Bryan Kohberger Watches Cable News About Himself in Jail: Reports

• Bryan Kohberger is awaiting a preliminary hearing on charges over the deaths of four University of Idaho students.
• Kohberger has access to cable television in Latah County Jail and reportedly obsessively follows news coverage about his case.
• Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer says inmates are given access to television as a way to distract and entertain them.

Bryan Kohberger is reportedly glued to news coverage about himself while in jail awaiting a preliminary hearing on charges over the deaths of four University of Idaho students.

Kohberger, 28, is accused of fatally stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20 and Ethan Chapin, 20. Their bodies were found in a rental home near the university's campus on November 13.

Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania and extradited to Idaho. At the time of the slayings, Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman. He is no longer enrolled at WSU.

He hasn't yet entered a plea to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary, but a lawyer who previously represented him in Pennsylvania said he was "eager to be exonerated." His preliminary hearing is due to begin in late June.

It has recently emerged that Kohberger has access to cable television in his cell at the Latah County Jail, where he has been held since early January.

And according to a DailyMail.com report, he obsessively follows news coverage about his case. "He watches himself all the time. It's really kind of bizarre," an inmate told the outlet.

Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, says it's not surprising that Kohberger would be watching coverage of his case.

"I think that it makes a lot of sense," she told Newsweek. "If it were anyone, guilty or innocent, they would be watching their coverage, they would be eating up all the information regarding that case."

She added that "it's disappointing that he's able to do that, because it's going to help him aid in his own defense, if you will, because he's going to have ideas of what different attorneys are saying, what experts are saying, what information is out there.

"He's going to be able to find and know, information and knowledge that he otherwise wouldn't be able to know… but I understand it. If I were him, I would be doing the same thing."

Coffindaffer says it's another reason why the sweeping gag order issued by Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall should remain in place.

"One, of course, is tainting the jury pool and now this is another reason," she said. The order bars attorneys, law enforcement agencies and others associated with the case from talking or writing about it.

Coffindaffer said she was appalled when she first visited a prison and discovered inmates had televisions. But she then learned from a warden that it was used to keep inmates distracted and prevent fights.

She said: "The warden specifically said, 'if you do not have television in, we have more fights. We have more attempted assault.' He said, 'it's very difficult for us to control our inmates without television. But when you put television in, they're distracted, they're entertained and it it makes our job much more easier because they're not bored.'

"And so it's really for safety reasons. It sounds odd and it sounds like such a privilege to be able to pick and choose which channels you want to watch and to watch television all day, which some people like to do anyway, but that's why."

Update 3/20/23, 9:37 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comments from Jennifer Coffindaffer.