Ted Bundy's former defense attorney says there are “interesting” parallels between the notorious serial killer's final acts and the prosecution of University of Idaho student murder suspect Brian Koberger, while also pointing out that the latter He also revealed that he was consulted, but chose not to get involved.
Bundy escaped from a prison in Colorado, where the death penalty would soon be found to be unconstitutional, and headed to Florida, where he committed more murders and was put on death row.
Bundy later reneged on his plea deal, which would have avoided the death penalty, said his former lawyer, John Henry Brown. But he found it eerily similar to the accusations against Koberger, a Washington State University doctoral student. A student is accused of driving across the state line into Idaho to commit a quadruple murder.
“There’s a guy driving 16 miles from a state that doesn’t have the death penalty. [from] “From states where mental health defenses are very aggressive to states where there are no mental health defenses and the death penalty is very aggressive,” he said on FOX. He told News Digital. I don't know what to suggest from that, but I know the facts are the facts. ”
Brian Koberger could face the death penalty if convicted in the University of Idaho murder case
Ted Bundy, who was charged with the murders of Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, FSU coeds who were assaulted and strangled at the Chi Omega House, was convicted at trial and sentenced to death. Shown in this July 27, 1978 photo at the public hearing. . (Bettman)
Similar to Bundy's assault at Florida State University's Chi Omega sorority house, Koberger attacked four college students hours before sunrise, breaking in through the back door while at least some of the victims were asleep. is accused of doing so.
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Brown also told Fox News Digital that although he is not required to file an indictment, the prosecution's theory of a potential motive will be of great interest to jurors.
“As the case became clearer and we were dealing with 30, 40, 50 or more dead people, the motive became much clearer in Ted's case. It was more a power struggle than sex. That’s the thing,” he said. “And none of the victims in Ted's case were sexually assaulted. A lot of people don't know that.”
As for Mr. Koberger's case, prosecutors have revealed little about what his motive might have been.
Brian Koberger arrives at Pennsylvania's Monroe County Courthouse for his extradition hearing. (Fox News Digital Image Direct)
Brian Koberger's defense challenges DNA evidence and warrant in Idaho quadruple murder case
“I don't know what the state's theory is as to why Koberger chose to go and kill the people in this home and leave behind a knife. [sheath] It has DNA in it,” he said.
Lutter County Judge John entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Mr. Koberger during his May 2023 arraignment.
The 30-year-old stabbed 21-year-old best friends Madison Morgen and Kaylee Gonsalves, their housemate Zana Karnodol, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, also 20. He has been charged with causing death. The attack occurred around 4 a.m. on Nov. 1. 13, 2022, in a six-bedroom home just steps from the university campus.
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If it had happened on the Washington side of the state line, that's where Koberger was studying for his Ph.D. In criminology, suspects are not subject to the death penalty and can use an “insanity'' defense.
This is not the first time that Koberger's arrest has been compared to Bundy's Florida attack. Bundy survivors Karen Pryor and Cheryl Thomas spoke to FOX Nation last year about their ordeal.
Bundy snuck into Chi Omega's house through the back door around 3 a.m. on January 15, 1978. Inside, he beat a sleeping Margaret Elizabeth Bowman with a club and strangled her. In the next room, he beat, sexually assaulted, and murdered Lisa Janet Levy. Before fleeing the scene, he attacked two other young women who survived, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner (now Kathy Kleiner Rubin).
“He was a coward,” Kleiner Rubin later told Fox News Digital. Mr. Bundy had broken his jaw at a club when the headlights of a sorority sister, who had returned late, shone through the window. he ran away. she survived.
Madison Morgen, top left, poses with Ethan Chapin, Zana Kernodle and two other housemates in Gonsalves' last Instagram post, which was shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. , smiling on the shoulder of her best friend Kaylee Gonsalves. . (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
The best defense? play offense
“If I were his lawyer, I would be pretty aggressive,” Brown told Fox News Digital. “Because in cases like this, playing nice doesn’t get you anywhere.”
Mr. Koberger earned a master's degree in criminal justice from DeSales University and was pursuing a Ph.D. in Criminology from Washington State University, where he studied under leading serial killer expert Katherine Ramsland and has written articles and books on many serial killers, including Bundy.
Brown tried to negotiate a plea deal that would spare Bundy the death penalty, but the serial killer himself thwarted it and landed him in the electric chair.
Earlier this month, Boise Judge Stephen Hippler denied more than a dozen motions by Koberger's defense team seeking the death penalty. The death penalty remains on the table if he is convicted.
Brian Koberger appears in a courtroom in Moscow, Idaho, on October 26, 2023. (Kai Eiselein/Pool)
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Brown said that in order to aggressively attack this case, the defense must continue to actively try to make it as difficult as possible for prosecutors to pursue their case. It's something Koberger's defense team, consisting of Ann Taylor, Jay Logsdon and Elisa Masos, has been working on for more than a year.
But the defense's plan of attack may have also piqued the judges' interest. Koberger's team turned to the Franks Hearing Motion, an attempt to quash some of the search warrants in the case. But after Mr. Hippler reminded Logsdon that it was not his job to read the 2,000-page attached exhibit and understand what it was saying, he refiled it with proper citations. I told them to do it.
Ted Bundy watches intently as jury selection takes place in the Orlando murder trial of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. (Bettman)
“As an example, Defendants generally cite Exhibit D9 regarding the claim that law enforcement vehicle experts felt more comfortable setting the Elantra's date range to 2011 to 2013.” Hippler wrote. “The evidence is over 100 pages of duplicate emails. The defendant has not specified which emails support his case. The court did not do the work of an attorney and reviewed the evidence. I do not intend to judge what defendant suggests supports his case.
Brown said such claims are rarely successful – of the hundreds of lawsuits he has tried, only three have been resolved – but if it is successful, the state's lawsuit said that it could become dysfunctional.
Another item the defense wants to consider is whether Mr. Koberger should waive his right to a jury trial and leave his fate in the hands of a judge.
Victims of the University of Idaho Massacre on November 13, 2022, from left: Kaylee Gonsalves, Ethan Chapin, Zana Kernodle, and Madison Morgen. (Instagram @xanakernodle / @maddiemogen / @kayleegoncalves)
Even after securing a change of venue from Lutter County to Boise, the case is so high-profile that many potential jurors may have already made up their minds.
”[There] There's always a possibility, but it's not very good. That means we can waive the jury and have the case heard by a judge,” Brown said.
Bundy, who was represented by another attorney at the time, committed a similar act in Utah and received a lenient sentence. Things didn't go well for Jose Ybarra, who killed Laken Riley. Because prosecutors in the case did not seek the death penalty, he was convicted last week and sentenced to the harshest penalty: life in prison without parole.
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But Mathematically, Brown believes that having a jury can sometimes be advantageous to the defendant.
“All you need to do is convince one of the 12 people that there is a reasonable doubt, and then you will be given a mistrial,” he said. “But then you start all over again.”
Mr. Frank's motion, which Mr. Koberger refiled, was scheduled to be filed on Tuesday, but had not yet been made public by the court as of press time.
His trial is tentatively scheduled to begin next year.
Brown is the author of The Devil's Advocate: My Journey Through American Criminal Justice from Ted Bundy to the Kandahar Massacre, which describes his experiences as a defense attorney for clients such as Bundy, Army Sgt. Robert Bales and Colton Harris Moore, a former teenage serial hijacker known as “The Barefoot Bandit.”
Bundy was a former law student. Koberger studied criminology and serial killers.
