Bryan Kohberger, a graduate student at Washington State University, was arrested in December 2021 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary for the deaths of four students at the University of Idaho.
Bryan Kohberger’s trial is set to begin in June
His defense team has requested that Bethany Funke, one of two surviving victims of the attack, testify in court. Funke is now fighting the legal request, which she believes would force her to relive the traumatic experience of the killings.
On November 13, 2021, four students were stabbed to death with a fixed-blade knife at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. Funke and her roommate, Dylan Mortenson, both 21, survived the attack. Mortenson provided police with a detailed eyewitness account of the killer, who she described as “a figure clad in black clothing and a mask.”
Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania, where police seized a white Hyundai Elantra that matched the vehicle authorities were searching for throughout their seven-week manhunt. Investigators say they’ve tied Kohberger to the crime scene through DNA and cell phone pings.
Richard Bitonti, a criminal investigator working with Kohberger’s defense team, wrote in a request earlier this month that “portions of information Ms. Funke has is exculpatory to the defendant,”.
“Ms. Funke’s information is unique to her experiences and cannot be provided by another witness,” Bitonti wrote
However, Funke filed a request in a Washoe County, Nevada, district court on Friday to quash the subpoena from Kohberger’s legal team.
The case against Kohberger has been subject to a gag order issued by Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall, who has not yet detailed an alleged motive in the attack. Kohberger has not entered a plea and will face a preliminary hearing on June 26.
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