Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger claims surviving roommate has evidence to clear his name
The defense team of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger claim one of the surviving roommates has evidence to clear his name.
Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students at an off campus home in Moscow, Idaho on November 13 of last year.
The victims were named as Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
Two other roommates were believed to have been in one of the shared student house's rooms at the time of the killings.
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They were reportedly asleep during the incident and were not harmed.
28-year-old criminal justice graduate student Kohberger has since been identified as a suspect after his DNA was found on a knife sheath recovered at the crime scene.
Mobile phone data also shows that he was in the area of the victims’ home multiple times in the months before the November attack, according to an investigator.
Kohberger was arrested in December and ordered held without bail.
But now in a new development, court documents obtained by E! News on April 25 claim that Bethany Funke - a criminal investigator working for the suspects counsel who lived with Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle at the time of their deaths - has 'information material to the charges against Mr. Kohberger'.
The investigator reportedly said: "It is necessary to subpoena this witness because the witness' testimony is material and necessary to this case."
However, Funke's attorney argued that the investigators claims were 'conclusory' and had no merit, as the preliminary hearing is set for June 28.
"These statements are conclusory," Funke's attorney wrote. "There is no further information of detail pertaining to substance of the testimony, its materiality or the alleged exculpatory information of Ms. Funke or why it would entertained at a preliminary hearing.
"A preliminary hearing is not meant to become a mini-trial due to its limited purpose in deciding probable cause."
The attack that occurred in the early morning hours at the off-campus home had spread fear throughout the university and surrounding area for weeks, as authorities seemed stumped by the brutal stabbings.
Michelle Bolger - associate professor at DeSales University, a private Catholic university in Pennsylvania - said she was 'shocked' by the news.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, the 33-year-old described Kohberger as a 'great writer' and a 'brilliant student'.
"In my 10 years of teaching, I’ve only recommended two students to a Ph.D. program and he was one of them," she said.
"He was one of my best students, ever. Everyone is in shock over this."
She went on: "I’m shocked as s**t at what he’s been accused of. I don’t believe it, but I get it. This news is upsetting. I haven’t slept at all since hearing about Bryan."
Bolger taught Kohberger in an online class last year, supporting his master’s thesis.
Anish Vij