Sept. 13 (UPI) — The quadruple murder trial of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022, will be moved to Boise, the state’s Supreme Court said.
Idaho’s high court announced the move in an order Thursday that also assigned District Judge Steven Hippler to oversee the trial.
With the move the defendant is also to be transferred to the sheriff of Boise’s Ada County.
The announcement comes days after a Judge John Judge on Monday sided with Kohberger’s legal team, which had sought a venue change on the grounds that their client would not get a fair trial in Latah County where the crime took place.
According to the U.S. Census, Latah County has a population of some 39,500 people.
Judge had heard arguments in the matter late August when Kohberger’s attorneys said a phone survey conducted of the local community found that 98% of respondents knew of the case and that 70% believed their client was guilty.
“Considering the undisputed evidence presented by the defense, the extreme nature of the news coverage in this case and the smaller population in Latah County, the defense has met the rather low standard of demonstrating ‘reasonable likelihood’ that prejudicial news coverage will compromise a fair trial in Latah County,” Judge said in his Monday decision.
Kohberger is to stand trial on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary for the Nov. 13, 2022, killings of four college students at a residence in the small city of Moscow, which is home to some 28,600 people located on the Idaho-Washington border.
