On Thursday, Aug. 29, Bryan Kohberger and his legal team continued fighting for his upcoming trial to change venues from Moscow to Boise, citing the higher likelihood of an unbiased jury.
Prosecutors continually said that moving the trial 300 miles away would result in more media attention in Boise and inconvenience for all parties.
Latah County Judge John Judge said the decision would be difficult as both sides made fair points for keeping and moving the trial.
Kohberger is being charged with four counts of murder for the deaths of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle.
The defense brought four witnesses to the stand in Thursday’s all-day court hearing, beginning with James T. Murphy, the president of Truescope, a media monitoring and data analysis company. Murphy and his team have been monitoring media coverage for the case since February of 2023.
One of the key points of Murphy’s assessment was the difference in population and saturation of media coverage between the two counties. After showing several graphs and diagrams, Murphy said, “While [media attention in] Ada [County] spiked, it had a slow decay following, and when looking at Latah County, it’s been consistent.”
During cross-examination, prosecutors asked whether moving the trial to Ada County would result in higher media saturation in the area, and Murphy predicted that media coverage could spike.
Dr. Bryan Edelman, a trial consultant, said the media coverage has saturated Latah County since the crime occurred. Edelman raised the concern of whether a jury could truly be unbiased with pressure from a small community.
If a juror wanted to acquit Kohberger, they could face external pressures from returning to a community that has already deemed him guilty.
Edelman conducted a large phone survey in several counties, including Latah and Ada, to assess and compare the media coverage in each county.
Within Latah County, 98% of the participants were aware of the crime, and roughly 67% claimed to have followed the case as it progressed, with 29% claiming to have watched it “very closely.”
In Ada County, about 93% of the participants had heard of the case, and 68% believed Kohberger to be guilty of murder. Only 15% of the participants have kept up with the case closely.
Anne Taylor, Kohberger’s defense attorney, said the defendant has a right to an unbiased jury, which would not be found in Latah County with its persistent media coverage.
The prosecution also suggested moving the trial to the Nez Perce or Kootenai counties to save the state money and resources.
Allyssa Dotson can be reached at [email protected].