Alert – Bryan Kohberger’s defense dealt major blow as judge blasts his wild claim FOUR other suspects could have committed the Idaho murders

Bryan Kohberger has been dealt a huge blow to his defense after an Idaho judge slapped down his efforts to point the finger at four alternate suspects – blasting his legal team’s evidence as ‘entirely irrelevant’ and ‘wild speculation.’

In a scathing order handed down Thursday, Judge Steven Hippler blocked the accused mass killer’s defense from presenting evidence to the jury at his capital murder trial alleging that these mystery individuals – and not Kohberger – could be the real killer or killers.

This marks a major defeat for Kohberger’s defense strategy in a case where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the brutal murders of Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen.

In the order, Judge Hippler hammered the defense team, saying that the evidence presented to the court was ‘entirely irrelevant’ and that the attorneys had not shown a ‘scintilla of competent evidence connecting [the four alleged alternate suspects] to the crime.’ 

‘Here, the evidence Defendant has offered purporting to establish the four individuals as alternate perpetrators abjectly fails to meet the Meister standard. Namely, the evidence is entirely irrelevant,’ Hippler wrote. 

‘Nothing links these individuals to the homicides or otherwise gives rise to reasonable inference that they committed the crime; indeed, it would take nothing short of rank speculation by the jury to make such a finding.’

The judge added: ‘At best, Defendant’s offer of proof can give rise to only wild speculation that it is possible any one of these four individuals could have committed the crimes.’

While the order was redacted to conceal the identities of the individuals named as apparent alternate suspects, it revealed for the first time that the defense had pointed to four people as the possible killer or killers.

Three of these individuals knew one or more of the victims.

The fourth was not known to the victims, but had a ‘passing connection’ to either Kernodle, Mogen or Goncalves around five weeks before the murders.

Best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (left) and young couple Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle (right)

All four had cooperated with law enforcement, providing DNA samples, fingerprints and allowing searches as requested. 

Each of their DNA was excluded from samples taken from the crime scene and from the victims, the judge said.

‘There is no evidence connecting them to the crime scene,’ the judge wrote. 

‘Three of the individuals were each socially connected to one or more of the victims, interacted with one or more of the victims at social events in the hours prior to the homicide, lived within walking distance of the crime scene and were familiar with the layout of the victims’ home from prior social events,’ the judge wrote. 

‘While perhaps this evidence could suggest an opportunity to commit the crime – which, no doubt, is an opportunity shared by dozens of others in the victims’ social circles – there is no compelling evidence that any of them had motive to kill the victims – much less physically harm them – or means to do so.’

According to the judge, the fourth man had noticed the victim while she was shopping at a store around five weeks before the killings.

He had ‘followed her briefly out the exit of the store while considering approaching her to talk.’

The man turned away before ever speaking to her, the judge wrote, and the incident was captured on surveillance camera. 

Like the other three individuals named, Judge Hippler said the man had cooperated with police and provided his phone number and DNA sample.     

Bryan Kohberger snapped this creepy selfie six hours after the brutal Moscow murders

In denying the motion, the identities of these apparent alternate suspects – and what evidence the defense claimed to have – will likely never be publicly known.

Kohberger’s lead attorney Anne Taylor said in a hearing back in May that they had found a lead about alternate suspects among a trove of tips collected by law enforcement during the original investigation.

The judge said that the defense’s argument – which was presented in a closed-door hearing last week – ‘fails to give rise to even an inference that [any of the four individuals] committed the crimes or otherwise make it more or less likely that Defendant was the perpetrator; therefore, it is irrelevant.’ 

As well as blasting the defense’s lack of evidence, the judge said that allowing the alternate suspect theory at trial ‘would invite the jury to blame unrepresented persons for heinous crime when there is not scintilla of competent evidence connecting them to the crime’ and ‘would do nothing more than waste the precious time’ of the jury and the court in what is already a lengthy trial.

While the defense cannot present the theory of an alternate perpetrator at the trial, the judge ruled that Kohberger’s team will be able to cross-examine law enforcement ‘regarding the reasonableness of its investigation and its follow-up on plausible leads’ in the case.

In another loss for the accused killer, the judge also issued a second order denying his 11th-hour bid to delay the capital murder trial.

‘Defendant has not made showing that there is good cause to continue the trial or that his substantial rights will be prejudiced by proceeding to trial as scheduled,’ the judge wrote. 

During a hearing last week, Kohberger’s lead attorney Anne Taylor pushed for an indefinite delay to proceedings, following recent publicity about the case.

She argued, in particular, that a recent Dateline episode had revealed bombshell new details and suggested there had been an evidence leak from someone close to the case.

The home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, where the four students were murdered

Other upcoming media – James Patterson’s book ‘The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy’ and Prime Video’s ‘One Night in Idaho,’ both out in July – will also trigger another wave of media coverage just before jury selection gets underway, she argued – as she urged the judge to ‘allow some space between what has recently happened in the media.’

But Judge Hippler disagreed, writing that ‘the longer the public is made to sit and wait for the facts to come out at trial, the more time there is for inflammatory, speculative stories, movies and books to circulate and more time for prior ones to be rebroadcast, purchased, viewed and consumed by the public.’ 

‘Here, there is no assurance that the pretrial publicity will fade with time. The murders occurred over two and one-half years ago. 

Judge Steven Hippler handed down the damning rulings Thursday

‘The circumstances of the murders were provocative four college students in small Idaho college town were brutally stabbed to death by an unknown perpetrator. It was an immediate media sensation and garnered widespread attention that not only continues to persist, but continues to grow,’ he wrote.

Despite the publicity surrounding the case, the judge said that an impartial jury can be found through a ‘robust’ jury selection process.

The judge also pushed back on the defense’s argument it needed more time to investigate Kohberger’s ‘life story’ ahead of the potential penalty phase – where they will argue mitigating factors to save him from the death penalty. 

The order revealed that, as part of its two-year preparation for a potential penalty phase, the defense has already interviewed two of Kohberger’s fourth grade teachers, his former boxing coach, former psychologist and his professor and advisor at DeSales University.

In heavily-redacted sections of the order, the judge referred to what the defense claimed was ‘recently discovered [redacted]’ which ‘have raised “red flags” that Defendant may have [redacted].’ 

While it is unclear what the defense is arguing Kohberger has, experts for his legal team have already diagnosed him with autism, OCD and/or ADHD.

The judge wrote that the argument that more time is needed to investigate this possibility ‘smacks of tactical gamesmanship and delay’ and said that he would not delay the trial indefinitely ‘to allow the defense team to embark on fishing expedition, pulling at every conceivable thread in Defendant’s familial tapestry.’

Now, following more than two years of legal wrangling, delays and the trial being moved to another county, Kohberger will finally head to trial this summer.

In a minor update to the court schedule, Judge Hippler announced that closed-door hearings will be held July 28 through to early August.

Jury selection will then begin August 4, with opening statements expected to take place August 18.

Over in Pennsylvania, hearings are set to take place next week to determine whether people from Kohberger’s past life in his home state will be ordered to testify in the trial in Idaho.

Kohberger is accused of killing the four University of Idaho students in a stabbing rampage inside an off-campus student home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.

Two other roommates were inside the home at the time of the attack and called 911 after finding one of their friend’s bodies hours later.

Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, on December 30, 2022.

The criminology PhD graduate was connected to the murders after his DNA was found on a Ka-Bar leather knife sheath found next to Mogen’s body at the scene.

Prosecutors also found cellphone records placing him outside the student home multiple times prior to the murders, as well as surveillance footage showing a vehicle matching his white Hyundai Elantra speeding away from the crime scene.

One of the surviving roommates – Dylan Mortensen – also saw a masked white man, dressed in all black and with ‘bushy eyebrows’ inside the home that fateful night. She is expected to be a star witness in the trial.

The motive for the murders remains a mystery and Kohberger has no known connection to any of the victims.

He stood silent at his arraignment, with a judge entering a not guilty plea on his behalf.

If convicted, he faces the death penalty which, due to changes in Idaho law, means he could be sent to the firing squad.