Global Courant
Justice may be blind, but it doesn’t come cheap.
Prosecutors in Moscow, Idaho, said this week that the impending prosecution of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four students last fall, could cost more than eight times their entire annual trial budget.
In a meeting with county commissioners, Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson asked for a budget of $135,000 on Tuesday as his team assembles what is expected to be a complicated and high-profile case.
Thompson said they know the process “won’t be cheap,” according to meeting minutes obtained by ABC News, acknowledging that the request is a significant departure from the $15,000 budget they had for “years and years.” detained.
Thompson said his office is trying to keep the projected budget “as conservative as possible” while also “making sure the case is handled properly.”
Among expected expenses, Thompson’s budget request cites “witness travel expenses, transcription costs, exhibition display costs (and) shipping costs,” as well as “travel associated with the development of the case, expert witnesses, and other associated litigation costs,” according to the budget request. .
Thompson said his office is also proposing adding a “part-time legal assistant” position to the payroll to help handle the workload, according to meeting minutes.
One of the commissioners on the board, Kathie LaFortune, suggested an even larger allowance for Thompson’s budget, according to the minutes, suggesting an increase to $150,000 to fully cover potential costs.
Separately, the defense has also increased its resources.
Kohberger’s lead attorney, the leading public defender in neighboring Kootenai County, Anne Taylor, is paid $200 an hour — an amount that Latah County agreed to when they hired her. Taylor’s co-lawyer is paid $180 an hour. Additional further costs to the case include hiring a private investigator and the services of experts to help their case.
Kohberger, 28, was indicted last month and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment in late May, Kohberger refused to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
A trial date has been set for October 2.
Kohberger is currently being held in Moscow’s Latah County Jail.
Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University, broke into an off-campus house and killed four University of Idaho students: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison May, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Gonçalves, 21.
After a hunt lasting more than six weeks, police zeroed in on Kohberger as a suspect, tracked his white Hyundai Elantra, cell phone signal data and recovered what authorities believe was his DNA on a knife sheath found next to one of the victims’ bodies. found it. , according to court documents. He was arrested in Pennsylvania on December 30, 2022 after driving across the country to spend the holidays at his childhood home in Albrightsville.
The November quadruple murder shocked Moscow, Idaho, the college town where the murders took place; the ensuing investigation and impending trial strained the city’s already tight budget.
Police overtime and other expenditures increased exponentially, with the continued need for more patrols and law enforcement work – and supported by a shortage of personnel working long hours.
The bottom line, officials said: The ongoing costs of the case burned up money that could have been used to benefit the community and fix up city infrastructure.
“Moscow is not being swamped with a funding surplus,” Moscow Mayor Art Bettge told ABC News in May. “We have a very, very meager budget and the impact of the research is felt on the budget.”
Even with a suspect in custody, the ongoing investigation had depleted Moscow’s treasury and scrambled its already fragile balance, city officials said.
“You budget for fires. You budget for floods. You prepare for natural disasters. This was not natural,” Moscow City Council member Sandra Kelly told ABC News. “The cost is astronomical. And of course you can’t skimp on protecting people. Still, this is just not something you budget for – because it’s something you never dreamed would happen.”
