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Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program. We're

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getting some new information about Brian Cohberger and how he

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was arrested in twenty and fourteen. Now, the arrest in

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twenty fourteen wasn't for anything violent. He was arrested in

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twenty fourteen for stealing a cell phone from his sister,

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and according to this report, it was his father who

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turned him in. Now, the reason we didn't know about

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this previously is because his record was expunged under a

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program that's offered in the state of Pennsylvania. So let's

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dive into this article from ABC News and let's get

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caught up. Headline. Idaho college killing suspect was first arrested

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in twenty fourteen, record show. Colberger's father reported the incident

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to police. Record show this article was authored by Cana Whitworth,

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Josh Margolin, and Sasha Peasanik. Nine years before he was

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accused of killing four college students in Idaho, Brian Colberger

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was arrested in his native Pennsylvania and charged with misdemeanor

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theft for allegedly stealing his sister's iPhone, according to records

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reviewed by ABC News, When You're on drugs You'll do

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some wild shit. You'll steal from your sister, you'll steal

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from your grandmother, your best friend, It does not matter.

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It was Coburger's father, Michael, who reported the incident to police,

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according to court records. According to the records, Michael Coberger

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told law enforcement Brian had warned him not to do

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anything stupid after learning his son had taken the phone,

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adding that his son had struggled with drug addiction. Don't

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do anything stupid. Sounds like a threat to me. Brian

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Coberger's earlier run in with the law, as described in

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these records, is only now coming to light as he

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prepares to defend himself against charges he killed four University

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of Idaho students last fall. According to the records, Brian

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Kohberger was nineteen years old when he was arrested for

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the alleged theft in twenty fourteen. He served no jail time,

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according to officials, there is now no public record of

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that arrest or the outcome of the case. So nineteen

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years old and he's out here, still still in his

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sister's cell phone. Not exactly a solid mark in the

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category of character building. Monroe County, Pennsylvania, offers first time

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offenders the opportunity to enter into a pre trial program

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called Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, which allows for charges to be

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dropped and the record to be expunged once the accused

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successfully completes probation. I think that's a pretty good program. Honestly,

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as long as we're not talking about violent offenders here,

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I think that getting your record exploded is a good thing,

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and it helps society as long as you're somebody who's

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looking to change. If not, well, it doesn't matter because

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you're going to get another charge eventually and your ass

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is gonna end up in jail. But for people who

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just make one mistake, I think a program like this

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is a solid idea, especially for those who aren't committing

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violent crimes. Now, when we start talking about violent crime,

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that's a different story. If you're going to go out

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there and cause all kinds of chaos and be a

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violent scumbag, well you deserve to sit behind bars. Martin

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Sodo Diaz, an attorney representing the Coburger family, declined to

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comment on the record describing the earlier arrest. The District

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Attorney's office in Monroe County also had no comment, and

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I wouldn't expect the county to have any comment whatsoever,

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especially because this record was expunged, so they're not going

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to really comment on anything like that besides to say, hey,

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go look at the official record. In a court filing Monday,

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Idaho prosecutor Is announced they intend to seek the death

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penalty against Brian Kolberger for the alleged murders. It remains

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to be seen whether the alleged incident in twenty fourteen

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and his previous alleged history with substance abuse will have

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any bearing or offer any clues in relation to what

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happened in the early morning hours of November thirteenth, twenty

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twenty two, when four college students Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogan,

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Xana Kernodle, and Kaylee Gonsalvez were stabbed to death at

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an off campus home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho. Well,

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I don't think it'll have any direct bearing, but I

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think it goes towards the character of the person who's

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in question here. What kind of dirtbag steals from their sister. Now,

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of course, stealing from your sister doesn't make you a murderer,

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But when you're building a profile of somebody, you have

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to go back to their teenage years and take a

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look at how they were behaving and then work from there.

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And now that this record is becoming available, it certainly

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adds to the fact that Brian Colberger was a bit

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of a degenerate, right, A source briefed on the case

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told ABC News the alleged twenty fourteen incident is now

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subject of inquiry for prosecutors in Idaho as they prepare

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for an impending capital trial that could start as early

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as October. And while that's when the trial is set

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to kick off, I have my doubts that we're going

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to see this thing kick off on time. You want

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to get all the puzzle pieces figured out, even as

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you keep finding new pieces, said ABC News Law enforcement

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contributor Richard Frankel, a retired senior FBI official and former

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prosecutor in the New York City suburb of Suffolk County.

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You're working to figure out how they all fit together,

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Frankel said, speaking generally on investigative procedure for building a case.

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And that's that's what it is. It's a gigantic puzzle.

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As an investigator, you start at the corners and you

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build it piece by piece until an image begins to emerge.

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And to do that effectively, you can't leave any stone unturned.

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As an investigator, one that's a big jump to go

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from an alleged non violent theft and from a family

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member to being charged with multiple homicides, and two eight

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years is a long time for nothing to happen, Frankel said,

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So I would want to know, both as a prosecutor

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and as an investigator, what he did in those years

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in between. And I still think that's a pretty big

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mystery what Brian Cohberger was up to all these years

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before these murders happened. Now we've heard from some people

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that knew him, some people that used to hang out

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with them, But how many people really knew Brian Cohberger

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and what he was up to or what sort of

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thoughts he was really Harboring ABC News contributor Robert Boyd,

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the retired chief of detectives for the New York City

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Police Department, said what you look for now is was

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this a foundational moment and was this a precursor for

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things to come? You know, I think that's a bit

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of a leap While this news is a little piece

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of the puzzle, it certainly isn't some kind of groundbreaking

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bombshell that tells us that Brian Coberger is capable of

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committing for homicides. Just because you steal from your sister

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doesn't mean you're capable of murdering people. It makes you

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a scumbag, of course, but it doesn't mean that you're

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capable of doing what we saw happen in Moscow. A

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trial in the quadruple homicide has been set for October second,

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though that could be delayed. Brian Coberger is due to

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appear at the Layta County Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon for

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another in an ongoing series of pre trial hearings connected

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to the murder case. He is being held without bail

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at the Layta County Jail. Brian Koberger's team is pushing

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for a pause in his case while the defense and

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prosecution argue over the scope of which grand jury materials

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can or should be released. His lawyers are looking to

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determine whether there are grounds to dismiss his indictment based

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on the way the grand jury was selected according to

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court documents, and nobody should be shocked by this loopholes

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being exploited, loopholes being navigated. That's what happens when you

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don't have the evidence on your side. But with that said,

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if the prosecution did make any missteps, if they're stepping

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on Brian Colberger's constitutional rights, then they need to be

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dealt with as well. The defense is asking Idaho prosecutors

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to disclose more information about their investigation, including more detail

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on their forensic DNA analysis and information obtained from cell

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phone records, according to court filings. The hearing Tuesday is

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also expected to focus on Brian Coolberger's requests for more

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time to decide whether to offer an alibi a trial,

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as his attorneys say they are trying to navigate the

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large and still ongoing discovery process. According to recent court filings,

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doesn't that go directly in the face of what they're

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saying that they're not getting enough discovery material. If you

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have all these mountains of discovery to get through, then

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what are you even talking about when you're trying to

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infer that the prosecution is holding stuff back. Prosecutors said

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they wouldn't object to a reasonable extension to decide so

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long as any potential alibi is offered within the next month.

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Back in Pennsylvania, on Saturday, February eighth, twenty fourteen, Brian

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Colberger had recently exited a rehab center and rejoined the family,

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his father told police, according to the records reviewed by

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ABC News, home from rehab, Brian took his sister Melissa's iPhone,

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which had an estimated value of four hundred dollars, Michael

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Colberger told police, According to the records, authority said. According

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to the records, Brian Colberger paid a friend twenty dollars

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to pick him up and take him to a local mall,

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where he sold the phone for two hundred dollars at

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an automated Kiosk for used electronics. The records say Brian

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Colberger was charged with misdemeanor theft and offer no further

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explanation about what happened from there. With any case, we'd

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always do a timeline, and on this case, I'd want

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to do the timeline not just of the actual alleged

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Tomiside incident, minute by minute, but also I would want

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to do a behavioral timeline from his teens into his adulthood,

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because I want to know who this guy is. Frankel said,

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it all goes to the assessment of his character. It

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may also help me when I interview other people about him,

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because I may know what the right questions are going in.

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Frankel added, and that's why it's important to go through

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somebody's whole ass life and figure out what they were

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up to. Now, it doesn't mean that because you were

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on drugs or you stole from your sister that you're

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a murderer. I just want to reiterate that. But when

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you're building a profile of somebody, you have to add

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all of it in so that you get a complete

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and robust picture of who this person is. Brian Coberger,

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now twenty eight, was indicted in Idaho last month and

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charged with four counts of first degree murder and one

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count of burglary. At his Idaho arraignment in late May,

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Brian Colberger declined to offer a plea, so the judge

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entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Authorities alleged

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that in the early morning hours of November thirteenth, Brian Cohberger,

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a criminology PhD student at Washington State University, broke into

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an off campus home and stabbed to death of four

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students from the nearby University of Idaho. After a more

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than six week hunt, according to police documents, police zeroed

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in on Brian Colberger as a suspect, tracking is why

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Honda a Lantra cell phone signal data and recovering what

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authorities say was his DNA on a knife sheath found

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next to one of the victim's bodies. And that's the

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evidence that looms the largest against Brian Coberger. It's the

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glue that binds all of this together. And if they

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can find a way to challenge that DNA on the

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knife sheath, then we have a whole different conversation. But

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so far they haven't offered anything in the way of

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evidence that that knife sheath didn't belong to Brian Coberger,

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and they certainly didn't say in those court filings that

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one of those three unknown male DNA profiles was the

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real killer. The DNA evidence taken from the knife sheath

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at the crime scene showed a statistical match with a

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cheek swab taken directly from Brian Coberger after his arrest,

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authority said in a recent filing, and that was what

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the bukele swab was. When they went and arrested him.

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They brought the cheek swab with them so they could

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take that DNA swab right there at the scene. Brian

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Coberger's attorneys pushed back on that analysis in several recent

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court filings, casting doubt on whether that DNA evidence irrefutability

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implicates their client, saying the statistical probability is not an

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absolute and pointing to what they called a total lack

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of DNA evidence from the victims in Coburger's home or car.

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He was arrested on December thirtieth, twenty twenty two, at

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his family's home in Pennsylvania, after driving cross country to

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spend the holidays in all Brightsville. Some of Brian Colberger's

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childhood acquaintances have recalled to ABC News that the quiet,

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but funny person they knew began to alienate some of

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his friends in high school as his drug habit developed.

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Casey Arnes, who went to high school with Coburger, told

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ABC News he would ask her for rides that she

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later found out were to buy drugs. Brian used me to,

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you know, drive him around to get heroin. Aren't said.

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A lot of people are like, well, why are you

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still friends with them? After that, and I'm like, because

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you gotta forgive him. I mean, you can't fault him

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for being so sucked down this hole. And I did.

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I did forgive him. So while this new revelation of

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Brian Cohberger being arrested at nineteen years old for stealing

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the iPod certainly isn't earth shattering, it is worth discussing

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and adding to the catalog as we continue to build

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a profile and see who Brian Colberger is and who

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Brian Cohberger was. All Right, folks, that's gonna do it

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for this one. All of the information that goes with

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the episode can be found in the description box.