ADA COUNTY, Idaho — A judge has released five rulings in the trial of Bryan Kohberger, following a court hearing last week. Kohberger is charged with the murder of four University of Idaho students in the fall of 2022.
In the hearing, the defense argued that the court should exclude testimony from Rylene Nowlin, the lab manager with the Idaho State Police Forensic Services Laboratory. Nowlin is supposed to testify regarding the "touch DNA" found on a knife sheath at the crime scene. The court ruled that Nowlin's testimony is admissible, but also told both parties to instruct their witnesses not to use the terms "touch DNA," "contact DNA," or "trace DNA."
The defense also argued a motion to exclude the eyewitness testimony from the victims' roommate, D.M., where she says that the intruder at the King Rd. home has "bushy eyebrows," arguing that her description is unreliable and therefore irrelevant. The court, however, denied the motion, stating that as the only eyewitness, D.M.'s testimony is "highly relevant."
Another motion argued last week related to surveillance videos from the areas surrounding the crime scene in Moscow. The footage shows a white sedan arriving at the crime scene around the time of the murders. The defense, with the motion, is trying to prohibit the state from referring to vehicles in different footage as "the same vehicle." The court ruled that the state will be allowed to present an expert opinion that the vehicles in the video are the same.
The defense also filed a motion attempting to prohibit the use of the words "murder" and "murderer" during the trial. The state agreed that it would be improper to refer to the defendant as a "murderer" and does not intend to do so, thus, the judge denied the motion. The terms "psychopath" and "sociopath" were also requested to be excluded by the defense, which was granted.
During last week's hearing, the court also made several oral rulings ahead of the August trial, which were reaffirmed in recent court documents.
The defense moved to prevent the state from presenting any testimony or evidence that may be considered "exceptionally inflammatory," but the judge denied the motion, stating that it was unnecessary. The prosecution is required to provide the defendant copies of any evidence they plan to introduce, which can be disputed on a case-by-case basis.
Both the state and defense also requested law enforcement's "Investigative Genetic Genealogy" testing to be excluded — while the motions were for entirely different reasons, the motions were granted due to consensus from both parties.
