Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program. The
battle over Brian Kolberger and his alibi continues to rage
in Moscow, with the prosecutors saying that they want to
limit Brian Coberger'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 Koberger 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 Colberger
wants it both ways, and up to this point, Judge
Judge has pretty much bent over backwards to make sure
that Brian Coberger 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 Reid, 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. Prosecutors want
alibi limited in Idaho's 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 Koberger's alibi, submitted earlier this
month and limit how his defense can present the evidence
a trial. Well, you would think so, right, considering the
alibi as 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 Colberger isn't
out there snapping 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 gonna 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. Leta
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 twenty twenty two quadruple homicide.
The document was filed Friday, but not posted to an
Idaho court website until late Monday. The defendant 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 thirteenth, twenty twenty two. And 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 gonna call you out on your bullshit. Now,
of course, nobody can say for sure, well, Brian Colberger
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 Colberger, and so far I haven't seen
anything from Colberger's team that challenges even a little bit
of that evidence. And as I've said from the beginning,
I doubt we're gonna see that. How are you going
to challenge that DNA on the knife sheath? Until they
can figure that out, well they're gonna have big problems.
And of course there is always prosecutorial misconduct. To try
and hang your hat on and hope that something was
a miss, 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 Colberger, 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 gonna have
to have an alibi. You're gonna 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, twenty nine, is charged with four accounts
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 Gonsalvis,
both twenty one, juniors Anna Kernodle, and freshman Ethan Chapin,
both twenty 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. Police estimate the U of
I undergrads were killed between four and four to twenty
five am at an off campus home on King Road
in Moscow, which is located about nine miles east of Pullman.
In response to prosecutors demands, Coburger's public defenders last summer
filed a 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 encountered at a pre trial hearing
in August. At that time, leta County judge, John Judge
of Idaho's second Judicial District, who is overseeing the case
also referred to Colberger's claimed whereabouts as a so called
alibi not really an alibi. Well, yeah, if nobody's there
to confirm it, if there is nobody to corroborate what
you're saying, no video evidence or anything, then you could
just say whatever you want. Right cops show up to arrescue,
you could be like, hey, it 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 the Jerry
is gonna suck that of folks. I'm sure they're just
going to be so receptive to that alibi that that's
all they're gonna need to get Brian Colberger 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 trials so prosecutors have adequate
time to prepare to disprove it. Coberger was an avid runner, hiker,
and moon and stargazer. His attorneys added in the most
recent filing, including around southeastern Washington's huahbah Waie 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 to sell tower data expert would lend
partial corroboration of their client's alibi through testimony at trial.
They wrote, Yeah, I'm sure that that's gonna stand. I'm
sure that the expert that the prosecution brings up isn't
gonna poo poo all over what Coburger's expert brings to
the table. See, it's gonna be a battle of experts,
and it's gonna come down to all the evidence. Right,
they're gonna pump fake and they're gonna try and make
it about the digital evidence if it's in favor of
Brian Colberger. But if it's not, forget it. All you're
gonna 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 cell phone stopped reporting to
the areas cell tower network at the time of the
homicides and was possibly intentionally turned off. Prosecutors ask 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 cell phone at times other than the time of
the homicides is not proof of or relevant to the
defendants specific location at the time of the homicides. Thompson wrote,
see I think that they should let him use the data.
I don't think any of it's gonna help him, And
for me, it's more about the appeal at the 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,
Coberger'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 affidavid 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 Coberger.
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. Roe J. Logsden, one of Coberger'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 pre trial hearing set for May fourteenth,
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 Dan 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 mister Coburger an open hearing is a clear violation
of his right to a public trial. All of a sudden,
he wants the 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 twenty seventh hearing is scheduled for
arguments over a possible venue change outside of Letah 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 Coohberger. All of
the information that goes with this episode can be found
in the description box,