The Idaho Supreme Court has assigned the student murder trial of Brian Koberger to an Ada County judge after his lawyers were granted a request to change the trial venue from rural Latah County, where he is accused of killing four college students.
A one-page order signed by Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Bevan assigned the case to District Judge Stephen Hipler.
Latah County District Judge John Judge last week granted the defense's request for a change of venue, citing several factors that, overall, favor moving the trial to a larger courthouse further from the crime scene.
Idaho judge denies Brian Koberger's change of venue motion in student murder trial
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)
The court also ordered that Koberger be transferred from the Moscow, Idaho, prison, where he has been incarcerated since January 2023, to the custody of the Ada County Sheriff's Office.
The change in trial location could affect the timeline for the trial, which is scheduled to start next June after an earlier postponement, said Edwina Elcox, a Boise-based attorney who previously represented another high-profile Idaho murder suspect, “Cult Mom” Lori Vallow.
“I think they want to get things moving and established,” she told Fox News Digital. “Judge Hippler will want to set his own timeline and deadlines and stick to them.”
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)
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.
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 lawyers argued that the quadruple murder suspect cannot receive a fair trial. Lata County He blamed it on “extensive, sensationalist pre-trial reporting.”
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Brian Koberger speaks with his attorney, Ann Taylor, before a hearing in Moscow, Idaho, on Aug. 18, 2023. Koberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022. (August Frank Poole/Getty Images)
The judge wrote that he made his decision after “consistently considering” a variety of factors, including legal and logistical concerns, expert testimony and the concerns of lawyers on both sides, but left the selection of a new site to the state Supreme Court.
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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.
He was a doctoral student in criminology. Washington State University, He was just 10 miles away, across the state line, at the time of the murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Gonsalves' family had previously criticised the change of venue, but relatives said they welcomed the appointment of a new judge to the case.
“What was the point of the gag orders, closed-door meetings, backroom tactics and allowing the defendant to wear a suit at every televised hearing if not to keep the trial in Latah County?” the family said in a statement last week after the judge ordered the change of venue. “The victims' families have the most interest in the outcome, even though they, like everyone else, have no choice but to watch from the sidelines and have little or no say in the trial process.”
