Bryan Kohberger's Lawyers Claim To Have Alibi To Dispute His Location Night Of Idaho Student Killings

Idaho authorities arrested Bryan Kohberger last year as the sole suspect in the infamous quadrupole murder case, regarding four college students who were stabbed to death. 

Prosecutors alleged that Kohberger broke into an off-campus home around 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022, and murdered University of Idaho students: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.

This week, a court filing from Kohberger's lawyers says his legal team plans to submit an analysis of cellphone data as an alibi to prove their client was not at the King Road home the morning the victims were murdered. 

The filing claims Kohberger was driving elsewhere at the time.

"Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars. He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho," Kohberger's lead attorney, Anne Taylor, said in the filing, as reported by ABC News.

"This is supported by data from Mr. Kohberger’s phone showing him in the countryside late at night and/or in the early morning on several occasions," Taylor continued.  "The phone data includes numerous photographs taken on several different late evenings and early mornings, including in November, depicting the night sky."

MOSCOW, IDAHO - Bryan Kohberger, right, appears at a hearing in Latah County District Court on January 5, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger has been arrested for the murders of four University of Idaho students in November 2022. (Photo by Ted S. Warren - Pool/Getty Images)

Phone data will likely play a chief role in the verdict of Kohberger's eventual trial, either way. 

Per the affidavit unsealed in January 2023, Kohberger's phone location contributed to his arrest. The data cited in the affidavit tells a much different story than the data his lawyers claim to have in their possession. 

Of course, it does.

Authorities documented that while Kohberger's phone was shut off during the time of the stabbings, cellphone pings show his phone in the area of the King Road home "at least 12 times" before the morning of the murders. The filing adds that officials tracked Kohberger’s device back to the house, some five hours after the murders. 

MOSCOW, IDAHO - Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for a hearing at the Latah County Courthouse on June 27, 2023 in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022. (Photo by August Frank-Pool/Getty Images)

Other information regarding the case remains suppressed due to an ongoing gag order. 

However, police were able to confirm following Kohberger's arrest that they recovered a knife sheath next to a fatally stabbed Madison Mogen that contained Kohberger's DNA.

The sheath was made for a rare Ka-Bar knife that police believed was used to slay the four roommates. 

And get this: a subsequent report from "Dateline" revealed that Kohberger purchased a Ka-Bar knife and sheath from Amazon seven months before the murders.

Hmm.

Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro warned us last March to never predict how a jury is going to determine the facts of a case. We won't disappoint The Judge. 

That said, we'll be curious to see how Kohberger's defense downplays his DNA all over the sheath. 

A start date for Kohberger's trial is forthcoming.