Convicted Killer Arrested Mile From Idaho Murder Not a Suspect, Police Say

The case of a convicted killer who was arrested this week for allegedly attacking his wife and child just a mile away from the rental house where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death last month is not related to the still-unsolved murders, according to police.

On December 6, Moscow police arrested 39-year-old James Leonard for allegedly beating his wife and her daughter before cutting himself with a knife, according to court documents obtained by Fox News. Police, who were called to the family's home on Palouse River Drive, found Leonard to be heavily intoxicated after having drank half a bottle of gin, according to his wife.

Leonard has a criminal record, as he was charged with second degree murder in 2007 for the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Tyler Lee Pace, of Moscow, during an argument. Two years later, Leonard pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. But after five months of detention, he was instead placed on probation for 15 years.

Leonard is currently facing charges which include domestic violence battery with traumatic injury, aggravated assault, attempted strangulation and injury to a child.

Leonard's defense attorney, Cathy Mabbutt, is the same Latah County Coroner who found that the four murdered University of Idaho students—Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen—were likely sleeping when they were attacked in their home on Sunday November 13.

But that's as far as the two cases are linked, according to Moscow police, as reported by both Fox News and The Independent.

Retired FBI special agent Michael Harrington—who's not taking part in the Moscow murders investigations—was interviewed by NewsNation about the possible reasons that have led to Moscow police ruling out Leonard has a suspect in the stabbing of the four students. He said that investigators would have easily ruled Leonard out of a list of possible suspects if they knew the man was somewhere else at the time of the murders.

The department has not yet identified a suspect in the investigations, almost four weeks after the murder of the students. But there was a recent breakthrough in the investigations, when Moscow police announced they were looking to talk to the occupants of a 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra which was spotted in the immediate area of the King Street residence in the early-morning hours of November 13.

This new lead was given to police by some of the thousands of tips they have received from members of the public on the case's Tip Line, which is now directed to an FBI call center.