One of the coeds butchered at the University of Idaho in 2022 had DNA from three different people under her fingernails, according to bombshell newly unsealed court documents.
However, lawyers for murder suspect Bryan Kohberger say a test to match the traces to their client came back with inconclusive results.
As a result, the evidence should be excluded from his trial, they argued in a court filing that was made public on Tuesday
The samples taken from the fingernails of 23-year-old Madison Mogen offer yet another twist in the case of the four students who were horrifically stabbed to death in their off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho.
It’s unclear how the DNA evidence got there, or who it belongs to. However, in cases where a victim fights back and scratches an attacker, skin samples are sometimes left under the fingernails.
Attorneys for Kohberger filed a flurry of motions last month to exclude a huge swath of evidence from the August quadruple murder trial.
The Washington State University criminology Ph.D. student is charged with murdering Mogen, along with her housemates Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
DNA evidence on a knife sheath left at the scene helped lead investigators to Kohberger, but now defense attorney Bicka Barlow is arguing against the methodology used in tests performed on evidence at the scene.
She said the testing method failed to link Kohberger to the crime scene, and that even presenting it in court “could potentially confuse and mislead” jury members — or at least force the defense to waste time explaining the nuances to them.
Attorneys also claimed that a second lab test, conducted on behalf of the defense and presented to a grand jury, ruled out that the fingernail DNA belonged to Kohberger.
In addition to the knife sheath evidence, prosecutors also pointed out that Kohberger’s car is similar to one security cameras caught leaving the scene, and that cell phone records place him near the victims’ house before and after the murders.
Additionally, a witness — one of two housemates who survived the ordeal — spotted a man in a black mask and “bushy eyebrows” leaving through the back door after hearing the sounds of a struggle.
Kohberger’s defense is working to have almost all of the evidence against him tossed out.
In a flurry of suppression motions filed last month, his lawyers said the DNA testing of the knife sheath was unreliable, the alleged footage of his car was improperly obtained, and that search warrants of his personal property — including laptop and phone — were too broad.
Lawyers are also trying to ban phrases including “murder,” “murder weapon,” “psychopath,” and even “bushy eyebrows,” claiming that would prejudice the jury against the defendant.
