Bryan Kohberger on Jan. 3, 2023.Photo: Matt Rourke/AP/Shutterstock
One of the two surviving victims oflast year’s murders at the University of Idahois fighting a legal request that wouldforce her to testify in the alleged murderer’s trial.
Bethany Funke is one of two students who survived last November’s killings, which took place at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.Four students– Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21 – were stabbed to death with a fixed-blade knife.
Bryan Kohberger, a graduate student and teaching assistant enrolled in Washington State University’s criminal justice program, was arrested in December and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary.
Investigators saythey’ve tied the 28-year-old former Ph.D student to the crime scene through DNA and cell phone pings. Police also seized a white Hyundai Elantra — the same vehicle authorities were searching for throughout their seven-week manhunt — from Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested.
Funke and roommate Dylan Mortenson, both 21, survived the Nov. 13 attack. Mortenson reportedly came face-to-face with the killer, whoshe describedas “a figure clad in black clothing and a mask” and witnessed walking through the house.
Mortenson, who locked herself in her bedroom after seeing the intruder, gave police the most detailed eye-witness account from the night of the murders.
Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle.
But earlier this month,court recordsin Nevada, Funke’s home state, show that Kohberger’s attorney requested that Funke appear in court to testify in the case – a request the Idaho student is now fighting,NBC News reports.
Richard Bitonti, a criminal investigator working with Kohberger’s defense team, wrote in a request earlier this month that “portions of information Ms. Funke has is exculpatory to the defendant,” according to NBC.
However, Funke filed a request in a Washoe County, Nev., district court on Friday to quash the subpoena from Kohberger’s legal team.
The Idaho home where four students were killed on Nov. 13, 2022.Angela Palermo/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
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A preliminary hearing for the case against Kohberger, who has not yet entered a plea, will begin on June 26.
source: people.com
