Beyond The Horizon

ICYMI: Prosecutors Look To Limit Bryan Kohberger's Alibi

When a prosecutor seeks to limit the alibi of a suspect, it means they are attempting to challenge or restrict the evidence or testimony that supports the suspect's claim of innocence. An alibi is a defense strategy in which the accused asserts that they were somewhere else at the time the crime was committed, thus making it impossible for them to have committed the offense.Here's a breakdown of what it typically entails:

Investigation of the Alibi: The prosecutor may investigate the alibi thoroughly to determine its validity. This may involve interviewing witnesses, examining physical evidence, reviewing surveillance footage, or obtaining records that could corroborate or refute the alibi.
Challenging the Alibi: If the prosecutor believes the alibi is weak or fabricated, they may seek to challenge it during the trial. This could involve presenting contradictory evidence, questioning the credibility of alibi witnesses, or arguing that the suspect had the opportunity to commit the crime despite the alibi.
Motion to Limit or Exclude Alibi Evidence: In some cases, the prosecutor may file a motion to limit or exclude certain aspects of the alibi evidence from being presented in court. This could be based on legal grounds such as relevance, reliability, or procedural rules. For example, if the alibi witness has a history of dishonesty or bias, the prosecutor may argue that their testimony should be excluded.
Pretrial Hearing: The judge may hold a pretrial hearing to consider the prosecutor's motion to limit the alibi evidence. Both the defense and the prosecution would have the opportunity to present arguments and evidence supporting their positions.
Ruling by the Judge: The judge will make a decision based on the arguments presented and applicable legal standards. If the judge grants the prosecutor's motion, certain aspects of the alibi evidence may be restricted or excluded from the trial. If the motion is denied, the defense will be allowed to present the alibi evidence to the jury.

In this episode, we head back up to Idaho to check in on the Bryan Kohberger trial and the battle over his alibi that continues to rage inside of the courtroom.

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source:

Attorneys in Idaho student homicides argue for pretrial wins | Idaho Statesman

Duration:: 13m
Broadcast on:: 01 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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What's up everyone and welcome back to the program. The battle over Brian Coburger and his alibi continues to rage in Moscow with the prosecutors saying that they want to limit Brian Coburger's alibi in the case and the defense, well, they fired back that they want to have the DNA records unsealed. So like usual, we have a lot of contention up here in Idaho as both sides try to pound home their narrative. And I find it interesting that all of a sudden Brian Coburger and his team, they want to have things unsealed. What does that even mean? I thought we didn't want to prejudice the jury pool. So how could we have things unsealed? See Brian Coburger wants it both ways. And up to this point, Judge Judge has pretty much bent over backwards to make sure that Brian Coburger gets a fair shake. And all you have to do is take a look at what went down with Harvey Weinstein and you'll see why Judge Judge is doing what he's doing. Now I know a lot of people out there are not happy with it and I don't like the delay either. I think this show needs to get on the road. But I also think that the process matters and we have to make sure that the prosecution is doing things the right way. And so far, in my opinion anyway, this has been a master class of how to prosecute somebody up in Idaho. I mean, just take a look at the shit show with Karen Reed or take a look at what's going on down in Delphi because that is an absolute circus down there. And thankfully this hasn't descended into anything even close to that. So with that in mind, let's get right to this article from the Idaho statesman. And let's see what Kevin Fixler has for us headline prosecutor is one alibi limited in Idaho student murder case defense seeks DNA records unsealed. This article was authored by Kevin Fixler prosecutors are urging the judge in the Moscow college student murders case to reject defendant Brian Coburgers alibi submitted earlier this month and limit how his defense can present the evidence at trial. Well, you would think so right considering the alibi is complete rubbish. Oh yeah, I was out having a drive who can confirm that who can corroborate that. Well, the answer is nobody and that's why he used that as his defense as his alibi and furthermore, anybody who knows anything about taking pictures knows that Brian Coburger isn't out there snap in shots of the sky with the cell phone, at least not serious pictures. If you're looking to capture what's going on in the sky, you're going to need a better camera, right? But according to his team, he's out here taking pictures of Venus and mercury like he's the human embodiment of the Hubble telescope. I don't think anyone's buying it and the prosecution certainly isn't buying it. Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson argued in a written response that the defense has failed to meet the state's legal threshold to argue that Coburger was elsewhere than the crime scene at the time of the November 2022 quadruple homicide. The document was filed Friday but not posted to an Idaho court website until late Monday. The defendant's supplemental alibi response continues to lack the specificity required by Idaho code Thompson wrote, "The defendant is offering nothing new to his initial alibi that he was simply driving around during the morning hours of November 13th, 2022." That's really where it's at. If you don't have an alibi, you don't have one. And if you make one up, well, people are going to call you out on your bullshit. Now of course, nobody can say for sure, well, Brian Coburger wasn't out driving. And that's why we have to have this trial. We have to figure out what's what the state of Idaho has presented a whole ass tomb of evidence against Brian Coburger. And so far, I haven't seen anything from Coburger's team that challenges even a little bit of that evidence. And as I've said from the beginning, I doubt we're going to see that. How are you going to challenge that DNA on the knife sheath until they can figure that out? Well, they're going to have big problems. And of course, there is always prosecutorial misconduct to try and hang your hat on and hope that something was amiss. You know, the loopholes and technicalities, defense. But is that something you really want to hang your hat on? Or do you want to go out there and win on the merits of the evidence? The problem for people, sometimes like Brian Coburger, in my opinion, is that there's no merit of the evidence for him to use. Instead, all he's left with is the "it wasn't me" defense. And we all know that that doesn't work so well inside of a courtroom, when there is a ton of evidence leading directly back to you. So you're going to have to have an alibi, you're going to have to have a witness, somebody that can say, "Look, I was with Coburger. We were hanging out. He's not the guy who did this." And we haven't heard anything like that. All we heard is about this dude out on his little night drive and taking pictures of the night sky in the middle of nowhere. Coburger 29 is charged with four counts of first degree murder in the stabbing death of the four University of Idaho students and faces the death penalty if convicted. The victims were seniors Madison Mogan and Kaylee Gonsalves, both 21, juniors Anna Colonel and freshman Ethan Chapin, both 20. Coburger's attorneys have said that their client, who was a graduate student at nearby Washington State University in Pullman at the time, was out driving his car alone when the crime took place. We estimate the U of I undergrads were killed between 4 and 4.25 AM at an off campus home on King Road in Moscow, which is located about nine miles east of Pullman. In response, the prosecutor's demands, Coburger's public defenders last summer filed an alibi that he was out for an overnight drive by himself, as had long been his habit near the Idaho Washington State line. Oh, that's all just very convenient that this happens to be his habit, right? His hobby is driving around that night and looking at the night sky. Is that really what you're going to try and convince the jury of? Never mind us, but the jury. So if that's going to be the defense, I say good luck. We knew that already. And if that's his alibi, so be it Thompson's countered at a pretrial hearing in August. At that time, Leita County Judge John Judge of Idaho's 2nd Judicial District, who is overseeing the case, also referred to Coburger's claimed whereabouts as a so-called alibi, not really an alibi. Well, yeah, if nobody's there to confirm it, if there's nobody to corroborate what you're saying, no video evidence or anything, then you could just say whatever you want, right? Cop show up to arrest you, you could be like, hey, wasn't me? I was busy on Mars, homie. Yeah, no, I was up there with the rover, and we were looking for alien life. Oh, no, I don't have anything that corroborates that, but just take my word for it. I'm sure that Jerry's going to suck that up, folks. I'm sure they're just going to be so receptive to that alibi. That that's all they're going to need to get Brian Coburger off. I mean, it's such a good alibi. It's such a ironclad alibi that nobody can challenge that no holes can be poked in, right? Right? He later granted the defense more time to bolster their alibi defense claim, which Idaho requires be claimed and filed ahead of the trial so prosecutors have adequate time to prepare to disprove it. Coburger was an avid runner, hiker, and moon and stargazer, his attorneys added, in the most recent filing, including around southeastern Washington's Wawa Y County Park, the morning of the homicides, Coburger's cell phone data, including late night photographs from the month of the homicides, prove the claim, and a cell tower data expert would lend partial corroboration of their clients alibi through testimony at trial, they wrote, yeah, I'm sure that that's going to stand. I'm sure that the expert that the prosecution brings up isn't going to poo poo all over what Coburger's expert brings to the table. See it's going to be a battle of experts, and it's going to come down to all the other evidence, right? They're going to pump fake and they're going to try and make it about the digital evidence if it's in favor of Brian Coburger. But if it's not, forget it. All you're going to hear is how we can't trust the cell phone pings, the towers are bad, how none of that matters. Meanwhile, his whole entire alibi is hinging on that. Since Coburger's arrest about seven weeks after the homicides, police and prosecutors have alleged that the defendant's cell phone stopped reporting to the area's cell tower network at the time of the homicides and was possibly intentionally turned off. Prosecutors asked Judge to deny the defense's plan to use a cell tower data expert at trial and only allow Coburger to testify to his whereabouts if he chooses. The location of the defendant's cell phone at times other than the time of the homicides is not proof of or relevant to the defendant's specific location at the time of the homicides. Thompson wrote, "See, I think that they should let them use the data. I don't think any of it's going to help them, and for me it's more about the appeal at this point because I think that the evidence here is just so strong and unless they can get some kind of procedural victory where they can get rid of the knife sheath somehow, I don't see how they beat the DNA on that knife sheath, because that's the glue that holds everything together, so unless he can figure out how to deal with that, then it's going to be a very long road." Arguments set over closed hearing next month. In other legal filings Friday, Coburger's attorneys asked Judge to allow investigators for the defense to review FBI's forensic genetic genealogy records, the advanced police investigative technique involves using DNA from a crime scene to build a family tree through public genealogy websites to narrow the list of possible suspects. The use of investigative genetic genealogy, or IgG, in the case was not identified in the probable cause affidavit for Coburger's arrest. Thompson acknowledged six months later that the FBI employed the technique to initially arrive at Coburger as the homicide suspect and Judge eventually awarded the sealed records to the defense, but with some limits on who could review them. On Friday, the defense also requested most of the IgG records to be unsealed, so you can guarantee that they think that that'll help Brian Coburger, will it? I don't know, I haven't seen them, they're sealed still. But once they're unsealed, if they are unsealed, we'll dive into them and break it down, but as of now, even if they are unsealed, what are they going to prove or show that we don't know already? There is simply no legitimate reason that the way the IgG procedures in the case took place should be shielded from the public, Rojay Logsdon, one of Coburger's public defenders. Most materials have been sealed in this case to protect the right of a fair trial. There is simply nothing unfairly prejudicial about the way in which IgG was carried about by the state and its associates in this case. Judge also scheduled a hearing for Thursday morning to help decide whether another pretrial hearing set for May 14th should be closed to the public. Prosecutors last week asked that the hearing be closed for arguments over the defense's demand for state evidence through the legal process known as discovery, and Ann Taylor, Coburger's lead public defender objected that it should be held in an open setting. The process of sealing is being abused by the state and its law enforcement agents, including the FBI, to hide how discovery is being withheld in the case. Taylor wrote, "Not only is there no authority to protect the FBI, other law enforcement agents and the state in this matter, this request to deny Mr. Coburger in open hearing is a clear violation of his right to a public trial. All of a sudden he wants a public trial, huh? Okay, why don't you go and ask for the whole ass gag order to be removed? Let's get down with something like that, huh? Oh wait, you don't want to do that? Oh, okay, so it's not about transparency. In general, it's about what helps you. Got it. Judge has not set a date for Coburger's anticipated trial. A June 27th hearing is scheduled for arguments over a possible venue change outside of Laetaw County. So I don't think he's going to get that venue change. Now he might get jurors from a different county to come and sit in as the jurors for his trial, but I don't think it's going to get moved. But after the hearing on Thursday, we'll have another recap and we'll see what went down and where we currently stand in the state of Idaho's case against Brian Coburger. All of the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.