Judge says 3 witnesses sought by Kohberger must testify in trial over Idaho students’ stabbings
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania – A Pennsylvania judge ordered on Monday that three people whose testimonies were requested by defense lawyers will have to go to Idaho to appear during the trial of a man accused of having stabbed four students in 2022.
The defense assignments were granted concerning a boxing coach who knew Bryan Kohberger in adolescence, Kohberger’s knowledge of childhood and a third man whose meaning was not explained.
Kohberger, 30, who was arrested at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, weeks after the murders in November 2022, is accused of sneaking in a rental home in Moscow, Idaho, not far from the University of Mogène and Kaylee Gconcals, Madison Moge and Kaylee.
The deaths shocked the rural community of Idaho and a neighboring Pullman, Washington, where Kohberger was a student graduate studying criminology at the Washington State University.
A prison official came to court with Kohberger suspension files in the Correctional Establishment of the County of Monroe after his arrest, although the assignment hearing has been prosecuted because he must always provide a declaration reaching their authenticity.
The joint plead judge Arthur Zulick also continued the hearing for a assignment to Ralph Vecchio, which has a car dealer where the parents of Kohberger bought a Hyundai Elantra in 2019, for a week.
There was an uncertainty as to whether the assignment addressed Vecchio or his father, who owned the company at the time of purchase. The judge said that witness assistants to appear would also be involved next week.
A sixth witness hearing had already been postponed for next week due to a travel conflict, and the seventh person requested by the defense agreed last week to go to Idaho for the trial which should start in August.
Brandon Andreola made it without success that his assignment should be canceled, saying that he is the only family support for his family and that worried advertising could have fun losing his job.
Andreola said that his “relationship with Bryan Kohberger was minimal and distant from high school”, their last “significant interaction” in 2020, two years before the stabs.
“If I went out there, I think the attention will be several times higher than the attention I have already received,” said Andreola.
Jesse Harris said he had trained Kohberger at the age of 15 or 16 in a boxing gymnasium, but does not think of having a testimony that will help the case. Harris also said that a parent’s health problems were a problem and that it was necessary to manage a small construction business.
Zulick approved the summons for Andreola and Harris, as well as a third for the witness Anthony Summé, who did not oppose it. Zulick said Harris can go back to his courtroom if his family’s health problems become an obstacle to Harris’ ability to go to Idaho.
The Kohberger trial on four murder leaders and a burglary chief is on the right track to start on August 11 in Boisse, Idaho, after a judge refused the request of his lawyer late last week.
Prosecutors ask for the death penalty.
In a legal file, his lawyers said Kohberger was on a long trip alone when the four had been killed.
Kohberger was silent when he charged him, which prompted a judge to plead on his behalf.
A gag prescription largely kept lawyers, investigators and others to speak publicly about the investigation or trial. The lawyer for the defense team at the County Justice Palace on Monday on Monday, Abigail Parnell, refused to comment.
