Court Grants Idaho Murders Suspect Bryan Kohberger's Request To Review Genetic Evidence

An Idaho Judge has granted Bryan Kohberger's request to access key genetic evidence against him. 

The former PhD student was indicted on quadruple murder charges for four students after his DNA was linked to a knife sheath at the crime scene. 

His Defense team questioned how police linked him to the sample and can now examine the process.

A Judge in the Second District Court of Idaho has granted Bryan Kohberger's attorney's request to examine key genetic evidence tying him to the murders of four college students. The 32-page order reveals that the judge declined to dismiss the grand jury indictment against Kohberger on the murder charges.

Kohberger has been accused of fatally stabbing four Idaho college students in their homes in November 2022. His team is now seeking specifics from investigators as to how they used investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) to connect their client to the murders. This comes after he waived his rights to a speedy trial for the charges.

The decision to grant Kohberger's request comes after Judge John Judge declined to overturn the charges based on incorrect grand jury instructions. Kohberger's team hoped the charges would be voided so he could battle for an insufficient evidence decision in a preliminary hearing.

The 32-page order details how Kohberger was initially arrested as a suspect in his parents' Pennsylvania home. It further recounted how the prosecutors claimed to the court that they already had sufficient evidence to arrest Kohberger for the crime without the DNA samples.

The order reads, per Daily Mail, "Nothing about law enforcement's use of IGG was used to obtain the arrest warrant... or to obtain the search warrant for his DNA."

It also references a failed motion by prosecutors to prevent the defense from accessing the DNA evidence. The attorneys have also insisted that the evidence offers no benefits to the defense team.

In consideration of the order application last week, the judge ruled, "The court finds the defense is likely entitled to see at least some of the information from the IGG investigation, even if it may ultimately be found to have no relevance to Kohberger's defense."

The approval to access the IGG Evidence is a win for Kohberger's team, one of the few since his indictment. The defense previously revealed that they're contesting the evidence of his DNA being found on the knife sheath found at the crime scene. They claimed evidence from three unidentified men was also discovered at the scene.

On the other hand, prosecutors insist that the killer left the knife sheath. They shared that it was located conspicuously near one of the victims in her bed, which was on the third floor of the student home where the murders occurred. They said the DNA match was confirmed by the FBI, which then led to Kohberger's arrest.

After the former student's arrest in December, prosecutors said the DNA samples they took from Kohberger resulted in a stronger "statistical match." In response, defense attorneys stated that the prosecutors were trying to hide key evidence by restricting access.

Investigators are compiling more evidence against Kohberger, past the DNA from the knife sheath. Recent tweets from Brian Entin of News Nation confirmed that cops are returning to the crime scene for more examination.

He wrote, "The FBI will be back today to construct visual and audio exhibits and a physical model of the home. Plywood we have seen on doors and windows will be removed this morning." 

Entin later shared that the decision was "somewhat unexpected" because the home was previously confirmed for demolition.

He added, "And it likely would have been torn down already had the victims' family members not fought it. I'm told family members got a heads up FBI would be back today." 

He confirmed that both the prosecution and defense even expressed opposition regarding the demolition of the crime scene.