Accused quadruple murderer Bryan Christopher Kohberger will soon head back to Idaho, where he will face charges for allegedly stabbing four college students to death as they slept.
In a brief court appearance in Pennsylvania on Tuesday afternoon, Kohberger, 28, formally waived his right to an extradition hearing. Put simply, he will not dispute that he is who authorities say he is, and agreed to return to Idaho to face the murder charges against him.
As he was escorted out of court wearing handcuffs, he was spotted whispering “I love you” to his family, according to the New York Post.
ADVERTISEMENT
Roughly five minutes before the 3:30 p.m. hearing was scheduled to start, a gaggle of court officers led a shackled, expressionless Kohberger, wearing a red jail uniform and staring straight ahead, from a private holding area and down a hallway into the courtroom. Cameras and phones were permitted into the building but not inside the courtroom.
As he entered, Kohberger made eye contact with visibly emotional family members sitting in the front row. He told the judge that he understood the charges against him, and signed a form paving the way for his transfer to Idaho, asserting that he was not presently on any drugs or medications that might have impacted his decision-making abilities.
Idaho—the so-called demand state in this situation—now has 10 days to collect their suspect from Pennsylvania, according to public defender Jason LaBar, who is representing Kohberger through the extradition process. However, he has said he believes the handoff will occur far more quickly, perhaps in as little as 72 hours.
There are real reasons Pennsylvania would want Kohberger gone as soon as possible, said Prof. Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD detective sergeant who now teaches at New York City’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“Pennsylvania doesn’t want this guy on their soil for another minute—if they could’ve had him on a plane last night flying back to Idaho, they would have,” Giacalone told The Daily Beast. “If he offs himself [while in custody in Pennsylvania] or something, they’re in big trouble. Remember now, they have to watch this guy 24 hours a day, and I mean, really watch him. This case has made international news. You can’t have a Jeffrey Epstein happen.”
Kohberger, a first-year PhD student and teaching assistant in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, whose campus is about 10 miles from the rental home where police say Kohberger killed University of Idaho undergrads Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, who were both 20.
The shocking murders occurred in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, in the small rural burg of Moscow, Idaho. It is unclear if any of the four knew or were acquainted with Kohberger, who was arrested Dec. 30 at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, some 2,500 miles from the crime scene. Kohberger made the cross-country trek with his father, driving the same white Hyundai Elantra seen in surveillance video released by Idaho cops in the aftermath of the grisly slayings.
The two were twice pulled over in quick succession by police in Indiana on Dec. 15 for minor traffic violations. And although a nationwide alert to be on the lookout for a 2011-2013 white Hyundai Elantra had been issued two days earlier, prompting scrutiny of such vehicles all over the U.S., both officers let Kohberger proceed on his way without further investigation, according to body- and dash-cam video obtained by the Law & Crime network.
“It’s a long haul... you guys scared of airplanes?” one of the officers joked after asking Kohberger and his dad where they were headed.
The FBI had reportedly been tracking Kohberger’s movements for several days prior to his apprehension.
At a press conference following Kohberger’s court appearance, Col. Robert Evanchick, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, said he “never imagined” the investigation that began in Idaho would ultimately lead to the Keystone State.
Kohberger’s parents were at home when their son was arrested with the assistance of the agency’s Special Emergency Response Team (SERT), Maj. Christopher Paris said, noting that “multiple windows and multiple doors” were broken when officers entered the house.
Only “seven to eight, maybe 10 [people] at the most” were privy to the operation during its planning stages, as it was vital that Kohberger not be tipped off to his impending arrest, according to Paris.
A probable cause affidavit, which is expected to reveal further information about what led cops to Kohberger, will remain sealed until Kohberger appears in an Idaho courtroom, as mandated by state law.
First Assistant District Attorney Mike Mancuso said on Tuesday that he has read the affidavits and search warrants in the case, and that Kohberger has not yet had access to the filings.
“I definitely believe that one of the reasons the defendant wanted to hurry his extradition and return to Idaho was the need to know what was in those documents,” Mancuso said.
Once Kohberger is brought back to Idaho, he will face four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary. In the meantime, law enforcement sources have said that DNA evidence found at the murder scene was vital in tracking down Kohberger. Investigators also mounted a nationwide search for a white Hyundai Elantra spotted near the murder house, compiling a list of 22,000 possible matches before finally narrowing it down to Kohberger’s vehicle.
Cops have not yet recovered the knife used in the murders, which they said is a “fixed-blade” model. Kohberger will be relying on a new court-appointed lawyer in Idaho, according to LaBar, who told local NBC affiliate KHQ that the family has thus far been unable to retain a private attorney.
“Given the situation, given the charges, no attorneys have reached out to them, and they’re not anticipating hiring an attorney,” he said, describing Kohberger as being “shocked” at the charges against him.
LaBar has reportedly requested a psychiatric evaluation for Kohberger, who a fellow detainee at the Monroe County Jail in Pennsylvania said has been taunting and cursing at guards when not exposing himself to staff and other inmates. Nevertheless, LaBar described Kohberger as “mentally aware of the situation” and “certainly mentally stable.”
Kohberger earlier this year received a master’s degree in criminal justice from DeSales University, a Catholic school in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. While there, he studied with well-known forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland, author of criminology texts such as How to Catch a Killer, The Psychology of Death Investigations, and The Mind of a Murderer. (Ramsland has declined to comment at all on Kohberger’s arrest to date.)
Another of Kohberger’s professors at DeSales, criminologist Katherine Bolger, recently described the suspect as a “brilliant” student.
Yet, as Giacalone previously told The Daily Beast, noting investigators’ use of DNA in identifying Kohberger, “If somebody like this was really a student of criminal justice and criminology, then he would understand certain things like Locard’s Exchange Principle,” which posits that “every contact leaves a trace.”
In an appearance Tuesday morning on the Today show, just a few hours ahead of Kohberger’s court hearing, LaBar said the young man’s family has not yet fully processed the situation.“They don’t believe it to be Bryan, they can’t believe this, they’re obviously shocked,” he said, claiming they believed the alleged crimes were “completely out of character” for him.
Kohberger believes he will be “exonerated” on the charges, according to LaBar. In a statement issued on New Years’ Eve, LaBar said that although his client had been accused of “very serious crimes,” he “should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise—not tried in the court of public opinion.”
