summoning larger jury pools and restricting public access to parts of the jury selection process and other hearings. She assured the judge that the court could summon 1,800 potential jurors in Latah County just as easily as in Ada County.
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