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Bryan Kohberger’s lead defense attorney Anne Taylor may be avoiding news cameras, but she has shown she is able to use widespread attention to the case to her advantage in her courtroom maneuvering.
Even before Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued the first gag order in the case, Taylor declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital. Since then, she has declined to respond to additional requests for comment.
“It is unusual for defense counsel to avoid trying to grab the spotlight and possibly influence public opinion via press conferences, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat,” said Royal Oakes, a Los Angeles-based litigator and media analyst.
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In Kohberger’s case, convincing evidence has already been made public — including the allegation that police found his DNA on a Ka-Bar knife sheath under 21-year-old Madison Mogen, one of the four victims, and surveillance video of a suspected vehicle coming and going at the crime scene.
“You’ve got the car circling the victim’s house,” Oakes told Fox News Digital. “You’ve got the DNA. You’ve got the cell phone records. The strategy instead is to go kind of a technical route and question the science of the DNA and also to argue autism by the criminal defendant. That’s a key factor, and that’s not the kind of thing you necessarily go public with.”
Taylor used unflattering depictions of her client to have news cameras thrown out of the courtroom and to secure a change of venue, which moved Kohberger’s upcoming trial out of Latah County, where the students were killed, to Boise.
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Defense filings have highlighted widespread news coverage, as well as social media discussions involving thousands of web sleuths and true crime followers.
More recently, Taylor is arguing that two major media projects — a “Dateline” episode and a forthcoming book from bestselling crime author James Patterson and crime reporter Vicky Ward — should justify another postponement of her client’s trial in the deaths of four University of Idaho students.
In particular, she claims the May 9 “Dateline” episode contains damning material that could put Kohberger’s right to a fair trial at risk.
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“The program includes details and materials, including video footage, cellphone records, and photographs of documents, that are not publicly available through official channels,” she wrote in a motion to continue filed on May 20. “The show repeatedly emphasizes the non-public nature of this information, stating it was obtained from unnamed sources who are close to the investigation, and that the materials were obtained exclusively by ‘Dateline.'”
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Some of it will be inadmissible at trial, she added.
Furthermore, she asserted that “the leaked materials appear carefully curated to promote a narrative of guilt.”
“The defense strategy of delay and moving the trial is working beautifully,” Oakes said. “She was able to change the venue. She gets some postponements, and now she wants further postponement.”
If she gets it, there are two key factors that would benefit the defense, he added.
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“No. 1, give her time to come up with something to overcome this amazingly strong physical evidence against him, and also maybe diminish the public anger,” he said. “As the months and the years go by, people will forget how horrific the crime was, and maybe give her a better chance to get a good result at trial.”
“They are trying to keep it out of the court of public opinion,” said David Gelman, a Philadelphia-area defense attorney and former prosecutor who is following the case. “How do you do that? Stay away from media.”
That is tough in a case garnering international attention.
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New legal documents show prosecutors opposed postponing Kohberger’s summer murder trial, asserting that alleged evidence leaks, which may have breached the gag order, are insignificant.
“It is time to try this case. (The) defendant was arrested in late December of 2022 and was indicted in May of 2023,” Latah County prosecuting attorney William “Bill” Thompson wrote in the latest legal document posted on Tuesday.
“But now, after all discovery deadlines have passed and after the Court conducted the pre-trial conference, (the) defendant seeks a trial continuance of unspecified length. He bases his request on his claim that his mitigation investigation is incomplete,” he continued.
Prosecutors noted that the Idaho constitution gives victims a right to timely disposition of a case and that the defense team has had sufficient time and resources to review discovery materials, with no violations established by the state.
They also argued that the defense team had adequate resources, including three trial attorneys, investigators, a public defense attorney, and an outside mitigation specialist. It rebuts claims by the defendant about insufficient preparation time, stating that the team has identified over 1,000 exhibits and nearly 200 witnesses for the trial.
Kohberger’s defense has submitted 2,100 pages of purported mitigation materials, 132 exhibits and backgrounds on 55 potential penalty phase witnesses, in reference to the full investigation for the penalty phase.
“Defendant’s Motion amounts to a request for a perpetual continuance so that his counsel can go down every rabbit-hole until Defendant, rather than the Court, deems himself ready for trial. The law requires no such thing,” prosecutors wrote.
The state says if an individual has been influenced by the Dateline story or any pretrial publicity, and feels that they cannot be impartial, they will not be seated as a juror.
The document reads that “delaying this trial will only allow more opportunities for pretrial publicity” and that there is no reason to think that media coverage in this case will “dissipate”.
The court encouraged the defense to seek additional resources if necessary and noted that professional standards for a death penalty case defense have been met.
Kohberger is accused of killing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in a 4 a.m. home-invasion stabbing spree.
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Jack Lu, a retired Massachusetts judge and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Lowell School of Criminology and Justice studies, said Taylor could consider trying to “humanize” her client — but anything else could be dangerous for the defense.
“That case sends a chill down the spine of every professor in a school of criminology in the United States,” he told Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Dan Springer and Stepheny Price contributed to this report.
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