Bryan Kohberger returns to court for Idaho murders hearing with ‘surprise witness’: Live updates

Bryan Kohberger‘s defense team extensively questioned Moscow Police Detective Lawrence Mowery on Thursday as part of their effort to scrutinize cell phone evidence police believe ties the student to the location of the 2022 murders.

In one exchange, one of Mr Kohberger’s lawyers asked Detective Mowery about documentation related to the findings from two search warrants for the defendant’s cell phone information, one covering a 48-hour period and another for a longer sequence of time.

The detective revealed that he had come across the documentation about this information yesterday, as he prepared for today’s hearing.

The defense is hoping to make the case there’s additional evidence it should have access to, and paint prosecutors as being witholding of key information.

Moscow Police Det. Lawrence Mowery is on the stand at Bryan Kohberger’s pre-trial hearing.

The defense is attempting to get the prosecution to turn over more evidence related to DNA and cell phone tower data that they believe supports their clients alibi.

The hearing in Bryan Koberger’s case is set to begin shortly.

Kohberger’s defense will present witnesses to testify about the cell phone data they believe will corroborate with their client’s alibi.

Audio is expected to be available on Judge John Judge’s YouTube page.

It will begin at 2:30pm PT/ 5:30pm ET.

Kohberger’s defense is asking the state to hand over evidence they believe will support their client’s alibi that he was driving around and stargazing on the night of the murders.

The evidence reportedly includes dashcam footage, video and audio recordings of a white sedan at the crime scene, and lab testing results – information police used to arrest Kohberger seven weeks after the murders.

On November 2022, four University of Idaho students were found stabbed to death at a rental house in Moscow, in a case that shocked the small college town and drew media attention from across the world.

For nearly seven weeks there appeared to be no suspect in the case. Then, on 30 December 2022, Bryan Kohberger – a PhD student in criminology at Washington State University (WSU) – was arrested and charged with their murders.

In August, Mr Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial, postponing the proceedings indefinitely.

Here’s a timeline of the case so far:

Bryan Kohberger became a household name across America when police swooped on his parents’ home in December and arrested him for the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students.

The former PhD criminology student at Washington State University is accused of stabbing to death Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in an off-campus student rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on 13 November.

With the 29-year-old now facing the death penalty in the case, The Independent asks: Who really is Bryan Kohberger?

Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – all students at the University of Idaho – were ambushed in their rooms and stabbed to death with a military-style knife that has yet to be found. Police were called to the gruesome scene at the off-campus residence almost eight hours after the vicious attack.

For weeks, only scant details about the carnage were revealed as the community reeled from the tragedy and grappled with fears of a murderer on the loose.

That changed with the December 2022 arrest of Washington State University student Mr Kohberger, whose apartment, office and family home were raided and searched for evidence.

While more information has become public through the release of search warrants and arrest records in recent months, a gag order in the case remains in place and most aspects of the probe and its findings are still a mystery.

Here’s everything we know so far:

Ashlin Couch, a former roommate of the slain University of Idaho students, revealed the moment she realized her friends were dead and the final text she sent to them.

She moved into the doomed off-campus house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, in 2020, with her friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen. Six months after she moved out in 2022, her roommates were slaughtered.

“I remember, I think, getting a second alert or I had been driving home and I texted like our group of friends, and I just had said, ‘Has anyone heard from Maddie?’ And I remember, like my last text message to her was like, ‘Are you okay?’” she said.

“And I felt it like right then and there, I kind of just knew that something was wrong.”

Andrea Cavallier reports:

Bryan Kohberger’s attorney Anne Taylor says state prosecutors are withholding evidence the defense team should be privy to, according to several motions that have been filed.

The decision came after Kohberger’s defense team requested the new evidence relating to the probable cause affidavit used in his arrest, according to The Idaho Statesman.

This evidence includes cell phone tower data, a video of a vehicle seen near the 1122 King Road home and information relating to a driving test.

“The state knows full well what they have and what they’re withholding from us,” Ms Taylor said at a hearing earlier this month. “We don’t know what they’re going to show, but we know they exist.”

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