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The trial of Bryan Kohberger, the man charged with the murder of four University of Idaho students, will be moved to a different city, according to an order issued by Idaho Second District Judge John C. Judge. The decision was made due to concerns about Kohberger's ability to receive a fair trial at the Latah County courthouse in Moscow, Idaho, given the extensive media coverage of the case and statements by public officials suggesting Kohberger's guilt. The judge also noted that the courthouse isn't large enough to accommodate the case and that the county sheriff's office doesn't have enough deputies to handle security. The new location for the trial has not been specified.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, is facing four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves. The students were killed in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in a rental house near the University of Idaho campus. Kohberger was arrested six weeks later at his parents' home in Pennsylvania, where he was spending winter break.
The defense team for Kohberger sought the change of venue, arguing that strong emotions in the close-knit community and constant news coverage would make it impossible to find an impartial jury in the small university town where the killings occurred. Prosecutors argued that any potential bias could be resolved by simply calling a larger pool of potential jurors and questioning them carefully.
The killings of the four students stunned both the University of Idaho and Washington State University communities and left the small city of Moscow deeply shaken. The case also spurred a flurry of news coverage, much of which Kohberger's defense team says was inflammatory and left the community strongly biased against their client.