New Detail in Bryan Kohberger Case Gives Defense Room to Fuel Doubt

One possible hole for Bryan Kohberger's defense team could link to his alleged movement listed in the Moscow, Idaho, police probable cause affidavit.

Kohberger, 28, was arrested in Pennsylvania on December 30 and the Moscow Police Department released a probable cause affidavit used in the arrest. Kohberger was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in the fatal stabbings of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20.

The affidavit states that on November 13, the day of the killings, Kohberger's cellphone number pinged a cell tower near his apartment at 1630 Northeast Valley Road at 2:42 a.m. At 2:44 a.m., Kohberger was seen on surveillance footage from Washington State University "traveling north on southeast Nevada Street at northeast Stadium Way."

However, Newsweek drove from Kohberger's residence to the street listed in the affidavit, and the trip took just over seven minutes. Other possible routes shown on Google Maps have estimated times of seven to eight minutes. Kohberger has not entered a plea in the murders and his former lawyer, Jason LaBar, previously said that the Ph.D. student was "eager to be exonerated."

While speaking with Newsweek on Tuesday, former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer explained that the difference in times of both drives could be related to issues with the cell tower serving Kohberger's apartment and the security cameras used.

She said cell tower pings are "within a range, usually around three-quarters of a mile or so."

"The video surveillance, there's margin for error, because we don't know if the time was exact," Coffindaffer told Newsweek.

She went on to explain that the timing of Kohberger's alleged movements may be used by his defense team in trial.

"The defense is going to have a field day with ping information as well as video surveillance because there's going to be disparities [in] time frames ... both the defense and the prosecution are going to have experts in this area," Coffindaffer said. "It's gonna come down to a battle of the experts on this point and the jury is gonna have to make a decision whether they believe the prosecution's point of view or the defense's point of view."

Coffindaffer also said that a defense team expert might look into the cell tower pings and discover that phones much farther away could be using the same tower.

Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, also spoke to Newsweek about how the time differences stated in the affidavit may be used by Kohberger's defense.

"If there is any argument to be made that the cell site service is inaccurate, that's going to be good for the defense," Rahmani told Newsweek. "I'm sure they're going to have an expert that's not necessarily junk science but it's far from as accurate as the state presents it to be."

Like Coffindaffer, Rahmani said that the trial will likely be a "battle of the experts," adding that "this is what you want as a defense attorney, you want to kind of inject some doubt into the jury's deliberation."

"If they doubt the data being provided and analysis is inaccurate, that's just really all you need. You don't need actual innocence, you just need reasonable doubt," he said.

According to Rahmani, cellular data may be more reliable in terms of tracking movement when compared to surveillance footage, as he said that the exact time on the cameras may vary.

On the other hand, Thomas O'Connor, senior consultant for The Soufan Group and a retired FBI agent, told Newsweek that surveillance cameras could be off by a couple of minutes, but said that if authorities mentioned it in the affidavit, they likely determined that the timing was possible.

Newsweek has previously reached out to Kohberger's public defender in Idaho, Anne Taylor, for comment.