Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
this episode, we're picking up where we left off with
the declaration of Brian Edelman in support of Brian Coohberger. Meanwhile,
the university continues work on developing a memorial garden at
an undetermined on campus location. The UI is also planning
a memorial and garden to honor the four victims and
a kernodle Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogan, and Kaylee Gonsalves. Green
said the plans being developed by a committee of student representation.
The university is also in the process of designing a
memorial garden on campus to honor Kernodle Chapin, Mogan, and Gonsalvas.
Scholarships have been created in memory of Kernodle Chapin and Mogen.
The UI is currently working with the Gonsalvas family to
develop a fourth scholarship in her name. Mementos left by
local residents to honor the victims were seen next to
the house's parking lot. The four students received posthumous degrees
and certificates at UI's spring commencement ceremony. The house owner
donated the property to UI in February and university officials
have said they plan to tear down the house. Green
said demolishing the house will be a healing step for
the community, but the demolition plans are on hold until
October after some of the victim's families asked the university
for a delay until the suspect in the slaying stands trial.
The King Rode Home, where a four University of Idaho
students were murdered in November, will likely be demolished before
the start of the fall semester, a university official says.
After the murders, the property owner donated the home to
the UI, which plan to demolish it before the start
of the school's fall semester as a healing gesture for
the community and to prevent efforts to sensationalize the crime scene.
The King Road House, the crime scene where four University
of Idaho students were murdered last year, was demolished early
in the morning this Thursday. With construction crew's beginning demolition
at six thirty am. Members of the media surrounded the
house and directed their cameras toward the destruction. Walker confirmed
that one hundred percent of the apartments and houses surrounding
the King Road House house students and that the presence
of the house affected those students. We heard from students
in the area that they were ready for the house
to come down. Shannon Gray, an attorney for the Gonsalvis family,
said the university is disregarding family's requests that the home
be left standing until after Coberger's trial. We just want
justice for our loved ones. The statement read, we want
to start healing. We do. We want to find justice
and try to move on from this horrible tragedy. So
please please start making some decisions, get to work, and
quit playing the delay game. The previously unidentified former roommate
at the King Road House in Moscow, where four University
of Idaho students were killed in the late twenty twenty two,
has publicly come forward in her efforts to contribute to
the lasting legacy of her friends. Said she chose to
speak out for the first time to honor the lives
lost and bring awareness to college students about being safe
on social media platforms. It crosses my mind more or
than that could have happened while I was there, and
you know, you never know how long someone's watching your
house couch said in her interview, with kx LYTV and Spokane.
I remember my last text message to her. I was like,
are you okay? And I feel like, right then and there,
I kind of just knew that something was wrong. I
mean I couldn't even walk out to my car in
the dark for months after it happened, Couch told the
TV station. Now, Couch and her mother have found a nonprofit,
the Maid with Kindness Foundation, to raise money for outreach
and a national scholarship fund. Couch said she wants to
ensure her former roommates are remembered in a positive light
rather than in the way in which their lives were taken.
The parents of the victims Gonsalvests, have consistently vented frustration
about the length of time the case is taken more
than eighteen months and counting since Coburger's arrest to bring
to trial. The court needs to take control of the
case and the attorneys involved, the Gonsalvest family said in
a statement obtained by The Idaho Statesman two hearings last month.
As long as the court continues to entertain anything in
everything at every hearing, the delay will never end. The
victim's families want justice, but just as importantly, we want
the case to move forward. Family members of one of
the victims in November quadruple homicide in Moscow or urging
people to complete random acts of kindness on her behalf today.
The media has also kept this case in the public's
consciousness by providing constant updates on court proceedings, no matter
how trivial. These hearings have covered a range of topics,
from the court imposed gag order to evidentiary disputes. As
part of the coverage of the victim's families in the
public have been critical of perceived efforts by the defense
to delay the trial. There was also significant coverage surrounding
the defense change of venue survey, which came to light
after the government filed and unseal motion to stop the
data collection process. This resulted in another deluge of prejudicial
coverage and discussion on social media and YouTube. After two
hearings were streamed on COURTI and watch by thousands, the
media drew on the prosecutions, court filing and arguments during
the live stream proceedings, accusing the defense of spreading misinformation
and tanking the jury pool. The coverage fed the public
perception that the defense was trying to undermine the judicial
process or get Coburger off on a legal technicality, and
further undermine the Court's efforts to stem the flow of
information to prospective jurors. Examples of this media coverage include
Leayta County Prosecutor Bill Thompson and the questions on the
survey were completely inappropriate for potential jurors, and that the
information in the questions was false and it admissible, and
that the question violated the non dissemination order. Leayta County
Prosecutor Bill Thompson argued the survey is violating the court's
non dissemination order that prohibits attorneys from making out of
court statements about the case to the public. That is
reckless conduct and its outrageous, Thompson said. About the survey questions,
Thompson reiterated that Colberger's defense is allowed to conduct a survey,
but the questions in this particular survey were inappropriate and
jeopardized Colburger's right to a fair trial. We're trying to
salvage a mess, Thompson said. Thompson's office found out about
the survey questions in March from a Lata resident who
recorded the phone survey. Thompson accused Edelman's survey of including
loaded questions that introduce information, including false information about the
case to the survey takers. In his closing statement, Thompson said,
it seems the defense is okay with tanting jurors to
ascertain the bias of other potential jurors. Thompson accused Edelman's
survey of including loaded questions that introduced false information to
the case to the survey takers. Thompson said that information
is now planted into the Layta County residents who took
the survey. I do not question the right of the
defense to commission surveys, responsible proper surveys as part of
the debate over venue, but this survey cannot stand, Thompson said.
The prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge in the Brian Colburger
case participated in a heated argument Thursday regarding due process
and a survey of potential jurors in Leayta County. Judge
John Judge was frustrated about the survey. This was a
total shock to me because this is a big deal
and I take it very very seriously, and I was surprised, okay,
that this was happening behind our backs, my back, Judge said.
He said that the survey happening without the commission of
the court or the state, was troublesome, and that the
questions planted seeds to encourage people to look up information
about the case. Taylor and Judge got into a heated
argument over due process stemming from judges order filed on
March twenty second that prohibited the defense and prosecution from
contacting potential jurors about the case. This was in response
to the survey Leayta County District Judge John Judge prohibited
Coburger's attorneys and the prosecution from contacting potential jurors about
this case. In a March twenty second order, the defense
in the Brian Colberger case has been ordered to pause
surveying potential jurors in Laytai due to problematic questions. They
asked four hundred potential jurors. The list of questions that
were of a concern to the prosecution include information on
Coburger's arrest, DNA evidence found at the crime scene that
was matched to Colburger, Colburger owning the same car recorded
on video driving in the neighborhood where the murders occurred,
cell phone data showing Coburger making several trips to the
victim's home in the month before the killings, University students
and parents living in fear until Coburger's arrest, Coburger's alibi,
Coburger potentially stalking one of the victims, and if Colburger
followed one of the victims on social media. Judge expressed
disappointment in the survey by saying the prosecution and defensive
work so hard to protect a fair trial, which was
the point of the non dissemination order. He is concerned
the survey will inject prejudicial information into the jury pool.
Judge John Judge will decide whether a survey of potential
jurors in the Brian Colburger case inappropriately spread prejudicial information
about the case. Prosecutor Bill Thompson took issue with several
questions and a phone survey created by Brian Edelman, who
is a survey expert hired by Colberger's defense attorney and Taylor.
The question Thompson is concerned about asked the participants if
they have read, seen, or heard about certain details about
the Coburger case. Some of the details are not even true,
Thompson said. They include questions about whether the participant knows
about the knife sheath allegedly found at the crime scene,
the multiple visits to the crime scene Colburger allegedly took,
that Moscow residents lived in fear of following the crime,
and that Coburger had allegedly stalked his victims. Thompson is
concerned about specific questions regarding what he says is false
information that was not on the probable cause affid David.
One of those questions asked survey takers if they read, seen,
or heard reports that Coburger stalked his victims. When Thompson
questioned Edelman about the survey, the exchange between the two
men became heated, and Taylor accused Thompson of badgering Edelman.
Leta County District Judge John Judge is allowing Brian Colberger's
defense to continue asking potential jurors to participate in a
survey regarding the quadruple murder case. Judge officially lifted his
previous order banning the defense from contacting prospective jurors in
Leaytai County and other Idaho counties. In conclusion, My review
of pre child publicity indicates that Leayta County jerrypool has
been saturated with prejudicial coverage surrounding the sensational murders of
four University of Idaho students, the ensuing search for the killer,
public statements from the victims, family members, and evidentiary details.
After Brian Colberger's arrest, the media reported extensively on alleged evidence,
some of which proved to be false or misleading. These
killings and shockwaves through the local community and generated a
state of panic. Between twenty five percent forty percent of
the student body failed to return to Moscow after the
Thanksgiving break. Before the defendant's arrest, there was widespread frustration
with the lack of details made public about the ongoing investigation.
With minimal official information available, speculation and misinformation proliferated. The
survey data indicate that the media coverage has negatively impacted
the Layta County jerrypool. For example, ninety eight percent of
the Latai County survey respondents have read, seen, or heard
about the case, and eighty six percent recognized at least
four of nine media items tested in the survey. Eighty
one percent of those familiar with the case of Red
seen or heard that police found a knife sheath on
the bed next to one of the victims, and sixty
seven percent heard that DNA found on the sheath match
Brian Colberger. In addition, eighty eight percent of Layta County
survey respondents have talked about this case or heard others
talking about it in person or online. The media coverage
has also shifted the burden of proof to the defendant.
Many community members exposed to prejudicial media coverage hold a
presumption of guilt in this case. Sixty seven percent of
survey respondents familiar with the case believe that Brian Colberger
is guilty of murder, and fifty one percent reported that
he would have a difficult time convincing them otherwise. All right,
we're going to wrap up this episode here and in
the next episode, we're going to pick up with six
telephone Survey. All of the information that goes with this
episode can be found in the description box.