Idaho murders: Bryan Kohberger may demand trial to take ‘death penalty off the table’
This article is based on sources and MEAWW is unable to verify the information independently.
MOSCOW, IDAHO: Despite the huge amount of damning proof reported in the 'probable cause' affidavit, suspect Bryan Kohberger may choose to go to trial and plead not guilty, as per an expert. Bryan Kohberger has been accused of killing 21-year-old students Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in the early hours of November 13.
He is now facing four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary charges, and is expected to be in court for a status hearing on January 12. According to the unsealed affidavit, the 28-year-old PhD student carried out the henious murders after months of stalking the victims. In addition, his DNA was reportedly found near the victims’ bodies as he left a tan, leather sheath at the crime scene.
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'Idaho is a death penalty state'
Criminal defense attorney and former Los Angeles County prosecutor Joshua Ritter has claimed that the case is not so straightforward. He told The Sun, “They're going to take a DNA sample from him now that he is in custody and do a complete match of DNA recovered from the crime scene. Coupled with other corroborating evidence, it sounds like the state has a very strong case. It's early to talk about plea deals, but Idaho is a death penalty state, and I can't imagine this being a case in which they don't seriously consider the death penalty.”
Ritter explained, “In that case, the likelihood of his accepting a deal is incredibly low, unless that deal has to do with taking the death penalty off the table, and if that's something he's willing to do. But if he just figures his options are either death penalty or life without parole, and he just wants to take his chances at trial - well, as strong as the state's case might be, things can always happen at trial.”
“In spite of the realities of the infliction of the death penalty, it's still a powerful tool in these types of situations, to motivate someone to plead in order to avoid it. But this particular case is such an ideal one for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty, they might decide that they don't have to offer life without parole. They can say, 'This is a death penalty case and that's what we intend to pursue,’” the expert noted.
'People will remember this case years from now'
Ritter then went on to shed light on the murders and their impact as he shared, “This is one of those watershed cases where you have four young, good-looking, completely innocent victims in a small community, and the nightmare scenario of being murdered in their beds, the horrific circumstances of the multiple stabbings. I imagine it will be a case years from now people will still remember. And it's in a town where this may be the most media attention they ever received.”
“Many people didn't even know Moscow, Idaho existed before now. But even if it took place in a huge metropolis like LA or New York, it still would have had attention,” he stated before asserting why it’s impossible to execute a “perfect crime”, although Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate. He remarked, “I think it demonstrates just how difficult it is to pull off the 'perfect crime'. No matter how clever or planned out a murder might be, there is always something that the killer leaves behind or mistakes made in the chaos of the moment. Here it appears that the killer may have targeted only one or two of the victims but ended up killing four people.”
“Yet, in spite of all the killings he still leaves behind an eye-witness who allegedly looked him straight in the face. Also, in spite of all the planning, to the point of even turning his cell phone off during the murders, still being careless enough to leave behind the knife sheath is truly remarkable,” Ritter said. One of the strongest points of the state's case is that Dylan Mortensen, one of the survivors, saw the suspect leaving the house through the sliding backdoor and was able to describe him to the police.
Is Bryan Kohberger's mental health OK?
The criminal defense attorney believes that Kohberger is indeed the culprit. He pointed out, “His demeanor is nothing short of disturbing. Calm, unfazed, and disconnected. One of the remarkable things to me was his initial mug shot. Kohberger did not appear to look like someone who had committed four grisly murders and was then a fugitive of a nationwide manhunt for several weeks. He was clean-shaven and looked like he had a recent haircut.” Ritter concluded, “There is something very wrong with this person's mental state. Both the planning of these murders and his conduct and demeanor since then. It's hard to predict how a person like that might be dealing with custody.”