Bryan Kohberger's New Lawyer Got Man Serving Life Sentence Out of Jail

A new attorney appointed to Bryan Kohberger's defense team previously helped get a man serving a life sentence out of jail.

A court document filed this week in Latah County, Idaho, stated that Elisa G. Massoth of Elisa G. Massoth, PLLC, has been appointed as one of Kohberger's co-counsels, along with Kootenai County public defender Anne Taylor.

One of Massoth's previous clients, John Wurdemann was convicted on several charges in 2002 including conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree kidnapping and aiding and abetting attempted first-degree murder. Wurdemann was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences in prison; however, Massoth was appointed as his attorney in 2015 and she eventually helped him get out of jail after a judge dismissed the charges against him.

The announcement of a new attorney for Kohberger comes ahead of the preliminary trial hearing for the Idaho murders case, which is scheduled to begin in June. Kohberger, 28, was arrested on December 30 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. His arrest came just over a month after four University of Idaho students—Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20 and Xana Kernodle 20—were found fatally stabbed in their home near the school.

Kohberger was a graduate student at Washington State University when the four victims were killed. The murder suspect has not yet entered a plea in the case, and when he was arrested at his parent's residence in Pennsylvania, his former attorney said his client was "eager to be exonerated."

Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent told Newsweek on Wednesday that Kohberger's defense team "is going to do everything in their power" to help get the charges dismissed and have him be found not guilty.

"I'm not surprised an additional counsel would be appointed," Coffindaffer told Newsweek. "I'm not surprised that the prosecution has brought in additional counsel. The playing field needs to be fair and they need to have equal resources."

However, Coffindaffer noted that "the facts are on the side of the prosecution."

"The defense can have as much counsel as they want and certainly they're going to be wanting to look at technical errors, they're going to be looking at errors regarding lab work...but at the end of the day, when you peel back the layers, when looking at technical fallacies, what are the facts?" Coffindaffer told Newsweek. "The defense wants to win. At the end of the day, the defense wants him released, they want him to walk out of that court room a free man. And the prosecution, that's the last thing they want, because they feel if that would happen, that a murderer of four, a potential serial killer, will be released. So, the stakes are extremely high."

Newsweek reached out to Taylor and Massoth via email for comment.