Bryan Kohberger Delivered Major Win by Judge Ahead of Murder Trial

The trial of accused murderer Bryan Kohberger will be moved to a different location, a judge ruled on Friday.
Kohberger, 29, is facing four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. He allegedly fatally stabbed University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
The trial is expected to begin on June 2, 2025.
Judge John Judge, of Idaho’s 2nd Judicial District in Latah County, granted the defense’s motion for a change of venue. In his ruling, he referenced evidence presented at a hearing on the motion on August 29.
“Considering the undisputed evidence presented by the defense, the extreme nature of the news coverage in this case, and the smaller population in Latah County, the defense has met the rather low standard of demonstrating ‘a reasonable likelihood’ that prejudicial news coverage will compromise a fair trial in Latah County,” Judge wrote in the ruling. “Thus, the court will grant Kohberger’s motion to change venue for presumed prejudice.”
Judge also said that holding the trial in Latah County would be “inconvenient” and “present serious safety risks.”
“The interest of justice requires that the trial be moved to a venue with the resources, both in terms of personnel and space, necessary to effectively and efficiently handle a trial of this magnitude and length so that parties and the Court can focus on the case and not on peripheral issues,” Judge wrote.
The new location for the trial was not specified. The order states that the case will be referred to the administrative director of the courts. The state Supreme Court will then assign the venue and a judge to preside over the proceedings.
During the hearing in August, Judge listened to arguments from prosecutors and defense but he did not make a final decision.
“I will say this is probably, professionally, the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make,” Judge said at the hearing.
The defense called four witnesses, who showed a variety of charts, data and studies to show the effects of persistent media exposure on potential jurors.
One of the witnesses presented results from a phone survey of potential jurors. They found that over 98% of people in the county were aware of the case, and around 67% of those respondents believe Kohberger is guilty.
“The amount of coverage is a huge amount of coverage. That kind of coverage is prejudicial coverage, and it’s had an impact on the Latah County potential juror,” Kohberger’s lawyer, Anne Taylor, said. “The court can see actual prejudice by understanding the results of that survey, reading the hundreds of comments from Latah County residents.”
Prosecutors argued against the defense’s motion for a change of venue.
“This case has media coverage everywhere,” Deputy Attorney General Ingrid Batey said. “That is something that was acknowledged by the defense, and that is something that is abundantly clear in these surveys.”
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