The Idaho quadruple murder suspect (pictured) may have left a knife sheath at the crime scene as part of a ‘remarkably clever move’ to get off the hook, a criminologist suggested. David Wilson, a professor at Birmingham City University in the UK, pushed the idea that accused Bryan Kohberger was too smart to leave the evidence behind. He hinted it could have been part of an elaborate plan to ensure he was not convicted, but did not go into specific details why he believed this.
It has been speculated that Kohberger could potentially use the knife as a red herring to benefit from double jeopardy laws, which prevent a suspect from being charged with the same crime twice. The DNA found on the sheath was initially tested against Kohberger’s father’s DNA, which led investigators to the PhD student. Wilson suggested it could have been transferred on to the cover and that may be an argument made by the suspect’s defense team. If that argument succeeds and the key plank of evidence fails, resulting in an innocent verdict, Kohberger would likely not be charged again.
He told ITV’s This Morning: ‘Would a highly-skilled, intelligent student who is teaching criminology, a Ph.D. student, have made such a basic error?’ The criminologist was responding to host Phillip Schofield who called the abandoning of the knife sheath a ‘remarkably clumsy move.’ Wilson (pictured) said: ‘One of the things that’s really struck me about the person that’s been arrested and accused of this is he is intelligent and high-functioning.’
He also argued DNA can be transferred from person to person and said he believes the defense may bring that up at trial. ‘I could have your DNA,’ Wilson said, speaking to This Morning’s Holly Willoughby. ‘Your DNA is on me. I could go wherever I wanted to go in the next hour and your DNA would be where I go too,’ he continued. ‘So the defense is clearly going to present issues that will suggest that Kohberger is innocent,’ the criminologist offered.
As for Kohberger’s cellphone pings, which put him in the Moscow area on the date of the killings and in the weeks beforehand, Wilson offered an explanation for that too. ‘Moscow isn’t so far away from Washington State University, so it would be natural that there would be some of those towers that might ping,’ he said. There are just eight miles between Washington State University’s campus in Pullman where Kohberger studied and Moscow, Idaho where the murders took place. ‘There will be a defense,’ Wilson said.
During a recent episode of the Law&Crime Sidebar podcast, Chief Public Defender for Monroe County, Pennsylvania, Jason LaBar (pictured), said the evidence is not so clear-cut. The Pennsylvania public defender’s comments on the knife sheath, which was found next to one of the victims, was shrugged off by LaBar as ‘touch or transfer DNA’. ‘Which would mean that it could remain on that sheath for an indefinite period of time, if undisturbed,’ LaBar said. ‘That’s one way of attacking that type of evidence that doesn’t put him at the scene of the crime the night out, just that he merely touched that sheath at some point in time.’
LaBar also said police used cellphone tower pings rather than GPS location to put him at the scene (pictured) 12 times before the quadruple homicides. ‘If it was GPS location coordinates, you’re talking down to a meter as to where Bryan Kohberger was at the time of these crimes,’ he said. ‘Whereas a cellphone tower ping is that you’re within a radius of that tower up to 20 miles. Obviously, Mr Kohberger lived within ten miles of the University of Idaho where these crimes were committed. So certainly he could ping at any moment in time near the actual crime.’
Kohberger was arrested on December 30 in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania after a cross-country road trip from Washington, where he was a PhD student. The criminology student has been charged with four counts of murder in the first degree and one count of felony burglary in this incident. The four counts of first-degree murder are connected to the fatal stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20 (all pictured).
Kohberger has maintained his innocence since his arrest and his lawyers have told media outlets their client is ‘eager to be exonerated’ in the November 13 murders. Wilson’s suggestions come after a former FBI investigator said Kohberger may have been motivated to kill the students due to an ‘incel complex.’ The term ‘incel’ is short for ‘involuntarily celibate and is used to describe men who have trouble establishing romantic relationships. Pete Yachmetz said he believed the criminology student may have been attempting to ‘assert some dominance’ in the stabbings.
Yachmetz (pictured) noted Kohberger’s history of social issues over the years. Ex-classmates have since describe him as a troubled, disgruntled young man who did not fit in. The former FBI official told the New York Post the brutality of the killings speaks to the situation. ‘I believe a continued stabbing of a victim indicates… an uncomfortable rage and extreme anger,’ he said. ‘I think he may have developed an incel complex,’ Yachmetz continued. ‘The murders may have ben an effort to assert some type of dominance.’
Others have agreed with the ‘incel’ diagnosis. ‘I’ve been saying from the beginning that he’s an incel,’ said Dr Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychiatrist. Dr Lieberman pointed to the victims, three of which were young females in college. She also said the reports the alleged killer returned to the scene intrigued her. ‘Incels like to be known for when they kill people, or when they have a conquest like this,’ she said. Former classmates of Kohberger’s have talked openly in recent weeks about how he was a bullied, overweight kid who changed after high school. Pictured: Kohberger in a yearbook photo.
‘The whole clique of popular girls made fun of him in school. They were the cheerleaders and the ones that every kid had crushes on,’ said one classmate, who did not wish to be identified, told DailyMail.com. ‘They literally tortured him, girls started making fun of him in middle school,’ the person said. Kohberger eventually lost about 100 pounds after he took up boxing. ‘He was a totally different person. He worked out constantly and was super aggressive,’ a friend said. ‘He had a short fuse and was constantly trying to change his style and personality to fit in with cliques.’
Earlier this month, DailyMail.com reported on a woman (pictured) who posted a TikTok video saying she had been on a Tinder date with Kohberger about seven years ago. After going to watch a movie, they went back to her dorm room and watched TV, and Kohberger kept trying to touch her, she said. ‘Not like inappropriately, just like trying to tickle and like, rub my shoulder and stuff,’ she said. Things got ‘weird’ after he said he didn’t touch her, which she says he did. ‘You are though,’ she recalls retorting, saying then that Kohberger was attempting to ‘gaslight me into thinking that he didn’t touch me, which is weird.’ She also claimed Kohberger followed her to the bathroom and ‘stood outside the door,’ which she also thought was ‘weird.’
More evidence is expected after the preliminary hearing, and while he’s no longer representing Kohberger and has no plans to communicate with him, LaBar will be following the case and ‘viewing everything objectively.’ ‘I know I’ve been stressing since my representation of Bryan that he’s entitled to a fair trial,’ LaBar said. ‘And really, that’s why I’m trying to be a voice for him so people don’t jump to conclusions and raise these biases so that he can actually have a fair trial with the presumption of innocence.’ The 28-year-old will return to court in Moscow on June 26 — six months from now — for a preliminary hearing.
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