Prosecutors in the case of the 2022 University of Idaho murders say their defense counterparts plan to argue that a knife sheath with their client’s DNA found at the scene could have been planted there.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson made the comment this week, deep in a response to one of the defense’s many motions attempting to have evidence against Bryan Kohberger thrown out. But, Thompson noted, the defense has not presented experts who plan to argue that the DNA might not belong to their client. Instead, their expert contends that “there is good support that Mr. Kohberger’s DNA” was found on the sheath.
“Instead of challenging the conclusion that the DNA on the knife sheath belonged to Defendant, the defense’s expert disclosures reveal that the defense plans to argue the DNA on the knife sheath does not prove Defendant was ever at the crime scene and the knife sheath itself could have been planted by the real perpetrator,” Thompson wrote.
The defense’s original motion is sealed, so it’s not possible to compare what they actually wrote with Thompson’s contention, other than the short snipped quoted above regarding the “good support” that the DNA on the sheath did, in fact, belong to the defendant.
Kohberger is charged with the November 13, 2022, murders of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves at an off campus apartment. He was arrested about six weeks later at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, where he had gone for the Christmas holidays, and after genetic investigation pointed them in that direction.
While the defense has argued to exclude the genetic evidence, the state has countered that investigators only used it as a tip and used more more in depth investigation to pinpoint their suspect.
Kohberger’s trial is expected to begin in August.
