Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger drops autism bombshell as victims’ families push for firing squad

University of Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger has now dropped a bombshell claim of autism in his fight to avoid the death penalty. 

Amid a flurry of new court filings in recent days, Kohberger’s defense filed a motion ‘to Strike the Death Penalty Re: Autism Spectrum Disorder.’ 

In support, the legal team also filed a motion seeking to ‘Redact or Seal Newly Filed Records.’ 

It comes amid startling changes to Idaho’s death penalty procedures. The state legislature is considering a bill that would make firing squad the principal method of execution in death row cases. 

Kohberger’s motion remains under seal. It remains unclear if he has been diagnosed with autism, or if his defense is seeking to have him diagnosed ahead of his high-profile capital murder trial in August.

However, in a separate unsealed motion, prosecutors are asking the judge to block the defense from revealing any neuropsychological and psychiatric evaluations of Kohberger from the trial.

In the filing, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson argues that, under Idaho law, ‘”mental condition shall not be a defense to any charge of criminal conduct” except “expert evidence on the issues of any state of mind which is an element of the offense”.’

The 30-year-old criminology student is charged with the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in the close-knit college town of Moscow, Idaho, back on November 13 2022.

The four University of Idaho students were all found brutally stabbed to death inside the off-campus student home that the three young women shared with two other roommates. 

Kohberger, who was a PhD student just over the border at Washington State University at the time, was arrested around six weeks later at his parent’s home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania. 

If convicted, he faces the death penalty – an outcome that has been welcomed by some of the victims’ families.

Goncalves’ family has long publicly called for the death penalty and her father is now pushing for Kohberger to face the firing squad if convicted of the shocking murders of his daughter and her friends.

Firing squad became an alternative method of execution in Idaho last year, amid a shortage of lethal injection drugs.

But it is not the primary execution method and so no inmate has been put to death since it was introduced. 

Republican state lawmaker Bruce Skaug has since put forward a bill to change that and Steve Goncalves said he has reached out to Skaug to help get it over the line.

When asked if he had been following the news about his daughter’s accused killer possibly facing the firing squad, he told NewsNation last week: ‘I don’t follow it. I help make it. 

‘I’m talking to some of these individuals in the state of Idaho. We’re definitely being out there.’

‘I’ll be that person to stand in front of the camera and drum up some support,’ he said. 

He added: ‘There’s no reason to have capital punishment if this isn’t the case for it.’

Kohberger’s attorneys have already fought, unsuccessfully, to remove the death penalty from the case, making various arguments that it is unconstitutional.

In a string of court documents filed last year, they argued that the methods of execution available to inmates in Idaho – firing squad and lethal injection – as well as forcing inmates to wait for years on death row would amount to a cruel and unusual punishment.

But, in November, Judge Steven Hippler struck down the defense bid and gave prosecutors the green light to pursue capital punishment.

Kohberger’s new move citing autism as a reason to prevent a death sentence comes as prosecutors also filed a flurry of motions in recent days seeking to limit what his defense can present at trial.

In one filing, prosecutors asked the judge to demand Kohberger take the stand at his trial if he wants to present his alibi that he was driving around at night looking at the stars at the time of the slayings.

In August 2023, his legal team offered up a vague alibi for the night of the murders, claiming that he was driving around alone late at night on November 12 and into the morning of November 13. No witnesses could corroborate where he was, his attorney Anne Taylor admitted in a court filing.

The defense offered up further details in a court document in April 2024, claiming that he would often go out driving alone in the middle of the night ‘to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars.’

On the night of the slayings, he claims he ‘drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho including Wawawai Park.’

Kohberger’s attorneys said they plan to back up his alibi with a cell tower technology expert at trial and hinted that ‘additional information’ about his movements at the time of the slayings could be revealed at a later date.

But, in a new court document, prosecutors slammed Kohberger’s ‘so-called alibi – not really an alibi’ and asked the judge to block the accused killer’s team from presenting any evidence of his claimed alibi – unless it comes from the mouth of Kohberger himself. 

The state argued he was ‘yet to specify “the specific place or places at which the Defendant claims to have been at the time of the alleged offense and the names and addresses of the witnesses upon whom he intends to rely to establish such alibi”’ 20 months after they requested his alibi and more than two years on from the murders.

‘Consequently, the Defendant should be prohibited from presenting any evidence, whether by direct or cross-examination, in support of any claimed alibi other than from the Defendant himself,’ prosecutors argued.

As well as his alibi, the state is also asking the judge to block Kohberger’s legal team from arguing an ‘alternative perpetrator’ murdered the four students.

Blood from two, unidentified men were found at the crime scene – one on a handrail between the first and second floor of the three-storey home and one on a glove found outside.

Kohberger’s attorneys have zeroed in on the fact that investigators have not determined who the two mystery men are.

However investigators testified in pre-trial hearings last month that they didn’t need to because of bombshell evidence allegedly tying Kohberger to the scene.

A brown leather Ka-Bar knife sheath was found underneath Mogen’s lifeless body following the grisly murders. 

Touch DNA found on the sheath was found to be a match to the 30-year-old suspect, according to prosecutors.

It was traced to Kohberger using Investigative Genetic Geneaology (IGG). 

The quadruple homicide suspect’s attorneys tried to have the DNA evidence tossed from his trial by undermining the IGG method.

In a closed-door hearing, held back on January 23 – a mammoth 175-page, partially redacted transcript of which was unsealed last week – new details were revealed about the lengthy IGG process and how it ultimately led investigators to hone in on Kohberger as the alleged mass killer who sent shockwaves across America. 

According to the records, a relative of Kohberger refused to help investigators as they worked to identify the suspect in the brutal murders of the four students.

The distant family member, who has not been named, was contacted by Idaho State Police in November or December 2022 and asked to hand over DNA, according to newly-unsealed court records.

The unnamed relative had previously submitted his own information into a genetic genealogy database and investigators had found that the suspect was part of the same family tree.

But when he was asked to share that information with law enforcement, the relative refused and told authorities to stop contacting him.

The DNA was ultimately traced back to Kohberger and, after he was named a person of interest, items were taken from the trash at his parents’ home and tested for comparison. Prosecutors say he was then also tied to the murders through his white Elantra – matching the car seen leaving the crime scene at the time of the murders – cellphone records and the account of one of the surviving roommates who saw a masked figure leave the home after the killings.

Kohberger’s lead public defender Anne Taylor had argued that the DNA evidence should be tossed from the case, claiming the use of IGG violated his constitutional rights and that the state neglected to document its use of the investigative method in search warrants. 

Last week, Judge Hippler turned down the defense’s request to have the critical IGG evidence thrown out of the case, dealing a major blow to Kohberger’s team.

Just days after the rulings were handed down, the defense underwent a major shake-up, bringing on board an attorney known for specialising in forensic DNA evidence.

Public defender Jay Logsdon has been removed as trial counsel and will only continue as consulting counsel, according to a court order.

He will be replaced by Bicka Barlow, a California attorney who is known for her work on forensic DNA evidence.

No reason was given for the upheaval – coming just months before the trial is set to begin – but Barlow’s expertise might suggest that the defense plans to continue to attack the DNA evidence in the case.

Barlow has previously been called as a defense witness in the case during a past hearing which argued against the use of IGG.

At his arraignment, Kohberger stayed silent, leading the judge to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf. 

Kohberger is next due in court in April.