Bryan Kohberger’s attorney says there is “no connection” between him and the four Idaho students he accuses of fatally stabbing and that DNA from other men was found at the crime scene, according to a new court filing.
In the June 22 filing, Jay Weston Logsdon, the 28-year-old lawyer for Kohberger, criticizes authorities’ use of investigative genetic genealogy to appear to zero in on Kohberger as a suspect in the Nov. 13 murders of Ethan Chapin. , 20, of Conway, Wash. ; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Ariz.; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.
The attorney characterizes investigative genetic genealogy as a “bizarrely complex DNA tree experiment” and writes that “there is no explanation for the complete lack of DNA evidence from victims in Mr. . Kohberger”.
“Instead of looking at it as some kind of complex tree that led to it, it looks much more like an alignment where the government already knew who they wanted to target,” Logsdon said.
Logsdon also said that another man’s DNA was found on a glove outside the house less than a week after the murders, and that the DNA of two more men was found in the house on December 17. She said the defense team does not know what, if any, tests were performed on those samples.
The attorney also alleged that police investigated “several possible suspects,” many of whom provided DNA, including at least one who allegedly “had his DNA extracted from a discarded cigarette” and others who “had had his DNA removed and discharged their phones”, the presentation said. And he wrote that investigators have yet to explain how they came to identify the suspect’s car as a white Hyundai Elantra. (Investigators have said they tracked Kohberger’s car, a white Hyundai Elantra, and cellphone use in the area of the King Road home in Moscow, where the students lived.)
“It is not clear what the police first relied on to focus their investigation on Mr. Kohberger,” Logsdon said in the filing. “It doesn’t matter which came first, the car or the genetic genealogy, the research has yielded very little.”
Kohberger was arrested on December 30 in Monroe County in northeastern Pennsylvania. A grand jury in Latah County indicted him on murder charges May 16 and was arraigned May 22, when he stood silent as a judge pleaded not guilty to all murder charges. His trial is tentatively scheduled to begin on October 2.
Kohberger remains being held in the Latah County Jail without bond, online records show.
The presentation follows the prosecutors’ explanation of the use of investigative genetic genealogy
The defense filing came less than a week after a filing from the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office provided new details about how investigators used DNA and genetic genealogy, which has been used to identify several victims and suspects in recent years, to identify Kohberger as the prime suspect in the case.
Some information about the use of DNA to identify Kohberger was already known before the June 16 filing: Law enforcement sources previously told NBC News that DNA played a role in helping investigators identify Kohberger, and a statement A probable cause juror unsealed in January stated that the male DNA was “left in the push button of the knife sheath” and that DNA recovered from the trash at the Kohberger family’s Pennsylvania home on December 27 showed that there had been a high probability that it was from the biological father of the person who left the DNA. in the pod at the crime scene.
In that June 16 filing, prosecutors said investigators turned to genetic genealogy after DNA found on the knife’s sheath found no match in the case. FBI CODIS database, which tracks the DNA profiles of people who have been arrested or convicted of crimes. Investigators commissioned a private laboratory to build a DNA profile that could be used to search for relatives and then uploaded the DNA profile “into one or more publicly available genetic genealogy services to identify potential suspect family members based on of shared genetic data. presentation said.
The researchers then built a family tree of hundreds of relatives “using the same tools and methods used by members of the public who want to learn more about their ancestors,” the earlier paper said, citing social media, birth and death certificates. and documents sent by users. information as examples. FBI investigators then sent local police a notice to investigate Kohberger.
After police obtained DNA from Kohberger’s father and, later, a swab from Kohberger’s cheek, they found the “statistical match” showing that the DNA found on the knife sheath had at least 5.37 octillion times more likely to be Kohberger’s than an unrelated member of his. the public, the document says.
Experts have warned that DNA evidence is not infallible and should not be the sole basis for arrest or prosecution, and that law enforcement’s increasing use of genetic genealogy also allows them to gain access to people’s DNA. they are not suspicious.
‘The State is hiding his entire case’
Through the June 16 filing of a protective order motion, prosecutors sought to keep more detailed information secret, including raw data and lab notes about the DNA profile and information about possible Kohberger relatives used to build the family tree.
Prosecutors said in that filing that they were willing to disclose other information, including documentation proving that the DNA test was performed and information related to the analysis performed on DNA extracted from the knife sheath, from the trash of the parents of Kohberger and from a buccal swab performed on him, the filing states.
The most recent filing by Kohberger’s attorney, an objection to the state’s motion, argues that prosecutors must disclose how Kohberger’s DNA profile was created and “how many other people the FBI chose to ignore during its investigation.”
“In essence, through non-disclosure and your motion to protect genetic genealogy research, the State is hiding your entire case,” Logsdon alleged.
