Worse. If these reports are reliable, he’s making incriminating statements that could be used against him at trial. Pro tip: if you’re trying to act insane to avoid criminal prosecution or conviction, at least hedge your bets by flinging shit at the walls or similarly guilt-neutral antics. Don’t go on about cutting people when you’re accused perpetrating a knife attack.
I can’t dig deeply into this right now but ISTM that Idaho doesn’t allow an insanity defense but does allow a finding of guilty but insane.
If this guy committed the heinous crimes, and if he’s thinking about this as a tactic, it may or may not be critical that he claim innocence – particularly if that seems untenable. He may be simply trying to avoid the death penalty (ETA: though that seems unlikely to succeed, too, as Idaho will execute the mentally ill if convicted).
If. If. If. IANAL, etc.
How did he get in the house? walked in. How did he know about the address? Heard about it at a bar. He can claim he hooked up with one of the girls. Again, it’s his word against a dead person.
They need to prove he killed them, not that he was in the same building. All his bank and phone records prove is that he and other people were at that house. College party happened, news at 11.
what they need is blood from a victim in his car or on items associated with him. The most interesting thing (publicly known) so far is a a car matching his was seen in the area at roughly the time a neighbor heard a scream.
Or… she is lying to get some publicity.
Yep.
So far the evidence they have released is weak, and the two survivors have the same evidence.
Incidentally, I missed it- why were they eliminated as suspects?
The DNA just forced two lies that can and will get checked out.
Why did you drive to another town to drink? What bar did you go to? What did you have? What did your server look like? Did they see you talking to mystery person? How did you pay? What time did you leave? Did you drive to the party? Where did you park? How long were you at the party before meeting the girl? Which girl? Did anybody see you talking? What room did you go back to? Bareback or condom? What type of condom? Who supplied it? How did you dispose of it? What time did you leave? Did you get her number? What did you do after? What time did you get home? When did you hear about the murders? What did you do when you heard?
Also; Is there any evidence that the girl had sex?
So does the defendant say “I don’t know”, stop answering, or make up more lies?
The bank statements and phone records could’ve exonerated him depending on the timeline. From what we know they didn’t. We can assume his phone wasn’t pinging Pullman towers.
I thought men and women are routinely separated from each other in jails–a male wing and a female wing?
I’d assume it’s a small town facility that does not have space for separate male and female wings.
That part puzzled me, too. I had thought that male and female inmates would not be housed that close together. @zimaane is probably right about space if it’s a smaller town, though.
If they’re lies. But even if they are, none of the questions you’re asking are particularly difficult:
I drove to another town to drink because I heard the party was going to be really great there.
The bar I was at was (insert whatever bar he actually goes to; no lie needed).
I don’t remember what I had to drink, or what my server looked like. I have no idea who the server would have seen me with; ask them.
“I don’t remember” covers a lot of ground, even when people aren’t getting drunk.
The defendant doesn’t have to answer anything. While it certainly would be helpful to the defense to put on witnesses and be able to produce a counter narrative, the defense could also just put forward an argument that fits all the same facts but has an innocent explanation. So, for instance, the defendant doesn’t have to get on the stand and testify that he was at one or more house parties in the neighborhood. Instead, the defense could just cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses with questions like “Isn it true you host parties at your house? Isn’t it true you had a party [that night or the week before or whatever]? Isn’t it true that sometimes, there are guests at these parties that you don’t know?” and so on.
All that could then allow the defense to argue in the end that their client’s DNA (provided it’s not something like skin under the fingernails) ended up at the scene because he was at the party, and now the police, after publicly bungling the investigation, rushed to find a suspect and settled prematurely on their client.
Point being the defendant doesn’t have to actually say anything personally to construct and alternative account. Whether the jury might find that alternate narrative “reasonable” will of course depend upon just how strained the argument is in light of the particulars of the evidence.
Indiana State Police bodycam footage from a traffic stop of Kohberger and his dad has been released. I wouldn’t have guessed who looks more off in the photos.
*realizing that we’re often not at our best at such times.
Some of the neighbors slept with earplugs because of the all night LOUD parties. No cite because I’ve forgotten which newspaper ran the article.
Normally I would have concerns about a public defender handling this case on Idaho. Anne Taylor is experienced and should do a great job.
It’s important that any conviction can stand the intense appeal process. Especially if it’s a death penalty case.
I am curious why a criminal defense lawyer with 5 years at a firm would give that up for a PD’s salary?
I think you would find in most jurisdictions, public defenders are by far and away the most experienced and best qualified defense attorneys to stand with any defendant. I worked for a public defender’s office for several years. I’ve observed their work in the courtroom over many years.
I can’t tell you how many times I watched some indignant defendant fire his public defender so he could hire someone he believed would offer a better defense – but wouldn’t, because their choice was an inexperienced or poor attorney.
I encourage you to not underestimate or denigrate public defenders. They’re often some of the best lawyers out there.
Yeah - the PDs I’ve known have been extremely competent and capable. The only negative can be crushing caseloads.
I’ll keep that in mind. I didn’t understand PD’s are that good.
It’s going to be a very expensive case. It could be a death penalty case.
Bear in mind that when if this is declared a death penalty case, the lawyers who represent the defendant will likely need to be death-qualified. This means they must have actual experience with death penalty cases. At least, this is or was true in California.
In California, a death penalty case required appointment of 2 death-qualified attorneys as well as the defendant’s regular public defender who had been initially appointed.
The last death penalty case I worked on, the defendant had 4 lawyers working on his behalf. The prosecution had 2 very experienced prosecutors. Each side had an army of experts and specialists. And this was a case with an embarrassment of evidence and a confession.
The jury convicted easily, imposed the death penalty reluctantly and of course, the fellow is still alive and cooling his heels in San Quentin. Which, according to his attorneys, he feels is a worse punishment than being put to death.
The stereotype (and other folks will have to speak to how much truth there is to this) is that new law school grads who don’t get anything better offered to them end up as Public Defenders. So if you get one of those, they may not be very good. Those folks don’t last very long. But if you get one that’s lasted a while, they’re liable to be pretty damned good.
So how does one become death-qualified, then? Or is it only the lead attorney who needs to be death-qualified, and they can be assisted by death-lawyers-in-training?
You’ve got it right. I think there are some educational requirements they must fulfill, and they must assist in a non-primary capacity in some number of death penalty cases as well.