An Idaho judge has granted a request to move the trial of quadruple murder suspect Brian Koberger, who is accused of killing four college students during an early-morning home invasion, out of Latah County.
Judge John Judge's order, made public Monday, moved the trial to larger Ada County, ruling that extensive media coverage of the case could taint local jurors.
Ada County also has a larger courthouse to accommodate the larger number of members of the public and the expected large numbers of journalists who will be visiting.
Brian Koberger's defense seeks change of venue, citing “mob mentality” in Idaho town
Brian Christopher Koberger arrives at the Monroe County Courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, on Jan. 3, 2023, before waiving extradition to Idaho to face murder charges in the stabbing deaths of four college students. (Image direct from Fox News Digital)
Prosecutors had asked that the trial be held in a Moscow courthouse next to the prison where Koberger, 29, is being held without bail since his arrest at his parents' Pennsylvania home shortly after the Nov. 13, 2022, murder, about seven weeks after the murder.
Koberger's attorneys argued that the quadruple murder suspect cannot receive a fair trial in Latah County because of “extensive sensational pretrial publicity.”
Koberger is accused of breaking into an off-campus rental home around 4 a.m. that day and stabbing to death 21-year-olds Madison Morgen and Kaylee Gonsalves, and 20-year-olds Zana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Read the judge's order
Idaho prosecutors oppose Brian Koberger's defense effort to move trial
At his arraignment last year, a judge found Koberger not guilty to four counts of murder and a felony theft charge.
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Madison Morgen (top left) leans on her best friend Kaylee Gonsalves' shoulder and smiles with Ethan Chapin, Zana Kernodle and two other housemates in Gonsalves' final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
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At the time of the murder, Koberger was a doctoral student in criminology at Washington State University, just 10 miles across the state line.
Police arrested him at his parents' home in the Pocono Mountains after a cross-country drive home with his father a few weeks after the murders.
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Koberger faces the death penalty if convicted. The victims will be remembered in a memorial garden on campus designed by their classmates.
