The suspect in the brutal killings of four Idaho college students has claimed he was framed. Bryan Kohberger's defense attorneys have stated their belief that someone else killed the three women and one man and planted Kohberger's DNA at the scene of the crime.
Kohberger, who faces the death penalty if convicted in the grisly, November 2022 murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, has been suspected of committing the crime since his DNA was found on a Ka-Bar knife sheath next to Mogen's body.
Prosecutors have revealed, per The Daily Mail, that the defense attorneys for Kohberger will argue that the sheath was planted at the crime scene by the real suspect and that Kohberger was framed by that unnamed individual.
"The defense has not disclosed any experts to challenge the confirmatory STR comparison showing the DNA on the knife sheath matched Defendant’s DNA," prosecutors state in their response to the defendant's motion. "On the contrary, the defense has disclosed that its Forensic Biology and DNA expert will testify that '[t]here is good support that Mr. Kohberger’s DNA was found on Item 1.1, a swab from the knife sheath.'"
"Instead of challenging the conclusion that the DNA on the knife sheath belonged to Defendant," the prosecutors continue, "the defense’s expert disclosures reveal that the defense plans to argue the DNA on the knife sheath does not prove Defendant was ever at the crime scene and the knife sheath itself could have been planted by the real perpetrator."
There is no information as yet as to who the defense thinks may have committed the murders or why they believe that individual would seek to frame Kohberger for the crimes.
Prosecutors, however, are not relying on DNA evidence alone. They have said that Kohberger's white Elantra has also been linked to the crime scene as it was seen leaving the home and that cellphone records also place Kohberger in the area of that home at time. One of the two roommates who survived the massacre has also given her account of what happened.
