Defense attorneys for accused University of Idaho quadruple murder suspect Bryan Kohberger lost their bid Wednesday to exclude familial DNA evidence obtained from his parents’ trash.
The defense had also challenged the use of Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG), a process that entails analyzing variations in a DNA sample and matching them to a genetic database to find a potential relative who could lead to a suspect.
Judge Steven Hippler ruled that investigators’ methods were not unconstitutional, as Kohberger’s defense claimed.
Amid the investigation, trace amounts of DNA found on a knife sheath at the scene of the 2022 murders in Moscow, Idaho, did not show up in law enforcement CODIS databases. However, an IGG analysis pointed to Kohberger.
Investigators later obtained his father’s DNA from trash samples, which matched Kohberger’s cheek swab, ABC News reported. DNA evidence is key to the case, with prosecutors saying it ties Kohberger firmly to the scene of the crime.
Kohberger’s defense argued that investigators violated their client’s constitutional right to privacy by collecting DNA from the knife sheath without a warrant, then again when they delved into the genealogy databases in search of potential relatives’ DNA. His attorneys similarly challenged the admission of trash items containing Kohberger’s father’s DNA.
But they hadn’t shown that their client had “legitimate expectation of privacy in the item or place searched,” Hippler said. “Any privacy interest he can claim in this DNA was abandoned along with the sheath, to which he claims no ownership or knowledge. Even if no such abandonment occurred, defendant has not demonstrated it is reasonable to recognize a privacy interest in DNA left at a crime scene.”
Hippler had similar rulings for other evidence the defense wanted tossed, including data from Kohberger’s online accounts with Apple, Google and Amazon, material from the Washington State apartment he was living in at the time of the murders, as well as other evidence from his parents’ home in Pennsylvania.
Investigators believe Kohberger is the person who broke into an off-campus home full of sleeping University of Idaho students on Nov. 13, 2022, and fatally stabbed four of them: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21. Two roommates discovered their friends’ bodies the next morning.
Kohberger was arrested six weeks later at his parents’ Pennsylvania home. He was indicted in May 2023 on four counts of first-degree murder and one of burglary. He pleaded not guilty by default through his lawyers, who entered the plea on his behalf when he remained silent during his arraignment.
With News Wire Services
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