The judge in Bryan Kohberger’s trial for the murder of four University of Idaho college students in 2022 has ordered the state to provide to the defense “a portion” of the investigative genetic genealogy information it used to help identify Kohberger as the suspect in the case.
Judge John Judge provided the specifics of the information that must be turned over to the defense in a sealed order.
Kohberger’s public defenders had been seeking the information, used by the FBI to help narrow down suspects, but prosecutors argued that the information was not used to obtain any warrants in the case and also contained names of people who were not included in the investigation.
DNA, collected from a knife sheath found at the crime scene, was submitted to a commercial DNA company, like Ancestry.com or 23andme.com, and used to construct a family tree of potential suspects.
Ultimately, prosecutors matched the DNA on the knife sheath to DNA found in the trash at Kohberger’s parents home in Pennsylvania and found a significant chance that the DNA in the trash came from the suspect’s father. Later, the state says it matched the knife sheath DNA to a swab taken from Kohberger’s cheek.
Judge ordered the state to hand over the information to him for review late last year, as CrimeOnline reported. On Thursday, he entered his ruling.
“The Court has now completed its review of the information provided by the State and orders the State to discover to the defense a portion of the IGG information,” he wrote. The specific material to be provided is set forth in a sealed order to protect the privacy of the IGG information, including individuals on the family tree.”
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[Featured image: Bryan Kohberger, left, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, sits with his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, right, during a hearing in Latah County District Court, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool)]
