BREAKING NEWS Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger's last dash for freedom... as his phone calls and porn searches are revealed
is making a string of last-ditch pleas to a judge in a final court hearing before he goes on trial for his life.
The quadruple homicide suspect returned to a courtroom in Ada County, Idaho, Wednesday morning where Judge Steven Hippler is expected to make a series of decisions that will shape his looming capital murder trial this summer.
This comes less than a week after bombshell new details emerged in the case, including Kohberger's phone calls to a family member after the murders, his chilling porn choices and disturbing online searches about serial killer Ted Bundy.
During the 11th-hour hearing, the prosecution and defense is going head-to-head one final time over what evidence jurors will be able to see in order to decide the fate of the accused killer.
Among the final pieces of evidence still at play is Kohberger's eerie criminology research paper intricately detailing a fictional crime scene about a woman being stabbed to death at a trailer park.
The 30-year-old PhD student could also finally reveal details about his claim of an alternative suspect in the case - with his defense planning to argue he was framed and that two killers must have committed the shocking crime.
Phone records and bank transactions for both the accused killer and some of his alleged victims as well as surveillance footage from locations close to the crime scene are also likely to be discussed.
The judge could also lay down rules for jury questionnaires and instructions and lists on exhibits and expert rebuttal witnesses for the sentencing phase could also be finalized.
Kohberger is facing the death penalty if convicted of the brutal murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
The four University of Idaho students were all slaughtered in a horror knife attack in the early hours of November 13, 2022, inside the off-campus student home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, that the three women shared with two other roommates.
The two roommates - Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen - survived, with Mortensen coming face-to-face with the masked killer inside the home that haunting night.
On December 30, 2022 - around six weeks on from the massacre - Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, and charged with the murders.
He stood silent at his arraignment and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
Now, after more than two years of delays and legal wrangling - including the trial being moved to another county - the suspected killer who struck terror into the heart of a safe, tight-knit college town is finally heading to trial.
Jury selection is slated to begin July 30, with the trial getting underway on August 11.
The high-profile trial is expected to last around three months, barring the sentencing phase.
If convicted, Kohberger faces the death penalty and, following recent changes in Idaho state law, he may even face the firing squad.
To date, 13 separate defense efforts to take the death penalty off the table have been denied by the judge - including one where they cited his autism diagnosis as a reason to block capital punishment from the case.
The judge has also dealt a series of other blows to Kohberger's defense strategy in recent weeks, ruling that jurors can hear the harrowing 911 call made by the victims' surviving roommates and see their panicked texts after Mortensen saw the masked killer inside their home.
The judge has also ruled against Kohberger in allowing Mortensen to describe the man inside her home using the term 'bushy eyebrows.'
Jurors will also be able to see Kohberger's Amazon shopping history, which prosecutors say reveals he bought a Ka-Bar knife, sheath and sharpener from Amazon back in March 2022.
A matching sheath was found next to Mogen's body, with DNA on the sheath being traced back to Kohberger.
The murder weapon has never been found.
Since the last court hearing in April, it has come to light that Kohberger placed a series of phone calls to his dad Michael Kohberger just two hours after the horror stabbing spree.
The 30-year-old criminology PhD student called his dad three times on the morning of November 13, 2022, according to explosive cell phone records obtained by NBC's Dateline.
The calls began at 6.17am - just two hours after Kohberger is accused of murdering the four students at around 4am - and each lasted up to 54 minutes.
What exactly the father and son spoke about remains a mystery.
It is also unclear if this was typical behavior for Kohberger to call his father at that time. Kohberger's parents live in Pennsylvania, which is three hours ahead of Pullman - making the first call around 9am for Michael.
Following those calls to his father, Kohberger allegedly returned to the scene of the murders, with his phone pinging off a cell tower close to 1122 King Road at 9.12am.
Just one hour after that - at around 10.31am - the quadruple homicide suspect was back at his Pullman, Washington, apartment, where he snapped a creepy selfie posing with his thumbs up and an eerie smile as he stood in front of his shower.
Over another hour passed before the bloodbath was discovered at 1122 King Road and the now-haunting 911 call was placed just before midday.
The shocking revelation of the call records comes after prosecutors revealed they plan to call some of Kohberger's own family members to testify against him at his trial.
Which family members will testify for the prosecution and why remain a closely-guarded secret.
In the two-plus-years since his arrest, the Kohberger family has kept a low profile.
The only public comments ever made by the family was a statement released immediately after his arrest where they said they 'care deeply for the four families who have lost their precious children', that they were cooperating fully with the investigation and that 'as a family we will love and support our son and brother.'
In the April court hearing, Kohberger's lawyers revealed that the family continues to support him and has 'no interest in helping' the prosecution in its case.
New details have also emerged about Kohberger's online activity and behaviors around the time of the murders, including creepy selfies and disturbing porn and serial killer searches.
According to Dateline, Kohberger made several searches around serial killer Ted Bundy - who was put to death for a string of murders including the killings of female students in a sorority house in Florida.
On August 16, 2022 - three months before the murders - Kohberger allegedly Googled 'ted h7ndy' and one of his professors, including a paper she had written about Bundy.
In the days after the murders, Kohberger - on multiple occasions - then also allegedly watched shows about the serial killer.
On December 28, 2022 - just three days before his arrest - Kohberger then also allegedly watched a YouTube show named 'Ted Bundy: Essence of a Psychopath.'
After watching that, Kohberger snapped a series of other selfies.
These haunting images show the man soon to be charged with a brutal quadruple homicide dressed in a black hoody and staring into the camera.
The photo, Dateline reveals, appears to impersonate the hooded image of Bundy on the show he had watched that day.
He also searched and listened to the Britney Spears' song Criminal.
Other online searches after the murders show the suspect was researching the killings - as well as his own name, the show reported.
Kohberger had also searched for pornography that included the words 'sleeping' and 'drugged.'
He also had a trove of images of female students from WSU and UI, many of them in bikinis.
The images, Dateline reported, appeared to have been taken from social media accounts of students who followed or were friends with either Kernodle, Goncalves or Mogen.
Sources close to the investigation told Dateline that the intended target of the attack is believed to be Mogen - based in part on the path the killer allegedly took after entering the home, going straight up to her room on the third floor.
It has now emerged that a sixth young woman was also supposed to be staying in the home that night - but a last-minute decision saved her life.
Ashlin Couch's mom Angela Navejas told DailyMail.com that Couch was best friends with Mogen and was the sixth roommate still on the lease at 1122 King Road at the time of the murders.
Couch had moved out of the home in the summer of 2022 after graduating early.
But she would often return to Moscow to spend weekends with her friends and would stay with Mogen when she did.
She had planned to visit that weekend but her mom was on vacation in Florida and Hurricane Nicole had hit the Sunshine State - derailing her journey home.
Navejas asked her daughter to stay at home and look after their dogs, and so the senior canceled her plans to join her friends.
This last-minute cancellation may have saved her life.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Female tycoon is private jet-crazed power lesbian who mocked male employee for being old, say ex-colleagues
A Lamborghini-racing, private jet-loving executive has been accused of plundering her company's coffers in a trio of explosive lawsuits from former associates. Jessica Mah, founder of venture capital firm Mahway Management, stole millions from the company to fund a lavish lifestyle including gifts for her co-founder, Andrea Barrica, with whom she is accused of having a lesbian affair, legal filings claim. She also stands accused of lobbing ageist insults to a subordinate, according to one of the lawsuits. Mah denies all the claims against her, with her representatives telling Daily Mail the attempted legal takedown is retaliation for a sexual assault lawsuit she filed against one of the plaintiffs, her investor Justin Caldbeck. Caldbeck, who is the CEO of D Global Ventures, previously admitted sexual misconduct towards six women in his professional orbit after being exposed in the early stages of the #MeToo movement. Tensions flared between him and Mah over the size of his return on his investment, which he believed was less than he had been promised. Mah began the legal frenzy by suing Caldbeck on May 14, accusing him of threatening to 'destroy' and 'bankrupt' her if she did not pay him the profits he believes he was rightly owed. Caldbeck denies the allegations and countersued hours later, claiming Mah 'seduced investors with misleading and often contradictory representations in quarterly investor reports'. Luxe-loving tycoon Mah was also accused in a separate lawsuit of lavishing gifts and perks on her alleged lover Barrica at the company's expense. Both women have denied any romance. 'Mah is a charlatan living on investors' funds intended for Mahway's portfolio of start-up companies, the majority of which are only "unicorns" in the sense that they are also imaginary,' Caldbeck claims in his lawsuit. In business, a 'unicorn' is a private start-up valued at $1 billion. Mah has bragged about being a 'unicorn breeder.' Caldbeck claims in his suit that Mah, an alum of the Forbes 30 under 30 club, 'misappropriated' money from investors to pay for private chefs, a $1 million private jet, her $16,500-a-month home, luxury cars and vacations to destinations such as Park City, Utah, and Burning Man. 'As of February 2025, Mah had taken millions in fees, even though Mahway's portfolio company investments were underperforming. Those fees were millions of dollars more than Mah was entitled to under the relevant agreements,' Caldbeck's suit states. Mah's Instagram page is chocked full of images of her exotic escapes, ritzy dinners and sports car-racing endeavors. Caldbeck's claims were echoed in suits brought by two of Mah's former employees — ex-President Walter Delph and former chief financial officer William Mulholland — who sued the young executive for alleged wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation. Delph claims in his filing that Mah showered her alleged lover Barrica with benefits and gifts offered to no one else at the company, including paying 'hundreds of thousands of dollars on Barrica's personal vacations'. Mah, 'would rub Barrica's upper inner thighs' during company meetings, according to the filing, which also accused Mah of sexual harassment. Delph claimed in his filings that she forced him and other staffers to work from her West Hollywood home where they allegedly saw Mah's sexual partners 'in various stages of undress'. The suit claims Mah bragged about her sexual encounters with other employees, who allegedly had to 'witness their sexual conduct and activities'. He additionally accused Mah of age discrimination, claiming she'd frequently call him an 'old man' and ridicule his opinions in front of other employees. Delph and Mulholland claim in their complaints that they were wrongly fired after raising concerns Mah was misleading investors. Mah denied the allegations and hit back in a suit against Delph on May 15, accusing him of conspiring with Caldbeck and Mulholland to defame her. 'As alleged in the complaints, Mulholland and Delph joined Mr. Caldbeck's attempted 'shake down' in the hopes of making a quick buck themselves. Their claims have no basis in reality,' Mah's lawyers told Daily Mail. All three men are represented by Caldbeck's longtime lawyer, Ivo Labar. They all claim their suits were filed independently from one another. However it is not the first time such allegations have been leveled at Mah. She and her business partner on a previous venture were accused of misappropriating $1.9 million for personal expenses, in 2021 lawsuit filed by one of their business partners. Mah's lawyer confirmed to Daily Mail that the lawsuit was settled out of court in 2023 for an undisclosed amount and that she did not pay 'a penny' towards it. Mah insists that all the claims against her are defamatory and that she is the victim of sexual assault and a smear campaign. She claims she has honored the terms she and Caldbeck mutually agreed on for his investment into Mah's venture, an LLC called Mahway Inception One. 'He knew the risks. He knew that it would take many years before the investment could return a profit,' Mah's complaint read. 'But in fall demanded that Ms. Mah restructure the pay him massive returns that the investment had not yet generated.' Emails from July 2022 between Caldbeck and Mah shown in her lawsuit appear to demonstrate that Caldbeck was at least aware of the investment structure. 'Justin Caldbeck's allegations against Jessica Mah are objectively false. Caldbeck claims he was misled into investing in Inception One,' Mah's lawyers said in a statement. 'But the documents he signed state the exact profit allocation he now says he didn't know about. When Ms. Mah pointed that out, he refused to accept responsibility and filed a sham lawsuit,' the statement continued. Mah's lawsuit claims Caldbeck extorted her by threatening to broadcast her alleged fraud to her investors, the media and even the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Her lawsuit also pointed to Caldbeck's sordid past with sexual misconduct. Six women accused him of unwanted advances in 2017, The Information first reported. At the time, Caldbeck admitted to the allegations and resigned from his post at Binary Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm he co-founded. Mah said Caldbeck repeatedly made 'unwelcome' advances toward her, one of which allegedly occurred during a business meeting at West Hollywood's Pendry hotel in June 2022. In her lawsuit, she alleged Caldbeck 'touched the upper-most part of [her] thigh and put his hand next to her genitalia' after consuming several drinks. Barrica, the woman accused of having an affair with Mah, filed her own lawsuit on May 20. Like Mah, she accused Caldbeck of sexual harassment and extortion. She described an alleged incident where she claims he repeatedly tried to get on top of her and kiss her in an Uber while they were in Paris. Caldbeck denies this ever happened. According to Barrica's lawsuit, Caldbeck tried to, 'leverage his repulsive behavior by threatening to spread objectively false allegations' that she was in a relationship with Mah. Representatives for Mah and Barrica said the two are best friends and have never been romantically or sexually involved. The representatives added that both women were in committed relationships at the time these allegations were made. According both women's lawsuits, they tried to keep a professional relationship with Caldbeck until they had a falling out over his claims of their financial malfeasance. Caldbeck allegedly told her at one point: 'Even if Jess said that I raped her, I wouldn't care. My investors wouldn't care either,' his lawsuit states. Caldbeck's spokesperson, Sallie Hofmeister, dismissed Mah's claims as, 'nothing more than a calculated effort ... to distract from credible accusations that they have misused millions of dollars of investor funds'. 'Nearly a year ago, she explicitly threatened to weaponize past allegations against Mr. Caldbeck if he pursued legal claims related to fraud and embezzlement against her,' Hofmeister told Daily Mail.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Mahmoud Khalil arrives in NJ after being granted release... and vows to continue fight 'even if they kill me'
Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has landed in New Jersey, telling reporters that he will continue to fight for his country 'even if they kill me.' Khalil, 30, arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport on Saturday to an eruption of cheers after he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for over 100 days. New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez greeted him at the airport and stood by his side as he spoke to the press. Khalil defiantly spoke, telling reporters: 'If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine.' 'I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, a speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished.' Khalil, a lawful resident of the US, was granted release and freed on bail by a New Jersey federal judge on Friday. The green card holder was taken into custody on March 8, 2025, as the Trump administration cracked down on pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses. Khalil was one of the primary organizers of protests that took over Columbia as the Israel - Hamas conflict was ignited. In the ruling Friday, Judge Michael E. Farbiaz said that none of the Trump administration's allegations against Khalil justified his continued detention, and sided with Khalil's argument that he was locked up as an unlawful retaliation for his activism. In his ruling on Friday, Farbiarz said: 'There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish Mr. Khalil - And of course that would be unconstitutional.' Khalil has not been charged with a crime, but the judge's order to free him comes as the Trump White House continues efforts to deport him back to Algeria, where he is a citizen. When he was detained earlier this year, Khalil's case gained national attention as he was the first pro-Palestinian protester to be arrested by the Trump administration in its crackdown on college campuses. Several protests he organized and led at Columbia turned violent, with one seeing 112 students arrested when they stormed a campus building and occupied it as NYPD officers tried to shut their demonstration down. His arrest sparked protests across the country as critics accused the Trump administration of unlawfully arresting a legal resident without charging him with a crime in violation of his free speech. He was detained under the Cold War–era Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which states that non-US citizens can be deported if they are antagonistic against US foreign policy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Khalil of spreading anti-Semitism, and White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said he was 'siding with terrorists.' But in the three months that Khalil has been detained, the Justice Department hasn't disclosed any substantive connection between Khalil and Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and killed around 1,200 civilians. In their successful filing to free Khalil this week, the graduate student's attorneys argued that he was not spreading anti-Semitism when he campaigned for Palestine in its war with Israel. They cited past quotes from him such as comments he made to CNN during a campus protest, where he said that 'the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand by hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other.' Judge Farbiarz had previously ruled that the foreign policy law was not enough to justify Khalil's detention, and his ruling on Friday shot down further allegations from the Trump administration that Khalil made paperwork errors when applying for citizenship last year. A number of other pro-Palestine protestors have been arrested and freed in the time that Khalil was detained.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Mahmoud Khalil reunites with family after more than 100 days in Ice detention
Mahmoud Khalil – the Palestinian rights activist, Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident of the US who had been held by federal immigration authorities for more than three months – has been reunited with his wife and infant son. Khalil, the most high-profile student to be targeted by the Trump administration for speaking out against Israel's war on Gaza, arrived in New Jersey on Saturday at about 1pm – two hours later than expected after his flight was first rerouted to Philadelphia. Khalil greeted reporters and cheering supporters as he emerged from security at Newark airport accompanied by his wife, Dr Noor Abdalla, and son in a stroller, as well as his legal team and the New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 'If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,' he said at a brief press conference after landing. 'I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, a speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished.' Khalil was released from a Louisiana immigration detention facility on Friday evening after a federal judge ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail. Khalil was sent to Jena, Louisiana, shortly after being seized by plainclothes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in the lobby of his university residence in front of his heavily pregnant wife, who is a US citizen, in early March. The 30-year-old, who has not been charged with a crime, was forced to miss the birth of his first child, Deen, by the Trump administration. Khalil had been permitted to see his wife and son briefly – and only once – earlier in June. In ordering Khalil's immediate release on Friday, federal judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, found that the government had failed to provide evidence that the graduate was a flight risk or danger to the public. '[He] is not a danger to the community,' Farbiarz ruled. 'Period, full stop.' The judge also ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter by detaining them was unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters outside the detention facility where an estimated 1,000 men are being held, Khalil said: 'Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this. That doesn't mean there is a right person for this. There is no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide.' 'No one is illegal – no human is illegal,' he said. 'Justice will prevail no matter what this administration may try.' The Trump administration immediately filed a notice of appeal, NBC reported. Khalil was ordered to surrender his passport and green card to Ice officials in Jena, Louisiana, as part of his conditional release. The order also limits Khalil's travel to a handful of US states, including New York and Michigan to visit family, for court hearings in Louisiana and New Jersey, and for lobbying in Washington DC. Khalil's detention was widely condemned as a dangerous escalation in the Trump administration's assault on speech, which is ostensibly protected by the first amendment to the US constitution. His detention was the first in a series of high-profile arrests of international students who had spoken out about Israel's siege of Gaza, its occupation of Palestinian territories and their university's financial ties to companies that profit from Israeli military strikes. Khalil's release marks the latest setback for the Trump administration, which had pledged to deport pro-Palestinian international students en masse, claiming without evidence that speaking out against the Israeli state amounts to antisemitism. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In Khalili's case, multiple Jewish students and faculty had submitted court documents in his support. Khalil was a lead negotiator between the Jewish-led, pro-Palestinian campus protests at Columbia in 2024. And during an appearance on CNN, he said, 'The liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other.' In addition to missing the birth of his son, Khalil was kept from his family's first Mother's Day and Father's Day, and his graduation from Columbia while held in custody from 8 March to 20 June. Trump's crackdown on free speech, pro-Palestinian activists and immigrants has triggered widespread protests and condemnation, as Ice agents ramp up operations to detain tens of thousands of people monthly for deportation while seeking – and in many instances succeeding – to avoid due process. Three other students detained on similar grounds to Khalil – Rümeysa Öztürk, Badar Khan Suri and Mohsen Mahdawi – were previously released while their immigration cases are pending. Others voluntarily left the country after deportation proceedings against them were opened. Another is in hiding as she fights her case. On Sunday, a rally to celebrate Khalil's release – and protest against the ongoing detention by thousands of other immigrants in the US and Palestinians held without trial in Israel – will be held at 5.30pm ET at the steps of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in upper Manhattan. Khalil is expected to address supporters, alongside his legal representatives. 'Mahmoud's release reignites our determination to continue fighting until all our prisoners are released – whether in Palestine or the United States, until we see the end of the genocide and the siege on Gaza, and until we enforce an arms embargo on the Israel,' said Miriam Osman of the Palestinian Youth Movement.
