Beyond The Horizon
Murder In Moscow: A Trial Date Has Been Set By Judge John Judge (6/28/24)
Judge John Judge has recently set a trial date for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have been negotiating a suitable date for the trial, initially proposing summer 2024 to avoid academic disruptions in the college town of Moscow. However, the defense has argued for a summer 2025 date, citing the vast amount of evidence that needs to be reviewed, including thousands of photographs, videos, and over 400 witnesses.
Now, after much back and forth by both sides and the state, a trial date has finally been set and that date? June 2nd 2025.
Let's dive in!
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to contact me:
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source:
Judge sets murder trial date for Bryan Kohberger, suspect in Moscow college student deaths | The Spokesman-Review
- Duration:
- 11m
- Broadcast on:
- 28 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
What's up everyone and welcome back to the program. After many delays and much back and forth, we finally have a trial date for Brian Coburger up in Moscow. And this all occurred yesterday during the hearing when he appeared before Judge John Judge in hopes that they could come to some sort of agreement, some sort of decision when it comes to a trial date, and it looks like they finally have. And if you're the family members, you have to be over the moon about this. Finally the train has left the station and that means that hopefully justice is on the way. Now we still are a long way off from any convictions or anything like that obviously, but to know that we have a trial date, to know that things are moving in the right direction, that's a big deal. And it's an even bigger deal for the families. All of us are sitting here on the sidelines and we're all outraged right? But how do you think the family members feel? And I know that we've heard from the Gonsalbus family a lot, but I'm sure that the other family members of the other victims, they have a lot to say about this too, they just might be a little more reserved. They don't want the attention, they don't want the spotlight, they just want to get on with the trial phase of this and hold somebody to account for murdering their loved ones. And thankfully it looks like we're getting to that point. Now with that said, we always have to keep in mind that things can change. There can be another delay, something could pop up that throws everything into chaos. You know, there's a lot of variables and a whole lot of time between now and then. So we always have to keep in mind that things can rapidly change. Maybe the defense is successful with some of their, you know, inquiries here. Maybe they get something thrown out, maybe they show that there was prosecutorial misconduct. And obviously all of those are just scenarios that could happen, but they're all possible. So I wouldn't get too excited and start marking my calendars just yet. However, I think with Judge Judge, putting this date on the books and both sides being down with it, I think the likelihood of this being the kickoff date is pretty strong. But like everything else, I always leave that headroom. We've seen things change rapidly way too many times and that certainly could be the case here at some point. But for now, we have a trial date and today we're going to talk about it using the spokesman review. Headline Judge sets murder trial date for Brian Kohlberger, the suspect in the Moscow college student desk. This article was authored by Kevin Fixler. The trial date for Brian Kohlberger, the suspect in the University of Idaho student homicides, is set. But where the trial may be held is still undecided. I can't believe that argument's still happening. It's one of my biggest gripes with this whole thing. Why are we wasting time talking about venue changes? Everybody in Idaho knows who Brian Kohlberger is. I don't care where you go. I mean, at this point, Nanook of the North knows who Brian Kohlberger is. Never mind some guy living in some small town in Idaho. Everybody has the internet. Everybody has, you know, satellite TV or whatever. It's not like the old days. And this is still a point of contention. This is still gumming things up. So my one big right with all of these delays has been this whole change of venue BS. This is nothing more than a stall tactic and another way for the defense to stretch things out. Judge John Judge of Idaho's 2nd Judicial District in Laitau County at a hearing Thursday schedule Kohlberger's murder trial for June next year and planned for a three month long trial. That timeline would carry that trial through most of August of 2025. Can you imagine what kind of circus-like atmosphere is going to be up there in Idaho? I mean, look at what's going on with Karen Reid. Take a look at what's going on in Delphi. And can you imagine what this is going to be like? There's going to be a lot of people up here, folks, a lot of people, and a lot of those people are going to have main character syndrome. Have you seen what's going on with that Karen Reid trial? Talk about a bunch of ingrades. All those people who have inserted themselves into the story really have no business ever following a case ever again. And the people that are supporting those sorts of folks, I mean for real for real? It's all just absurd. You have factions forming and treating it like it's some kind of football game or something. A man lost his life and a woman's on trial for hers. And you're going to get out here and try and make it about you competing factions? Get a grip already. And as we move closer to the trial portion here, I expect the same sort of thing. You know, there's going to be people out there that are acting the fool. As I look through all of this, there's going to be a lot of emotions, a lot of hearings, a lot of work, judge told the court on Thursday, and I tried to balance this out. And I do think it's a pretty fair balance. And I hope that it's realistic. And I think it is. I think that's plenty of time for this trial, honestly. We're talking about roughly three months and with how complex this is and how much evidence there is here. Yeah, I think three months is the right way to go. And then obviously, if you need to change it, then I'm sure that you can get both sides to the table and you can figure something out from there. But I think that three months is going to be sufficient with the amount of evidence that we're going to see in this case. Remember, this is complex. We're talking about four people being murdered. And not only that, but you have federal agencies working with state agencies. So there's a lot going on. And there's going to be a lot of evidence presented come trial time. After the hearing, Judge issued his written order for the trial to begin on June 2, 2025 and run through August 29, 2025. The filing lists a slew of other motions and hearing deadlines leading up to the closely watched case. Judge said he expected it to take two weeks to see it a jury and eight weeks for the trial. And all of that seems to add up like I was just saying. When you look at these other big trials, these other trials of note, that's usually what goes down. And I think that our best blueprint here is to look at what went down with Chad DeBell and Lori Valo, very high profile cases located right at Idaho under the same rules, right? The state rules that they have to follow for DeBell and Valo. Same rules have to follow with Coburger. So I think that the blueprint is there. And I think that we can take a lot from those trials, Valo and DeBell and extrapolate that and move it over to Coburger's trial, logistically speaking. Coburger 29 faces four first degree murder charges in the stabbing deaths of the U of I students in November of 2022. The victims were seniors, Caylee Gonzalez and Madison Morgan, both 21, juniors, Zana Colonel and freshman Ethan Chapin. Sentencing if Coburger is convicted could take up to two weeks, Judge said, including arguments for and against execution. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Coburger. To keep in mind, the burden of proof is knocked to another level when you're looking for that death penalty. So you're going to have to prove everything. You can't leave anything on the table. And as prosecutors, you better make sure you have everything tied in and locked up. Because Ann Taylor, who is a competent lawyer as we've all seen, is going to challenge every single motion, every step of the way. So the prosecution better have everything tied up and ready to go, because if not, they could face serious issues. We've seen it time and time again. Prosecutors and Coburger's public defense team offered no objections to Judge proposed timeline. The schedule date met the prosecutors prior request for a trial over the summer to avoid conflicts with the local high school and the academic calendar for UI and Moscow where the four victims attended college. And Taylor, Coburger's lead public defender, called a trial schedule reasonable but noted she had yet to present evidence over her push to move the trial out of La Ta County over concerns of local, juror bias against her client. The prosecution opposes moving the trial elsewhere in the state and a hearing over the issue is scheduled for August 29th. If that motion is granted, the court anticipates that the trial dates will not change, although the location of the trial would, Judge said in his written order. The hearing Thursday, which Coburger attended, wearing a navy blue suit and tie lasted less than 15 minutes. Seated next to Taylor, he stood up at its conclusion, was directed by a bailiff and shuffled out of sight of the court's live web stream wearing shackles around his ankles. Well get used to that buddy. That's gonna be your attire for quite some time if this evidence holds. At the time of the homicides, Coburger was a graduate student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman. He was arrested about seven weeks after the homicides in December 2022 while visiting his parents in Eastern Pennsylvania during the winter break from school. Coburger was arraigned in May 2023 and stood silent when asked for his plea to the charges, which also includes one felony burglary count. Judge entered a plea of not guilty on Coburger's behalf and set a trial date of October of 2023. Until Thursday, that initial date was indefinitely postponed after Coburger later waved his right to a speedy trial within six months of his arraignment. And in high profile cases like this with a lot of evidence, that's pretty common. Because there's so much evidence to get through, people want to give their defense team time to go through that evidence properly and make sure that they're not missing anything. So you'll see people like this wave their right to a speedy trial and it can knock things into a different century almost. We're about 13 months from the arraignment and I think at this point, this is my opinion, that we're getting the point of diminishing returns. Judge said Thursday. He then proposed June 2025 for the high profile murder trial. The parents of Kayleigh Gonsalves have been some of the biggest proponents of scheduling a trial date and also criticized the perceived slow pace of the legal process to this point. In a statement to the statesmen on Thursday through their attorney, the Gonsalves said they hope that the trial remained in Leita County to help avoid any further delays. And I think most people feel that way. Anybody who was involved or affected, people who live in Moscow, Leita County, they want it there. If you commit the crime in the county that I live in, then I want you to face the punishment in that same county. That's how it's all set up. That's how our system works. And I don't think Brian Kohberger should be allowed to dip duck and dodge and get out of it. It was a good day today. We were able to get a trial date set and things appear to be moving forward. The Gonsalves family said, "We moved a little closer to justice today for Kayleigh, Maddie, Zana and Ethan. Thank you again for all of your support and prayers. It means a lot to our family." If Kohberger is convicted, the jury would have to reach a unanimous decision to sentence him to death per Idaho law. And I don't think that'll be a problem. I mean, again, considering what we just saw with Chad Debel, I highly doubt that if Brian Kohberger is convicted of murdering four people with his own hands, that he's not going to get the death penalty. I have a very, very hard time believing that. But if I learned one thing when it comes to following along with these trials, it's that anything can happen and that you better have your seatbelt locked in because you're in for a wild ride. The good news is, we're going to be here every step of the way, breaking it all down as it happens. As for this one, well, that's going to do it. All of the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.