ADA COUNTY, Idaho (Scripps News Boise) — Bryan Kohberger’s attorneys have submitted an array of motions to suppress evidence in the case.
In the motions filed last week, the defense asks the court to suppress any evidence obtained by police during and after his arrest in Pennsylvania, arguing the warrant “lacked probable cause as written, given its heavy reliance on conclusions reached by law enforcement without the details necessary for the magistrate to draw its own conclusions.”
Bryan Kohberger, facing first-degree murder charges in the deaths of four University of Idaho students, is taken by sheriff’s deputies from the Monroe County Courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pa., Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. (Steven M. Falk/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Kohberger’s attorneys are also trying to dispute law enforcement’s use of his genetic evidence, claiming it was “illegally gathered.” The defense also claims that the warrants used to gather evidence, including for Kohberger’s car, home, cell phone and more, were invalid.
“Without [investigative genetic genealogy] IGG, there is no case, no request for his phone records, surveillance of his parents’ home, no DNA taken from the garbage on his driveway, in a gated community, under a garbage collection ordinance. Because the IGG analysis is the origin of this matter, everything in the affidavit should be excised,” they argued.
“Mr. Kohberger requests this Court to suppress all evidence obtained by police via the warrant that permitted them to search his parents’ home,” the defense wrote in one of the motions. “Law enforcement failed to knock and announce before raiding the home, and the warrant lacked probable cause as written, given its heavy reliance on conclusions reached by law enforcement without the details necessary for the magistrate to draw its own conclusions […] Any statements made by Mr. Kohberger are the fruit of the poisonous tree of the illegal arrest.”
The documents allege Kohberger was zip-tied after a no-knock warrant was served at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, and was then surrounded by police at gunpoint.
“Law enforcement did not mirandize him immediately. Instead, they waited until after he was transported in a police car, handcuffed, with at least two officers in the car,” the defense argued.
The state has until Dec. 6 to respond to Kohberger’s motions, then the defense has until Dec. 20 to respond. A hearing on the discovery motions is scheduled for Jan. 23, 2025, in Ada County.
Kohberger appeared in court earlier this month as his defense team argued motions to strike the death penalty from the case. The judge has not yet released his decision.
This story was originally published by Scripps News Boise, an E.W. Scripps Company.
