xiber Cirrus
During this discussion Judge Hippler disclosed that the photographic evidence of the crime scene was extremely graphic. He stopped short of ordering against the use of inflammatory evidence, but cautioned the attorneys to be professional and to alert the opposing parties before introducing possible inflammatory evidence into trial.
This was an argument to prevent the defense from making comments like, “ the government is trying to kill Mr. Kohberger”.
Elisa Massoth represented the defendant in this debate, she set it up nicely. She initiated her argument by emphasizing there were three points that needed to be discussed.
The state did not want Mr. Kohbergers family, who will attend the trial, to be present in the courtroom, because some of them will be called as witnesses. The court doesn’t want witnesses in the courtroom listening to the trial before they are called to testify. The defense accused the state of purposely putting all of Kohlberg's family on the witness list to prevent them from being present at trial. Judge Hippler used a gumbo soup analogy to illustrate that testimony doesn’t have to be in order. Thus, those members of the Kohberger family who will testify can testify first, then they can attend the rest of the trial. Judge Hippler has asked the state to provide a list of who they are going to call by April 25th 2025.
Mr. Kohberger has been diagnosed by Dr. Rachel Orr, PsyD, ABPP-CN to have Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD). The Supreme Court has ruled that people who have intellectual disabilities cannot be executed. However, ASD is not considered an intellectual disability. ASD is considered to be a developmental disability. The mainstream media has propagandized that Kohberger is guilty because his mannerisms are not mainstream. He sits in one position and stares into space for long periods of time. Also, The defense is asking Judge Hippler to not allow any videos of acquaintances of Mr. Kohbeger after his arrest, because in those videos people made mean comments about Mr. Kohberger's demeanor not knowing that Mr. Kohberger’s demeanor was the result of ASD. Jeff Nye for the state proclaimed the state had no plan to use ASD as an aggravating factor during the penalty phase of the trial. Also, Jeff Nye stated the state had no plans to use videos of students trashing Mr. Kohberger.
Not much went on in this discourse except for a gleeful discussion about how the two parties were working out regarding the use of terms during the trial and would soon come to a conclusion about a proposed jury instruction for Judge Hippler at trial.
This state, as presented by Lead Prosecutor Bill Thompson, expressed concern about the defense, or defendant, introducing random people into the trial without proper vetting in accordance with the court rules. In addition, the state wanted the Judge to set a timeline for alternative to prevent them from being introduced in the middle of the trial The defense countered the would offer alternatives and would vet them in accordance with the rules
The defense wants to suppress the use of the term “suspect vehicle one” from the trial. Claiming it will influence the jury to wrongly believe that all white Honda Electras they will see in videos at trial are the same car.
The defense wants to exclude the term “Bushy Eyebrows”. They argued that reliability is the Lynchpin determining the admissibility of identifiable testimony. In that, the term Bushy Eyebrows was not a term DM, the only eyewitness, created herself. The defense claims that Moscow officers coached her into using the term after viewing the drawings in her bedroom. It is also disclosed that the DM never used the term “balaclava”. The Defense claims ISP officer Gooch first used the term and then coached her into drawing one. When describing the head covering to law enforcement she used the term “weird looking ski mask”. Thus, it is very possible the black clad intruder was wearing a shemagh and the DM could not describe it because she may have not seen one before. DM testimony came into question because she had been drinking the entire day and well into the night. She was sleepy and delirious from the effect of alcohol by her own admission.
The state wants to bring in the trial the initial 911 call as an excited utterance. The defense counters that many of the students on the phone were being told what to say which means their description of the event the next morning is hearsay and not allowed at trial. DM, one of the surviving roommates on the 2nd floor claims she saw XK but thought she passed out from the night before. That seems hard to believe It is also revealed that from the time DM goes to the first floor bedroom, after seeing the black clad intruder, until the morning around 09:00 am on 13 Nov. 2022, she is not just sleeping she is texting on snap chat and instagram about the incident. The defense claims there is a lot of activity going on in the house for the next 8 hours after the murders. The defense claims the 911 calls are not a true description of the initial encounter because those people talking with the 911 operator are being coached on what to say.
This was an interesting discussion about a model replica, the FBI built, of the house where the murders took place. Evidently the model can be taken apart floor by floor to show to the jury the location of all the people inside the house. They termed this structure the “doll house”. The defense objected claiming it was not to scale and it would negatively influence the jury because it would be in plain sight during the entire trial. Judge Hippler countered that the defense could produce their own 3 D image if they so choose.
The state wants to prevent the defense from presenting a surprise witness who will testify as to Mr. Kohbergers whereabouts during the time of the murders.
This was a conversation about FBI special agent Nick Ballance, who will testify at trial or before, regarding Mr. Kohbergers cell phone activity. The defense claims Nick Ballance is withholding information in the form of timing advance records from AT&T. Judge Hippler claims the defense is making accusations of the state hiding evidence, but the defense has produced no evidence to support their claim.
The defense also claims they have an expert that contradicts Nick Ballance’s conclusions, and that Special Agent Nick Ballance did not testify before the grand Jury. Judge Hippler points out that the victims were unable to fight back do to their level of toxicity
This was an interesting debate over Mr. Kohberger’s Amazon click activity. During the presentation by Ms. Masoth, Judge Hipler interrupted her to point out that a K-Bar knife was bought on an account registered to Mr. Kohbergers name. In addition, Judge Hippler pointed out that Mr. Kohberger had searched for knives after the murders on his amazon account. The defense countered that anyone could have searched for these items because it was a shared account. Judge Hippler reiterated that the account is in Mr. Kohbergers name.
This was an attempt by the state to counter an argument by the defense during the penalty phase that Mr. Kohberger looks weird sitting in the courtroom. The defense wants to explain to the jury that Mr. Kohberger is normal even though he sits in one position for long periods of time. The defense wants to tell the jury in opening statements that because Mr. Kohberger is a clean person, changes his shower curtain often, and wears gloves doesn’t make him a bad person. The state claims there is no authority in law for this disclosure and is asking Judge Hippler to forbid it.
The defense tried to argue, that if Mr. Kohberger was convicted, he should be spared the death penalty, because he has a mental disorder. Judge Hippler commented that Mr. Kohberger was a Doctoral student and looked normal. Jeff Nye commented that Autism Spectrum Disorder was not a qualifier for an exception based on the rules.
This was a debate where Anne Taylor complained she had too much work to do. Thus, the death penalty should be removed because she was overwhelmed with data. That is, the amount of data to review was so vast it would take her decades to complete a review. Judge Hippler was going to have none of it. He questioned her as to why she took on another death penalty case, if she was so overwhelmed with this case. She looked stomped. In addition, he asked her if she had hired additional paralegals to review the large amount of data. She basically had no response. Finally he asked the state if any of the terabits of video evidence had any exculpatory evidence, and the state replied , No.
Pre Trial is set for May 15th, 2025 at am mountain time