In new court papers, prosecutors say they have proof that the man charged with stabbing to death four University of Idaho students bought a knife and a sheath for it online in the months before the killings.
In the trial of Bryan Kohberger, prosecutors asked the judge to let them use his Amazon shopping history as proof in the case.
They also asked for approval to show that one of the victims’ roommates saw a man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask in the house early on November 13, 2022, the morning of the killings. As part of their case, authorities said they would show the jury a picture of Kohberger taken from his phone hours after the killings and let them decide if he has bushy eyebrows.
Kohberger is accused of killing Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves. The teens were killed early in the morning at a rental house close to Moscow, Idaho, where they went to school.
Kohberger had already pleaded not guilty in front of a judge. Kohberger’s hearing will start on August 11 and will likely last for more than three months. If he is found guilty, the prosecutors have said they will ask for the death sentence.
Police say they were able to connect “touch DNA” from Kohberger with DNA found on a knife sheath close to one of the victims. Last month, a defence lawyer asked Judge Steven Hippler to throw out the DNA proof, but the judge said no.
On Monday, court papers said that the state got a search warrant to look at Kohberger’s Amazon activity related to knives and accessories, as well as his payment methods and the things he added and removed from his cart.
They said the search warrant was only valid from March 20 to March 30, 2022, which is when they knew Kohberger got a Ka-Bar knife from Amazon with a sheath and a sharpener. It was also valid from November 1 to December 6, 2022, which are weeks before and after the killings.
In their case for the judge to accept the evidence, the authorities said that Kohberger’s Amazon history showing that he bought a Ka-Bar knife and sheath before the killings made it more likely that the Ka-Bar sheath found at the crime scene belonged to him.
The case is very difficult, and thousands of pages of court papers have been filed on both sides as lawyers try to decide what will and won’t be shown to the jury.
