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Bryan Kohberger

Bryan Kohberger's attorneys begin the fight for his life

By Azeem TajPublished 3 years ago 4 min read

Brian coburger was back in a Layton County courtroom this afternoon where a judge heard arguments from his defense and the prosecution over several issues coburger is the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in a home just off campus in November of last year and just yesterday the prosecution filed their intent to seek the death penalty if a jury finds coburger guilty that's not the only issue that brought came up though NewsChannel 7's Morgan Romero was in court in Moscow this afternoon a shorter hearing than expected Morgan what did happen yeah well Doug they are originally supposed to address several issues but today's hearing was a lot quicker than we expected ended a lot sooner than we had anticipated and there was quite a bit of confusion in the courtroom they only took up one of the four issues that were on the calendar two motions to compel Discovery filed on behalf of the defense rather than all the other issues so the attorneys I'm told are working on these other things behind the scenes and those include a motion to release grand jury proceedings transcripts records materials as well as a motion to stay or pause proceedings a spokesperson with the Idaho judicial branch says It's Not Unusual for attorneys to work on this behind closed doors and do this sort of thing but the prosecution and the defense do disagree about whether or when certain records should be disclosed to the defense attorneys were also supposed to take up a third motion to compel Discovery I mentioned they talked about two motions to compel there is a third and that has to do with the defense wanting documents related to DNA and the genetic genealogy investigation that the FBI did that led them to Coburg but yesterday State asked for more time to respond to that ask and the judge granted it as for what was brought up in court today the defense wants training records of officers who did interviews with key Witnesses followed up on tips collected bits of evidence but the state says it's out of scope under Idaho rules and they won't call those officers to testify at trial they say it's not material to their case the judge says he'll consider arguments from both sides on this he'll look at case law and then make a decision coburger's defense attorney Ann Taylor is still asking prosecutors for investigative reports and conclusions from all cell phone analysis that was done by the FBI cast team to find the location of coburger's phone that information as we've previously reported was used in the probable cause affidavit to arrest co-burger and get several search warrants Taylor also wants reports from the FBI forensic examiner related to the change in the year of the white Hyundai Elantra that they were looking for in their search for the suspect she said prosecutors told her they'll give her some of that info but they don't know when so she asked the court to set a deadline and as the court is aware the state has violence you know death against Mr co-worker these are critical relevant materials all of them including the police training records they're necessary for us to prepare and present our defense of Mr co-worker they're necessary for us to do our investigation they're necessary for us to prepare our case and our motion practice moving forward these are things that we need to have there are the heightened standard now that the state has filed this notice of intent to seek debt and these are very relevant critical bits of information they are discoverable and we're asking the court to order the baby's applied to us so miss Taylor's correct she has everything that the state has in our profession and we'll work diligently and consistently in getting her all the information that we have and a today we have discovered approximately about 13 000 pages of reports 13 000 photographs over 2 000 tips and over 51 terabytes of audio video information yeah a lot of evidence the defense saying that they don't believe the prosecution is withholding this information they believe they are providing it as soon as they can but the judge did set a July 14th deadline for the federal government to provide all of that information there might not be hearings on those other issues we talked about the motion to release a grand jury transcripts and records as well as that motion to stay proceedings if attorneys can resolve all of these matters again as I mentioned behind closed doors rather than out in a public courtroom setting Doug and you mentioned also that that is not uncommon to do it that way correct yeah that's right Nate Pompano he's the spokesperson for the Idaho judicial branch I asked him that question he said it's not necessarily uncommon attorneys do this all the time and it was something that actually going into today's hearing after I'd reported that I thought it was going to take several hours was told by some people who are really in the know that they've seen over the last 20 years that happen often in cases like this less than an hour today Morgan thank you so much for your reporting today from Moscow

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