Bryan Kohberger

They didn't have to come here this morning in an NBC News exclusive the father a victim Kaylee gonsalves reacting to news that prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty against Brian coburger the man accused of murdering his daughter and three other students at the University of Idaho it's a relief I'm glad that we're in a situation of strength and the evidence is there and we feel that we can you know they can go forward with this the family's attorney believes it's a clear-cut death penalty case if you're not going to pursue the guy for a death penalty on a case like this who are you going to perceive for a death penalty in just a few hours coburger is set to return to a Moscow Idaho courtroom for another pre-trial hearing his legal team is requesting records from last month's grand jury indictment of their client and are asking the judge to pause legal proceedings until they receive those materials already a key part of the case for both sides coburger's DNA and where it was and wasn't found while prosecutors said in a court filing earlier this month the coburger's DNA is a statistical match to DNA found on a knife sheath at the scene of the murders his lawyers say authorities did not find any victim DNA in his apartment office home or vehicle is this your car he's had over a month before the search warrants are executed after the crime to throw away his clothes wash his clothes wash his car clean out his apartment there's multiple ways to explain the lack of DNA in his vehicle in his apartment there's not a lot of ways to explain his DNA on the sheath of the murder weapon the legal battle is also unfolding just over a mile from the scene of the quadruple homicides the off-campus home where Madison Mogan Kaylee Gonzalez Zana kernodle and Ethan Chapin were killed was sent to be demolished before a judge ruled it should be preserved now the University of Idaho says they hope to have the house down ahead of the new school year the Gonzalez family says the house should be preserved through trial I don't want to sit six months from now and hear somebody in the court case say well I really wish we could be in house right now once the case is over then they can move on but right now it's the crime scene Brian coburger has not entered a plea a not guilty plea has been entered by the judge on his behalf and regarding the death penalty there's a new law here in Idaho allowing for death by firing squad if they can't locate the chemicals necessary for lethal injection that law goes into effect July 1st Savannah all right Aaron thank you want to turn now to NBC News legal analyst Danny Savalas hi Danny good morning good morning so the prosecution is saying they're seeking the death penalty so you wonder if that makes us think that they are very confident with their case what do you think well statistically one study shows that Idaho prosecutors seek the death penalty in about 20 percent of death penal penalty eligible cases they only get death penalties in about three percent of those that go to trial so Idaho prosecutors it seems are willing to try for the a death penalty they'll file the notice that may be a negotiating tactic of course if they filed a notice of intent then the defense says uh oh the stakes are higher perhaps that's meant to bring them to the table but it seems that under Idaho law the death penalty which the Supreme Court has very much restricted uh they're a little more permissive maybe than other jurisdictions how does it affect the case a death penalty case and it goes to trial as a capital case how in terms of the jury that is selected and and the evidence that's presented absolutely so in these cases it becomes really two trials you have a trial on the guilt phase and then you have a trial on the penalty phase and as they must in every state they have to take into account the aggravating factors and the mitigating factors and in Idaho I know has a list of aggravating factors if the jury finds during the penalty phase that any one of them was met and I'll give you an example of one that during the crime the killer committed another murder that is exactly within here and there are other aggravating factors that fit as well but I'm just giving you one example if the jury finds that Beyond A Reasonable Doubt then the defense has to come up with some mitigating factors or else the jury must essentially impose the death penalty so Idaho procedure creates a clear path to the death penalty with those aggravating circumstances one of which an example I gave you if we get to that phase it's not likely he'd be found guilty of one murder and not the other so it might be a foregone conclusion once you get there that's a pretty strict Statute in Idaho it sounds like permissive for the death penalty although the Supreme Court has limitations it imposes when compared to other states it could be said that Idaho is more death friendly we keep hearing about this DNA information How likely would the court Grant the defense access to what they want like the DNA information this is interesting and I'm colored by the fact that I am a defense attorney but the state's argument is essentially that there are two kinds of DNA there's what we're familiar with traditionally which is Str this is going back to the OJ case this is traditional DNA evidence the state says that they use this new kind this emerging evidence IGG or forensic genealogy uh evidence they use that to build a genealogical tree but they're saying we use that as kind of a tip as a lead we're not going to introduce any of that at trial judge so therefore we don't have to turn that over to the defense under the rules and the defense is saying look the rules call for anything that is a scientific report to be turned over this also is something that is going to be very compelling information it could exonerate our client we should get it the state probably has a more technical rule-based argument and the defense has a more spiritual argument that look this is something the state used we should get to see it all right Danny it's going to be interesting hearing today thank you Danny hey thanks for watching don't miss the Today show every weekday at 11 A.M Eastern 8 Pacific on our streaming Channel today all day to watch head to today.com all day or click the link right here