A flurry of court docket filings within the quadruple homicide case in opposition to Bryan Kohberger reveal the suspect purchased a knife on Amazon months earlier than the killings and the victims’ surviving roommates texted household and have been energetic on social media earlier than calling 911.
The newly launched paperwork illustrate how the protection and prosecution try to get their most helpful proof submitted within the case in opposition to the person accused of killing 4 College of Idaho college students in an off-campus dwelling in 2022. A not-guilty plea has been entered on Kohberger’s behalf.
The prosecution’s new filings present Kohberger, a 30-year-old former graduate scholar in criminology, had bought a military-style knife, a sheath and a knife sharpener on Amazon within the months main as much as the killings.
The state’s filings additionally embody a selfie believed to be taken by Kohberger on the morning of November 13, 2022, simply hours after the killings. The selfie reveals the suspect smiling on the digicam and giving a thumbs-up gesture.
However the protection launched its personal tranche of latest proof this week, highlighting telephone information from the morning of the killings displaying the 2 surviving roommates waited about eight hours from the time they perceived one thing suspicious to once they known as 911.
The protection took situation with what they known as the prosecutors’ selective use of surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke’s telephone information from early that tragic morning.
The protection requested the decide to both ban prosecutors from displaying the state’s choice of messages to the jury or permit extra telephone information to be admitted at trial.
‘Nobody is answering … I’m freaking out’
A spate of textual content messages between Mortensen and Funke revealed worry and panic after they couldn’t attain their roommates round 4:22 a.m., in response to a recent filing by the prosecution.
Investigators consider Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were killed between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m.
Round 4:22 a.m., Mortensen texted Funke: “Nobody is answering.” Funke replied: “Ya dude wtf.”
Mortensen then texted Funke saying she noticed what regarded like a masked man of their home. “I’m freaking out,” Mortensen wrote.
Funke later texted Mortensen: “Come to my room” and “run.”
Information beforehand launched by prosecutors counsel Mortensen tried to achieve others in the home once more round 10:23 a.m., solely after “waking up and realizing that she had not heard from her roommates.”
However the brand new protection submitting suggests the surviving roommates have been awake and utilizing social media hours earlier.
Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen have been killed in an off-campus dwelling close to the College of Idaho. – Obtained by CNN
Snapchat, Instagram and a number of other calls to household earlier than dialing 911
Kohberger’s attorneys say after Mortensen joined Funke in her room, their telephone exercise was darkish for less than about three hours.
The surviving roommates additionally accessed Snapchat and Instagram between 4:22 a.m. and 4:37 a.m., the protection submitting says.
Funke and Mortensen have been each utilizing their telephones once more by round 8 a.m., the brand new protection submitting claims.
The protection listed particulars of Funke’s and Mortensen’s social media and name exercise within the hours following their housemates’ deaths. The court docket paperwork determine Funke and Mortensen by their initials within the timeline, which included:
7:30 BF calls dad
8:00 BF calls dad
8:00 BF calls one other quantity
8:01 BF calls dwelling
8:02 BF calls mother
8:09 dad calls BF
8:05:43 – 10:00:45 DM on Instagram
8:41-8:42 BF takes images
9:04:36 mother texts BF
10:00:56 – 10:01:40 DM messages, incoming and outgoing (Snapchat)
10:01:53 – 10:03:05 DM on Instagram
10:03:30 – 10:04:02 DM on Certainly
10:04:54 – 10:23:02 DM messages, incoming and outgoing (Snapchat)
Within the movement, Kohberger’s attorneys dispute the prosecution’s claims that Mortensen woke as much as notice her roommates hadn’t responded to her texts in a single day.
Mortensen tried to achieve Goncalves and Mogen once more beginning at 10:23 a.m., asking them in the event that they have been awake: “R u up??”
The brand new protection submitting says Mortensen used Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok and texted her dad hours earlier than she reached out to Mogen and Goncalves once more. The timeline included telephone exercise comparable to:
10:23:23 DM textual content MM
10:24:01 – 10:25:04 DM on Instagram
10:30:18 – 10:45:43 DM messages, incoming and outgoing (Snapchat)
10:56:49 – 11:29:08 DM on Instagram and messages on Snapchat
11:29:41 – 11:32:45 DM on Instagram and messaging on Snapchat
11:35:36 DM on Yik Yak
11:36:07 DM on Tik Tok
11:37:36 DM messages (Snapchat)
11:39:09 – 11:40:14 DM and pa textual content
11:44:06 – 11:50:38 DM on Instagram
11:54:39 – 11:57:01 DM on Instagram
Funke ultimately known as 911 at 11:56 a.m. to report Kernodle unconscious on the residence, information present. Two different mates might be heard with them on the decision.
College of Idaho college students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves have been killed on this dwelling within the pre-dawn hours of November 13, 2022. Two roommates survived. – Ted S. Warren/AP/File
‘Bushy eyebrows’ description resurfaces
Mortensen, one of many surviving roommates, has stated she noticed a masked man sporting all black within the dwelling across the time of the murders. She described the intruder as having “bushy eyebrows.”
However after Kohberger was arrested, Mortensen couldn’t definitively say whether or not he was the person she noticed in her dwelling across the time of the killings, in response to court docket filings.
Kohberger’s attorneys have requested the decide to dam prosecutors from displaying the defendant’s newly launched selfie to jurors at trial. Protection attorneys argue the picture recovered from Kohberger’s telephone may unfairly prejudice the jury in opposition to him.
However prosecutors say the jury ought to see Kohberger’s smiling selfie taken at 10:31 a.m. – simply hours after the purported murders – as a result of his picture matches Mortensen’s description of the intruder she noticed that evening.
Courtroom paperwork include a selfie Kohberger is believed to have taken within the morning of Nov. 13, 2022, solely hours after the murders. Within the image, the suspect is seen smiling and giving a thumbs-up gesture. – State of Idaho
The state additionally argued jurors can determine for themselves if Kohberger’s eyebrows are bushy and what relevance that may need to the case.
“The truth that this description might, or might not, implicate Defendant, just isn’t a cause to maintain this reality from the jury’s consideration,” the prosecution stated.
“It isn’t affordable to consider the jury will convict the Defendant based mostly on the standing of his stored or unkept eyebrows.”
What to anticipate at trial
Kohberger’s trial is predicted to start in August.
Prosecutors have indicated they anticipate each surviving roommates to testify and wish to use their textual content messages for instance the timeline of the evening.
However protection legal professional Anne Taylor has pointed to what she described as inconsistencies in legislation enforcement interviews with Mortensen and Funke.
Prosecutors additionally plan to name legislation enforcement witnesses to testify a couple of take a look at run they carried out to indicate that it was potential to commit 4 homicides in a time-frame of solely minutes together with time to stroll to and from a automotive and take away blood-covered garments, a protection submitting says.
Kohberger’s attorneys say they want an professional to testify about his developmental coordination dysfunction to indicate the jury he was not bodily able to committing the crime that they argue required such pace and coordination.
CNN’s Martin Goillandeau contributed to this report.
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