I’m not sure we’re disagreeing - I agree 100% that admitting to an accomplice, or being part of a team would have been self-defeating at any stage where Kohberger was attempting to claim complete innocence. And as long as the judge was willing to entertain out there theories as well. After the judge shot that down, but prior the final plea deal (no death penalty, but multiple life w/out parole) then IF (which I don’t think is the case) there had been a third party involved, that might have been a worthwhile shot, so that by shifting blame or in giving the prosecutors an additional win, he could have possible (doubtful, I agree) secured a more limited sentence, such as life with possibility of parole, depending on how he and his lawyers spun it.
I was only entertaining a scenario where IF (again, huge) there had been multiple people involved, that Kohberger’s defense would likely have at least entertained the motion of turning them over to the authorities to try to squeeze any mitigation they could out of the system.
What is a “large fixed baseline”? A quick google only comes up with maritime law determining that a fixed baseline being generally the low-waterline from which the various zones – territorial sea (12nm) or exclusive economic zone (200nm) – are measured.
If maritime law was evoked cue all the SovCits coming out of the woodwork.
It was in the transcript you posted, not a direct quote.
"As the defendant was either coming down the stairs or leaving, he encountered Xana and he ended up killing her also with a large knife. Ethan Chapin, Xana’s boyfriend, was asleep in their bedroom, in her bedroom, and the defendant killed him as well with a large fixed baseline. Each victim suffered multiple wounds.
The words “blade knife” and “baseline” are close enough in sound to be a mistake readily made by automated speech to text that would not be flagged by auto spell check nor auto grammar check.
Good bet at some point a human dictated that writeup to a machine, no human really proofread the results, and here we are. Quality!
Of course, “baseline” has many other meanings, not just the maritime one you quoted. I’m most used to seeing it as the distance between two observations used for a parallax distance measure.
But you’re right that none of those meanings really seems to fit there, and it may well be a transcription error, like @LSLGuy described.
I’ve heard some theories about his motive, but unless he decides to talk, which is very unlikely we will never know. How much does a silencer for a gun cost? Stabbing, like strangulation seems so personal, I don’t know, it’s like he wanted to be up close and personal to the victim(s). I’ve read that the intended victim was Maddy. It’s as if he wanted her to know it was him. That’s why I ask about the silencer. I understand shooting would be out because he wouldn’t want to draw attention, but with a silencer? So, back to the motive, what the hell did he have against this girl? I’m assuming this was not random and it did come out at his plea deal they were able to place him in the vicinity of the house, but I don’t know that they ever had any sort of contact.
Guns with silencers are not at all like in the movies; silencers will dampen the sound a bit but others are still going to hear that shot, maybe only two houses away instead of three or four but it’ll still be heard.
He was a PhD student in criminology. I haven't seen anything about it but I can't help but wonder if he was playing the long game here. IOW, did he choose that because he wanted to kill someone for years & wanted to learn about the tips & tricks the PD uses to catch someone so that he, hopefully for him, didn't make those mistakes (which of course, he did)
It certainly seems that many serial killers have a “type” they’re after. It becomes luck of the draw which specific people happen to resemble the type and cross the killer’s path, and get noticed and …
I gather that the theory as to Kohberger is just applying that generalization to Kohberger specifically. Like you I don’t follow the case closely, but I have not seen anything beyond vague speculations in that direction.
It’s been speculated that Kohberger admired incel Elliot Rodger.
We may never know if Kohberger targeted his first two victims because he saw them as “Stacys”.
Note that Rodger reportedly talked about hating all the women at a particular sorority, the same sorority that one of Kohberger’s first victims belonged to.
Just to answer your direct questions about them, suppressors (the commonly used term) can, using more-or-less best case scenario (more expensive subsonic ammunition and high quality gear) reduce a 9mm (picking a very popular handgun cartridge) to around 120 decibels. That’s STILL like the top output of a chainsaw, some sirens, and is enough to cause immediate hearing damage. It’s a lot better than the 160ish of a “normal” 9mm, but you’d expect it to awaken the housemates at a bare minimum.
And they are pretty expensive. While recent legislation has changed things, to buy one required a $200 Federal stamp tax just to purchase (and was often delayed by months) and even the cheapest on sale option is like $400, with most models running at least 50% more than that and up!
There are lots of arguments about benefits of using suppressors, but your prior misunderstandings are extremely common amongst those who have never had much experience with firearms.
So again, suppressors help with volume, but it would be like using industrial equipment in the room, delay prone, and somewhat expensive - figure $1400 for a decent 9mm pistol with threaded barrel, the tax stamp, and the silencer and two boxes of subsonic ammo.
And at least as important, if he planned to get away with it and live a life without potential hearing loss, he’d have needed to wear hearing protection even with the silencer, which would have made it hard to notice other people in the building.
NOT that even methodical serial killers-in-training are likely to consider all of the above, but it gives you an idea of the issues involved in the real-world versions of the Hollywood assassin.
Thank you for all of that info, it explained to me how a suppressor really would not have worked. I also had no idea, obviously, about the “hassle” to purchase one.
Saw One Night in Idaho on Amazon. Absolutely nuts. It enraged me in ep 3 showing all the dumb-ass Internet sleuths on Tik Tok and Facebook. There are actually idiots out there who STILL THINK TODAY that Hunter and Mazie(sp?) helped murder them. Also all the speculation about the guy in all the pictures in a hoodie (turned out to be one of their best friends they’ve known for at least a decade) all getting death threats at one point.
I think it’s really an incel murder. Looks like Bryan’s online persona was called Papa Rodger-- similar to Elliot Roger, incel murderer. Asking all these questions about evidence, including about a knife sheath and if it were found. This was days before the evidence they had was released to the press!
Maybe he wanted to kill Kaylee or Maddie or both of them because they’re beautiful blonde girls who represent the type of girl that would avoid him in his awkward high school and college days. Then stumbles into Xana getting food, finds her with boyfriend Ethan then kills them both. I don’t think he knew how many were actually in the house at the time.
No matter what the hell his motive was, I hope we get SOME explanation.