Brian Koberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students, appeared in court for a pretrial hearing Thursday, where witnesses testified about the collection of evidence and cellphone data.
Koberger’s defense team has accused prosecutors of failing to turn over all of the evidence they obtained during discovery, a charge the state denies.
“We’re being asked to conduct discovery as if we were living in a snow globe,” defense lawyers told Idaho Judge John Judge.
Idaho prosecutors file new motions in Brian Koberger case as defense raises fair trial questions
Brian Koberger appeared in a Moscow, Idaho courtroom on Oct. 26, 2023. Koberger is accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022. (Kai Eiselein/Pool)
The first witness, Moscow police Detective Brett Payne, testified Thursday that thousands of hours of surveillance video had been collected as part of the investigation.
Payne told his lawyer, Ann Taylor, that police have thousands of hours of video footage from 79 businesses and homes related to the investigation. The defense also questioned whether cellphone data evidence had gone missing.
Witness Cy Lay, a former Arizona State Police detective and founder of ZetX Corporation, which specializes in cell phone location mapping, testified that 2 to 3 percent of the cell phone data in the case is missing.
“Data is missing in some of the most critical locations in this case,” Ray said.
He noted that all AT&T source data, along with other information, is needed to pinpoint exactly where Koberger’s cell phone was at the time of the murder.
“Everything that’s missing is entirely in favor of the defense at this point because the data is fragmented, the data is missing, the data that I’m reviewing is incredibly inaccurate,” Wray testified, adding, “There are other reports that are missing that I don’t know if they’re in favor of Mr. Koberger or the state.”
Idaho prosecutor’s ‘tantrum’ exposes Brian Koberger’s alibi
Arrest photo of Brian Koberger with alleged victims Zana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Maddie Morgen and Kaylee Gonsalves. (Monroe County Jail/Instagram)
Prosecutors allege Koberger was the masked man who entered a home just off the University of Idaho campus around 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022. 4 undergraduate students Maddie Morgan and Kaylee Gonsalves, both 21, their housemate Zana Kernodle, 20, and her visiting boyfriend Ethan Chapin, also 20, were all found dead inside the home.
He is facing Four rates He was charged with first-degree murder and burglary.
Koberger, a criminology graduate student at Washington State University, was arrested on murder charges in his home state of Pennsylvania on Dec. 30, 2022.
Investigators said cell phone ringtones indicated Koberger was near the home on the day of the murders, but the defense argued he was not near the house where the murders occurred, but rather was driving around the area in his car because he liked to “look at the moon and the stars.”
Demolition workers at a home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on December 28, 2023. On November 13, 2022, four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death at the home. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
The prosecution argues that the alibi is “too vague.” allegedly discovered Koberger’s DNA was found on a knife sheath underneath the body of one of the victims.
The lawyers had previously argued that DNA could have been planted at the scene and that the state had improperly handled all the evidence the defense should have considered. Investigators later used a distant DNA sample to link the suspect to Koberger and reportedly found a match.
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A trial date has not yet been set. If convicted, Koberger could face the death penalty.
The judge adjourned the hearing, then resumed it, where a DNA expert was scheduled to testify.
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Price contributed to this report.
