Bryan Kohberger barred from interacting with other prisoners while attending mass in jail
An unnamed source who reportedly has access to Mr Kohberger within the Latah County Jail revealed details of his stay to NewsNation
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Jailed Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger is not allowed to interact with other inmates, according to reports from a source.
New details about the conditions of Mr Kohberger’s arrest were revealed on Ashleigh Banfield’s NewsNation segment on Wednesday.
An unnamed source who reportedly has access to Mr Kohberger within the Latah County Jail told the network that, despite being in solitary confinement, the quadruple murder suspect is allowed to attend mass every Sunday.
However, the source noted that Mr Kohberger is barred from interacting with other inmates and usually keeps his head down during service.
Mr Kohberger had just finished his first semester at Washington State University when he was arrested on 30 December for allegedly murdering Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chaplin on 13 November.
The former criminology PhD student, who was linked to the crime thanks to DNA found at the scene, is set to appear in court on 26 June for a preliminary hearing. He has not entered a plea but said earlier this year through a public defender that he “was eager to be exonerated.”
Among other revelations made by the unnamed source is that Mr Kohberger has access to mental health services but has yet to request to use those resources.
Ms Banfield also said Mr Kohberger has access to a TV and can ask guards to switch channels for him.
Since Mr Kohberger is reportedly banned from engaging with the other 16 inmates at Latah County Jail, he keeps to himself when he attends mass every Sunday, the source told NewsNation.
“The other inmates, we are told, are very curious about Bryan Kohberger. They are also relieved, we are told, that he keeps his head down and hasn’t made any trouble for anyone,” Ms Banfield told her audience.
Inmates were purportedly impressed by Mr Kohberger’s “imposing” frame, Ms Banfield said, adding that they expected him to be thinner.
“Upon setting eyes on Kohberger for the first time in person, it was a whole other image,” she said. “On television the description was that he looked like a toothpick, a skinny toothpick on TV, but the toothpick image on TV, according to this source, in person it looks like he is well over 200 lb and that he is quite imposing.”
One of the people jailed at the facility reportedly said that Mr Kohberger “does not look like a psychopath,” Ms Banfield said. Ex-inmate Larry Levine, who was brought on the segment as a consultant, said that in his own experience, accused murderers didn’t always look out of the ordinary.
“I flew on con-air, they call it JPATS, [Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System], I was chained up next to a guy that was a serial killer, he killed like five people,” Mr Levine said. “ ... this guy seemed as normal as you or I do. You really can’t tell.”
Mr Levine added: “He was really intelligent, the things he said, he admitted to me, ‘yeah, well I killed them and they deserved it.’
“But he seemed level-headed. Bryan Kohberger is not stupid, maybe more arrogant than anything.”
Asked about reports that Mr Kohberger is being taunted by other inmates, Mr Levine theorised that they did so “to get under his skin.”
“I see this happening in prisons a lot of the time, they’re probably telling him that he’s going to get the electric chair, that they’re going to fry him,” Mr Levine said.
The prosecution has not announced plans to ask for the death penalty but Mr Kohberger’s attorney Ann Taylor is one of 13 qualified public defenders in the state to represent defendants in a potential death penalty case.
In addition to the DNA found at the scene, Mr Kohberger was linked to the murders through cellphone data and surveillance video of what prosecutors believe to be his white Hyundai Elantra leaving the scene after the slayings, according to the affidavit for his arrest.
One of the victims’ surviving roommates was also able to partially describe the killer to investigators after she came face to face with him in the aftermath of the murders. The murder weapon – a fixed-blade knife – was not recovered during the searches and it is still unclear where it may be.
Two warrants made public last month and obtained by The Independent show that investigators collected a Glock .40 caliber gun, empty gun magazines, a knife, a pocket knife, black face masks, black gloves, electronic devices, and more clothing items from the home of Mr Kohberger’s parents in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested.
Mr Kohberger’s family home was raided on the same day as another search at his apartment in Pullman, Washington, which was a 15-minute drive from the crime scene in Moscow.
The warrant from the Washington search was made public in January, revealing investigators seized a “collection of dark red” spotting and a pillow with a “reddish/brown stain” at Mr Kohberger’s Pullman apartment. A Fire TV stick and possible animal hair strands were also taken by law enforcement.