Bryan Kohberger’s immediate family will be allowed to attend the entirety of his upcoming capital murder trial, the presiding judge ruled.
This decision was one of two orders from 4th District Judge Steven Hippler publicized on the court’s website Wednesday. He wrote in the three-page order surrounding the defense’s request to allow members of their client’s family — his parents and siblings — into the courtroom that their presence wouldn’t harm the prosecution’s case.
The family members could be called to testify.
“The trial publicity is such that defendant’s family members are likely aware of what the testimony and evidence will be in the state’s case-in-chief,” Hippler wrote. “Thus, exclusion pending their testimony will not necessarily prevent them from conforming their testimony.”
Hippler also partly granted the prosecution’s request to conduct its own mental health examination of the 30-year-old Kohberger. Experts retained by the defense said Kohberger has an autism spectrum disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Hippler’s other order filed Wednesday disclosed that a closed-door hearing held Monday, which was sealed to the public, addressed the mental health examination. Under state law, the prosecution is allowed to retain its own experts to conduct such an examination, Hippler ruled. But prosecutors are not allowed to conduct personality testing.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students in November 2022. The victims were: Madison Mogen, of Coeur d’Alene, and Kaylee Goncalves, of Rathdrum, both 21; and Xana Kernodle, of Post Falls, and Ethan Chapin, of Mount Vernon, Washington, both 20.
Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, in Pullman, Washington, just 9 miles from where the three female victims lived with two other young women who went physically unharmed the day of the attack. Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and stayed over for the night.
If Kohberger is convicted, the prosecution intends to seek the death penalty.
Despite objection, Kohberger’s family allowed to attend trial
Prosecutors hinted in March that they might call members of Kohberger’s family to testify, prompting a debate on whether they should be excluded from the courtroom until that testimony occurs.
Typically, witnesses expected to be called to the stand may not be present during others’ testimony until they have testified themselves — unless they are the victim’s immediate family members.
The defense asked that Hippler use “a level of humanity” and use his discretion to allow Kohberger’s family into the courtroom as soon as possible.
Hippler agreed.
He suggested that a simple way to alleviate concerns would be for the prosecution to call any members of Kohberger’s family to testify out of order. He issued a written order asking prosecutors to submit a list of those family members they might call at trial, and the purpose for calling them.
“I can only imagine the family of Mr. Kohberger is devastated by these things,” Hippler said at a hearing last month. “That’s nothing that they did, and I think their ability to be here to see the trial is important and, to the extent possible — while also preserving the state’s right to a fair trial — should be something that we seek to do.”
Courts throughout the country have recognized that having a defendant’s family or friends present “advances the values served by the right to a public trial,” Hippler wrote in his Wednesday order. Specifically, he said, it ensures fair proceedings by reminding both himself and prosecutors of their “grab responsibilities,” discourages perjury and encourages witnesses to come forward.
Given the “very narrow” scope of their possible testimony and the fact that his family previously have been interviewed, there isn’t a high likelihood that they’d use other witnesses’ statements to shape their testimony, Hippler wrote. The recordings of their interviews will also protect against any potential attempts by family to “mold their testimony based on how others testify before them,” he said.