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Victims’ families say ‘quit playing the delay game’ as Bryan Kohberger trial pushed to 2025

March 4, 2024 | | Print Article

The parents of four Idaho students who were brutally slaughtered in 2022 are furious over suspect Bryan Kohberger’s trial being delayed until 2025.

The sole witness that survived that night came face to face with a masked intruder after the four undergrad students were stabbed to death in Moscow, Idaho. The families are concerned that the housemate’s memory of the traumatic event that night could be questioned after years of delay in the case.

“Meanwhile, suspect Bryan Kohberger’s defense has bought more time to build up an alibi and pore over vast amounts of other evidence. Latah County District Judge John Judge is still weighing scheduling and a defense motion to have the trial moved to another county. And the victims’ families are still waiting for justice,” Fox News reported.

“I’m listening carefully to both sides, and it’s a complicated case,” the judge claimed during a hearing on Wednesday. “It’s a death penalty case.”

(Video Credit: KREM 2 News)

Following the arrest of Kohberger in December 2022, his trial was scheduled for October 2023. The criminology Ph.D. student put his knowledge to good use. He waived his right to a speedy trial so he could drag it out. Prosecutors are asking for a trial date for June of this year but Kohberger’s attorneys want it delayed to the summer of 2025 to ostensibly give them more time to prepare.

“The families of two victims, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, said in a joint statement that regardless of when the case goes to trial, everything will be reviewed with a fine-toothed comb, whether on appeal or by the public,” Fox News noted.

“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 families begged through their attorney Shanon Gray on Friday.

“This illusion by everyone involved that they can control what happens is frustrating,” the families contended. “A jury will hear the evidence and return a verdict. But we need to get there sooner rather than later.”

Delaying a trial is a classic ploy by attorneys to buy time to discredit witnesses or bolster an alibi. It’s meant to have a negative impact on a case in favor of the defendant.

“Witnesses forget events or even die, depending on the length of time between charges… and trial,” Michigan attorney James Scozzari told Fox News Digital. “The defendant essentially loses his ability to confer with potential defense witnesses, or even to keep track of their whereabouts. Hard to present a defense in those situations. Also, evidence gets lost or destroyed.”

The extended timeline will make proving guilt that much more difficult in court and some point out that is probably what Kohberger’s attorneys are counting on.

“The delays are bad for the prosecution,” Neama Rahmani, a former assistant U.S. attorney commented. “Witness memories fade and evidence can disappear over time, and the victims’ families deserve justice.”

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, was blunt, asserting that delaying the trial is part of the defense’s plan.

“Delay until everyone forgets or dies,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview. “I have worries about the case, delays aren’t one of them.”

His primary concern has to do with the physical evidence related to the case.

“I have two big ones,” Giacalone remarked. “How the crime scene was handled and what, if anything, was found in his vehicle. There’s no way you could pull a vicious scene like that off without transferring blood out into the snow and into his vehicle.”

He’s had questions about the crime scene from the beginning.

“Did the gatekeeper keep a record of who entered the crime scene, at what time, what they did, and what time they left?” he asked. “Lots of video where the cop never gets out of the car. Was there a sign-in sheet inside? Who was supervising it was being used?”

“He took issue with the decision to return the victims’ belongings to family members while police were still monitoring the scene. And he highlighted the initial decision to bring in a cleaning crew to clear out the house, which was canceled the following day before a suspect had been arrested and defense investigators arrived,” Fox News said concerning Giacalone’s concerns.

“Genetic genealogy and garbage collected from Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania, as well as his cellphone use and surveillance, ties him to the crime scene, authorities have said,” NBC News reported.

The murder weapon, a large fixed-blade knife, has not been recovered, according to Moscow police. Kohberger, 29, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection to the deaths of Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

NBC News reports that the trial is expected to last about six weeks when it takes place.

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