Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger returned to the Latah County, Idaho, courthouse Thursday for a hearing to argue whether his trial venue location should be changed.
His defense team is arguing that a "mob mentality" within Latah County, where Kohberger is accused of brutally murdering four University of Idaho students in their home in November 2022, will result in an unfair jury selection and therefore an unfair trial for the 29-year-old defendant.
"The pressure to convict Bryan Kohberger is so severe that Latah County survey respondents said if he wasn’t convicted: ‘They’d burn the courthouse down. Outrage would be a mild description,’" court filings submitted by the defense last week state, citing quotes from people within the community who were surveyed on the matter. "'They would probably find him and kill him.' ‘There would likely be a riot and he wouldn’t last long outside because someone would do the good ole’ boy justice.’ ‘Enraged strong opinions. Firing of officers.’ ‘Riots, parents would take care of him.’"
Kohberger's defense team is also citing a heavy media presence in Latah County, noting that there are currently 1,300 media stories about the University of Idaho murders.
BRYAN KOHBERGER TRIAL SET TO BEGIN JUNE 2025 IN IDAHO MURDERS CASE
Kohberger — a former criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington — is charged with four counts of murder and burglary after he allegedly stabbed 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves and 21-year-old Madison Mogen with a KA-BAR knife in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.
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Kohberger was arrested in late December 2022 at his family home in Pennsylvania. His trial is scheduled for no later than the summer of 2025. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
"The media coverage inundating Latah County does not tell citizens that no evidence has been presented at this time; that there are no facts on the record at this time; that Bryan Kohberger is innocent; that only a jury decides what the facts are and whether the facts show beyond a reasonable doubt [that] a person is guilty," his defense team wrote.
The defense brought several experts to the witness stand on Thursday to explain how a Latah County jury could be too biased to determine a verdict in Kohberger's case.
The first witness, Todd Murphy, president of media analysis company Truescope North America, explained several graphs showing how more people in Latah County compared to Ada County, Idaho, or other areas across the country would be more exposed to news about Kohberger.
Murphy also said he does not believe news about Kohberger is getting any less intense as time goes on, particularly when significant updates or hearings occur.
"This type of story will remain online and be of interest, up to and beyond the conclusion of this case," he said.
After Murphy's testimony, Amani El-Alayli, Ph.D, a social psychologist and professor at Eastern Washington University, took the stand to discuss confirmation bias, saying that people who consume media while doing other tasks, like cooking dinner, may establish certain opinions without thinking too deeply about the information they are internalizing.
Certain media angles can also establish fear and other strong emotions in consumers.
"[I]f the media uses phrases like killer on the loose, everybody stay vigilant, make sure you report all suspicious activity … they're arousing that even more," she explained.
Fox News' Laura Prabucki, Michael Ruiz and Christina Coulter contributed to this report.
