Defense Challenges Evidence in University of Idaho Murders Case Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger, the man charged with the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, have revealed that detectives found blood DNA from two unidentified males at the crime scene. The revelation, disclosed at a recent court hearing, hints at a possible legal defense strategy as the high-profile case moves toward trial. Inside the off-campus home on King Road where the killings occurred, investigators discovered an unknown male’s blood DNA on a handrail. Another unidentified male’s blood DNA was found on a glove located outside the house, according to Kohberger’s lead defense attorney, Anne Taylor. At the center of the case, however, is a piece of evidence that prosecutors say directly links Kohberger to the crime: a knife sheath found in one of the victim’s beds. Moscow police stated that DNA recovered from the sheath was matched to Kohberger. His defense team, however, argues that this was touch DNA rather than blood, disputing its strength as evidence. Taylor further alleged that detectives intentionally withheld the existence of the unidentified male DNA samples when presenting evidence to a magistrate judge for Kohberger’s arrest warrant. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson confirmed the DNA samples were not uploaded to the FBI’s national DNA database due to eligibility requirements, but he did not dispute Taylor’s claim that this evidence was omitted from the initial warrant application. The defense contends that the omission undermines the state’s probable cause for Kohberger’s arrest, suggesting that it should disqualify certain evidence obtained through search warrants. However, Ada County District Judge Steven Hippler pushed back against this argument. “How does that, even if disclosed, preclude a finding of probable cause when there’s a DNA match between the DNA on the sheath and Mr. Kohberger?” Hippler questioned during the hearing. “Isn’t that probable cause every day and twice on Sunday?” Taylor responded that probable cause should not be considered in isolation, stating, “It’s these other things that are withheld that create a context around it. … Do we want to have one thing with no context around it when there’s this other context that really matters?” Kohberger’s defense team is seeking a Franks hearing, a legal proceeding to challenge the validity of search warrants based on alleged omissions or falsehoods in warrant applications. While such hearings are rarely granted, Taylor’s strategy suggests a broader effort to weaken the prosecution’s case. Criminal defense attorney Edwina Elcox, who previously represented Lori Vallow Daybell, told the Idaho Statesman that Kohberger’s defense will likely use the unidentified DNA evidence to “muddy the waters” at trial in an attempt to create reasonable doubt. “That evidence could be any variety of things: It could be something, or it could be a lot of things that are nothing,” Elcox said. “There’s at least something to be made of it, and it’s better than having nothing as a defense.” However, the biggest challenge for Kohberger’s defense remains the knife sheath. Prosecutors argue that the presence of Kohberger’s DNA on it—found at the scene where the four victims were stabbed—strongly supports his involvement. “That’s the thing that squarely puts him there,” Elcox said. “The magnitude of that evidence to the state’s case is critical, and cannot be understated.” Taylor maintains that no evidence directly connects Kohberger to the victims, emphasizing that police found no forensic links between him and the King Road home. “There’s no blood in his car,” Taylor said at the hearing. “He wasn’t connected to that house, to the people in the house.” Investigators, however, believe Kohberger returned to his Washington State University apartment after the attack, where police conducted a search. While they collected potential hair strands and other materials, FBI reports submitted by the defense indicate that no definitive connections were made between Kohberger and the victims. Hippler acknowledged that while additional unknown DNA at the scene could be relevant, it does not necessarily diminish probable cause against Kohberger. “There may be, as you say, other people that creates concern or issues about that need to be investigated further,” Hippler said. “But I’m not sure that that diminishes the probable cause for Mr. Kohberger if his DNA is found on a knife sheath found on or near the victim—who was stabbed with said alleged knife, that would have been in said alleged sheath.” With Kohberger’s trial set for this summer, the defense faces a difficult task in explaining how the knife sheath, allegedly bearing his DNA, was found at the crime scene if he was not involved. “I mean, that’s the ultimate question that will be ...
