Idaho
Judge enters not guilty plea for suspect in stabbing deaths of 4 students
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A judge entered a not guilty plea Monday for a man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, setting the stage for a trial in which he could potentially face the death penalty.
The Nov. 13, 2022, killings stunned the rural community of Moscow, Idaho, and prompted many students to leave campus early, switching to remote learning for the remainder of the semester.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested late last year and charged with burglary and four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the slayings of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at a rental home near the University of Idaho campus.
Kohberger refused to enter a plea in Latah County District Court, prompting the judge to make one on his behalf.
The judge set the trial date for Oct. 2, although it could be delayed.
He was a graduate student studying criminology at nearby Washington State University at the time, but prosecutors have not released any information about how he may have chosen the victims or whether he had met any of them previously.
Police released few details about the investigation until after Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in eastern Pennsylvania early Dec. 30, 2022. Court documents detailed how police pieced together DNA evidence, cellphone data and surveillance video that they say links Kohberger to the slayings.
Investigators said traces of DNA found on a knife sheath inside the home where the students were killed matches Kohberger, and that a cellphone belonging to Kohberger was near the victims’ home on a dozen occasions prior to the killings. A white sedan allegedly matching one owned by Kohberger was caught on surveillance footage repeatedly cruising past the rental home around the time of the killings.
Kernodle, Chapin, Mogen and Goncalves were friends and members of the university’s Greek system, and the three women lived together in the rental home just across the street from campus. Chapin — Kernodle’s boyfriend — was there visiting on the night of the attack.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson now has 60 days to inform the court whether he will seek the death penalty in the case.
Indiana
Court of Appeals upholds murder convictions in 1998 Hammond triple slaying
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — The Indiana Court of Appeals on Friday upheld the murder convictions of a man in the killings of a woman and two teens who were bludgeoned to death in 1998 in a house in northwest Indiana.
In a 3-0 ruling, the appeals panel rejected several arguments offered by James Higgason III, 53, of Whiting, including a long delay in bringing him to trial and the use of a digital copy of a phone call linking him to the killings, instead of the original cassette recording.
Higgason was sentenced to 180 years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged Higgason and David Copley, 47, beat Elva Tamez, 36, Jerod Hodge, 18, of Chicago; and Timothy Ross, 16, of Calumet City, Illinois, to death on Jan. 18, 1998, at the woman’s Hammond home with pieces of wood or metal pipes, according to court records. They were trying to get drugs and cash, prosecutors said.
The victims’ skulls were bashed in a drug-fueled “frenzy,” Deputy Lake County Prosecuting Attorney Jovanni Miramontes said at the time.
Defense lawyers Mark Gruenhagen and Matthew Fech said the evidence against Higgason was thin and testimony by Copley wasn’t credible because he reached a deal with prosecutors.
Copley pleaded guilty to Hodge’s murder last year and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. In exchange for his testimony, prosecutors dropped two other murder charges.
Washington
Judge orders AG’s office, DSHS to pay attorneys’ fees for evidence withholding
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office and the Department of Social and Health Services have been ordered to pay more than $122,000 in attorney’s fees for withholding evidence in a continuing lawsuit.
King County Superior Court Judge Michael Ryan imposed the new costs in a ruling Friday, The Seattle Times reported. The amount is on top of an earlier $200,000 sanction. The judge also said the state may face additional sanctions.
In March, Ryan imposed the $200,000 sanction for what he called the state’s “egregious” and “cavalier” failure to turn over nearly 11,000 pages of records to attorneys suing over the alleged severe neglect of a developmentally disabled woman, Emily Tobin, at a family home in Kent.
Paying the attorney’s fees to the plaintiff’s law firm of Hagens Berman was included in the March ruling but the amount hadn’t been determined.
Hagens Berman attorneys asked for $214,000 for what they argued was “extraordinary” work in uncovering the discovery abuses. The state had argued for the lower amount of $122,500.
Ryan wrote in rejecting of the higher amount that the facts surrounding the state’s misconduct in not turning over records were fairly straightforward.
“No advanced class in sanctions was necessary to understand the egregious nature of DSHS’s and the AGO’s conduct,” Ryan wrote.
The state has denied intentionally withholding records.
“We respect the judge’s decision,” Brionna Aho, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, told the newspaper. “The team is hard at work to determine what happened and address those issues.”
Ryan has also appointed Seattle attorney Russell Aoki — at $500 per hour billed to the state — to investigate the discovery violations and determine whether the state has hidden more documents. Depending on what Aoki finds, “additional sanctions may be warranted for additional discovery violations,” Ryan said in his Friday order.
The costly legal blunders come as the attorney general launches his run for governor. The three-term Democrat has led the attorney general’s office since 2013.
