RENO, Nev. (Court TV) – One of the two roommates who survived a quadruple murder inside an Idaho home is fighting a request from the defendant to appear at the preliminary hearing on his behalf.
Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in the deaths of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their rental home. The bodies of Megan Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found on Nov. 13, 2022.
A private security officer sits in a vehicle, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, in front of the house in Moscow, Idaho where four University of Idaho students were killed in November, 2022. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Bethany Funke is one of the two people who were inside the home at the time of the killings and survived. Documents filed in Nevada and obtained by Court TV show that Kohberger’s defense attorney filed a subpoena requiring Funke to testify at the June 26 preliminary hearing.
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The affidavit included with the subpoena is from a private investigator hired by Kohberger’s defense team, who said, “Bethany Funk (sic) was present at the home eight (8) hours later when police were called, arrived on scene and discovered the homicides. During the course of my investigation, it became known to me that Bethany Funke has information material to the charges against Mr. Kohberger; portions of information Ms. Funke has is exculpatory to the defendant. Ms. Funke’s information is unique to her experiences and cannot be provided by another witness.”
An attorney representing Funke filed a motion to quash the subpoena, arguing that the “statements are conclusory, without support and there is no further information or detail pertaining to the substance of the testimony, its materiality or the alleged exculpatory information of Ms. Funke or why it would be entertained at a preliminary hearing.”
Funke’s attorney further argued that Nevada statutes require a hearing before a resident can be subpoenaed out-of-state so a judge can determine whether the witness is necessary.
“Moreover, there is no authority for an Idaho criminal defendant to summon a Nevada witness to Idaho for preliminary hearing. There is also no authority for an Idaho criminal defendant to summon a Nevada witness to an Idaho matter without a hearing and there is no authority to summon a Nevada witness to an Idaho matter without a Nevada Judge making a finding of materiality, necessity and the lack of undue hardship.”
The other surviving roommate, Dylan Mortensen, was not mentioned in the subpoena.
