Idaho
Bryan Kohberger's defense reveals alleged details from night of arrest at parent's Pennsylvania home
There are new developments in the Idaho college murders case as defense attorneys are challenging key evidence that they say was improperly obtained by police, including search warrants and DNA.
New court filings from Bryan Kohberger’s defense team depict a chaotic night when the former PhD student was arrested at his parent’s home in the Pennsylvania Poconos.
His lawyers claim that during the raid, law enforcement broke the front door of the home, shattered the sliding glass door of the basement and held the entire family at gunpoint. They also allege that while Kohberger was “zip tied at his hands and surrounded by police at gun point,” he “made statements to his arresting officers,” despite “not having his rights read to him.”
The many pre-trial hearings in Idaho quadruple murder case against Bryan Kohberger
Now, they want those statements thrown out, along with other key pieces of evidence lead defense attorney Anne Taylor argues were “illegally gathered by law enforcement using his genetic information.”
Authorities linking Kohberger to the crime after they say they found DNA that was a “statistical match” on the button snap of a knife sheath at the crime scene where Xana Kernolde, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin were found stabbed to death.
“When law enforcement uses that positive match and then says, well, we need to go and get a search warrant because we have a positive match for Bryan Kohberger, that the DNA evidence is tainted and anything comes from it is fruit from a poisonous tree,” said ABC News contributor Brian Buckmire.
The defense, who says Kohberger is innocent, claiming without that genetic information, there could have been no request for his phone records which prosecutors also say implicate him.
Taylor is also challenging the way authorities gathered search warrants, especially pertaining to the search of Kohberger’s car, a white Hyundai Elantra, as well as his Apple and Amazon accounts.
Taylor says the warrants lacked probable cause.
The trial is set for August and we are still awaiting the judge’s decision on the defense’s request to have the death penalty taken off the table.
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Idaho
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Idaho
Bond revoked for indicted Idaho mother
PAYETTE — A Payette mom’s bond was revoked Tuesday after she was charged with suffocating her twin children earlier this month and is believed to pose a danger to the life of her newborn child.
The case, which has drawn national headlines, concerns Andrea Renee Shaw, a 23-year-old Payette mother who in May 2025 said her 18-month-old fraternal twins died the same day, after receiving routine childhood vaccinations. In January, Shaw joined as a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine organization founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with several other plaintiffs claiming vaccine injury or death.
Kennedy, who now serves as secretary of Health and Human Services, is no longer part of the group after taking on the cabinet position, as was reported by the Associated Press.
In Idaho, the twins’ deaths prompted a 14-month investigation by the Payette County Sheriff’s Department. On June 29, the investigation yielded a grand jury indictment of Shaw on two counts of first-degree murder by suffocation. If convicted, Shaw can be punished by up to life in prison or the death penalty, and the court would have the ability to order the penalties be served consecutively, or back to back.
Tuesday’s arraignment at the Payette County Courthouse was primarily attended by Shaw’s relatives and members of the media. Payette County Judge Kiley Stuchlik, who serves Idaho’s Third Judicial District, presided.
A key consideration for Stuchlik on Tuesday was a request from Joseph Filicetti, the legal counsel for Shaw, to have her bond reduced from $2 million to $100,000. Filicetti said this would allow for Shaw to care for a newborn girl, who, according to court documents, was born by caesarean section on June 25, four days prior to Shaw’s grand jury indictment.
State prosecutors objected to the motion for bond reduction, noting at hand was a potential death penalty case and asserting, unlike her husband, Shaw’s story repeatedly changed during questioning. Prosecuting Attorney Mike Duke said releasing Shaw would ultimately put the newborn’s safety at risk.
“That child is the most at risk. We do not think she should be allowed to be anywhere near any children, let alone her own children,” Duke said.
Stuchlik decided to revoke bond entirely, stating Shaw posed a “risk of safety” to the newborn child that was not known to Stuchlik or prosecutors when the $2 million bond was initially set.
Also for consideration Tuesday was a request to have grand jury transcripts of witness testimony provided to prosecutors and defense counsel to prepare their respective cases.
Idaho
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