CNN
—
the man Four University of Idaho students are suspected of being killed He appeared in court Thursday for a status conference, where a judge plans to begin a preliminary hearing on June 26.
Brian Kohberger, dressed in an orange prison uniform, shackled his legs, waived his right to a speedy trial within 14 days. The 28-year-old spoke only briefly when answering the judge’s questions.
The public defender representing the suspect asked the judge to allow four or five days for a probable cause hearing this summer, and the judge indicated he would block a June 26 hearing for the matter. The judge ordered Kohberger held in state custody without bond.
Kohberger is being held without bail in the Latah County Jail in Idaho, where he faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of robbery in the fatal stabbing of Kayleigh Goncalves, 21; Madison Mohan, 21; Chana Kernodil, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20.
A night later, the four undergraduates were found dead in an off-campus house on November 13, according to police, of nerve damage. The college town of Moscow, IdahoAt the Washington state border.
Follow live notifications: Bryan Kohberger to appear in court
Authorities arrested Kohberger nearly seven weeks later and took him into custody at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, where he had traveled for the holidays, a lawyer said. Although it took nearly two months for authorities to publicly name a suspect, police — who Faced with mounting criticism While the investigation was outwardly stalled — a few weeks ago — attention began to focus on Kohberger as a suspect.
Meanwhile, nearby Pullman is Kohberger’s neighbor in Washington. told CBS News The suspect asked him days after the murders, “Yeah, it looks like they don’t have any leads. It looks like a crime of passion. The neighbor asked not to be identified,” CBS reported.
Among the most striking evidence was the eyewitness account of one of the victims’ surviving roommates, who told police she saw a man dressed in black inside the home on the morning of the murder. According to a probable cause affidavit released last week. The witness described the man as about 5-foot-10 or taller and not very muscular, but sportily built with bushy eyebrows.
Investigators were also drawn to a white sedan seen on local surveillance footage in the area surrounding the home. Local law enforcement has been asked to be on the lookout for the car, identified as a Hyundai Elantra, by Nov. 25.
Days later, authorities at Washington State University, where Kohberger was a PhD student in criminal justice, located one such vehicle and discovered it was registered to Kohberger, the affidavit states.
When investigators looked up his driver’s license information, they found it matched the description of the black-clad man provided by the roommate, specifically noting his height, weight and eyebrows, the affidavit states.
Kohberger got a new license plate for his car five days after the murder, according to the affidavit. When he was arrested in Pennsylvania last week, a white Elantra was found at his home, Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBarr said.
Other evidence listed in the affidavit included phone records showing Kohberger’s phone was near the victims’ home at least a dozen times since June. The records also show a phone near the scene of the killing several hours later, between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m., the document states.
Additionally, trash officers recovered from Kohberger’s family home revealed a DNA profile linked to DNA on a brown leather knife sheath found on the bed of one of the victims, the affidavit said. DNA recovered from the debris is believed to be that of the biological father of the person found in the casing.
A law enforcement source told CNN that Kohberger was under surveillance for four days before being arrested. During that time, he was seen putting trash bags in neighbors’ trash cans and “cleaned his car inside and out without missing an inch,” the source said.
The court order prohibits the prosecution and defense from commenting on the case beyond referring to public records.
