Idaho judge makes ruling on jury hearing 911 call at Kohberger murder trial

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — The judge overseeing Bryan Kohberger’s upcoming murder trial ruled Thursday that prosecutors may play for jurors all but three short portions of the 911 call that was made hours after four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed, and also determined that texts between two surviving roommates were “likely admissible.”

Judge Steven Hippler of Idaho’s 4th Judicial District rejected the defense’s argument to restrict the call during their client’s upcoming trial. His attorneys also requested that only the approved portions of the recording with 911 dispatch be allowed or a transcript of the call — not both. But Hippler decided that jurors would be given a transcript to be used to aid them in understanding all of the permitted portions of the conversation with the dispatcher.

“Some of the hearsay statements on the 911 call do not qualify under the exceptions cited by the state and, therefore, must be redacted,” Hippler wrote. “However, the balance of the 911 call as well as the texts and conversations noted herein are likely admissible provided that the requisite foundation is laid at trial.”

The three portions of the call Hippler said he would restrict from jurors as hearsay included when a female friend told the dispatcher that one of the four victims was drunk the night before, passed out and wasn’t waking up. Police said from the beginning that the 911 call was over a report of an unconscious person. In another instance, the same female friend told the dispatcher that a surviving roommate saw a man in the home where the students were killed overnight, which Hippler labeled hearsay.

Also, when one of the surviving roommates tried to explain what happened overnight, but was quickly interrupted by the dispatcher, Hippler said that will be redacted from the call, too. That same roommate is expected to testify at trial and offer that information and a description of the man she saw in the home.

The victims were Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington. The three women lived at the off-campus home with two female roommates who went physically unharmed in the attack, while Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and slept over for the night.

Kohberger has been held in police custody without bond for nearly 28 months since his late December 2022 arrest on four counts of first-degree murder and a count of felony burglary. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if a jury finds Kohberger guilty.

Judge also rules to keep state experts for trial

Audio of the 911 call, the source of much public speculation for more than two years after the November 2022 quadruple homicide, was released last month in response to public records requests filed to the region’s dispatch center located in Pullman, Washington. Its public release followed the inclusion of a call transcript in a prosecution filing to allow jurors to hear the call at trial.

Steve Goncalves, father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, told KCPQ-TV Fox 13 in Seattle earlier this month that the recording remains a difficult listen — one his wife didn’t plan to ever hear.

“Honestly, it’s terrible,” he said of the roughly four-minute call. “She still hasn’t listened to it, she probably never will. … But I know those girls that did those calls, the people that were in there, and I know that they’ve been tossed into the same bucket as us, that you get victimized and you’re feeling like the whole world is staring at you and criticizing everything you say, everything you do.”

The judge’s Thursday order followed his rulings on a host of other debates over certain evidence between prosecutors and Kohberger’s public defense team. Last week, Hippler decided one of the surviving roommates may testify to having seen a man in the students’ rental home with what she described as “bushy eyebrows,” which the defense argued to prevent.

The decision on the 911 call was one of the last for Hippler to make following an all-day hearing earlier this month on various evidence issues. On Thursday, he also ruled against the defense’s effort to limit testimony from the majority of the prosecution’s 25 disclosed expert witnesses, as well as against a push to strike the death penalty because of Kohberger’s autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.

“There is no basis to exclude or limit the detectives’ disclosed testimony,” Hippler wrote about three members of law enforcement with backgrounds in digital forensics. “It is clear they will be testifying to the facts of their investigation, not providing traditional expert opinions.”

Kohberger is next scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing on May 15. His trial is set to begin with jury selection in late July.