Global Courant 2023-04-25 03:35:49
One of two roommates who were in an off-campus residence when the University of Idaho was four years old students were killed in November asks a judge to deny a defense request that she attend an upcoming hearing murder suspect Bryan Kohberger.
Bethany Funke’s request to withdraw a subpoena was filed Friday in a district court in Washoe County, Nevada, where she is from, according to court documents and public records.
Funke’s motion says the subpoena would require her to appear in court in Latah County, Idaho, by the end of June and possibly for the duration of a trial against Kohberger, who was arrested Dec. 30 in Pennsylvania. weeks after the November 13 murders. Kohberger, 28, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for the week of June 26, when prosecutors will begin presenting evidence. He has yet to file a plea. A motive for the murders also remains unclear; from Kohberger family said in January that they cooperated with law enforcement officials to “advance his presumption of innocence”.
An affidavit filed in March by a detective in support of Kohberger’s defense says Funke was in a bedroom on the first floor of the apartment complex during the early morning of the Nov. 13 murders.
Funke was “interviewed by police on several occasions. She revealed things she heard and things she saw,” according to the affidavit signed by Richard Bitonti.
Bitonti wrote that “Bethany Funke has information material for the charges against Mr. Kohberger; portions of the information Ms. Funke has exculpatory to the defendant. Ms. Funke’s information is unique to her experiences and cannot be provided by any other witness .”
But Funke’s motion to quash the subpoena says the statements in the affidavit are “unsupported and there are no further information or details regarding the contents of this testimony, its materiality, or Ms. Funke’s alleged exculpatory information.” or why it would be entertained “at the preliminary hearing.”
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The motion also says the subpoena was issued without first allowing Funke to address her concerns and that there is “no authority for an Idaho criminal defendant to summon a Nevada witness to Idaho for a preliminary hearing.” “. Even if she’s aware of evidence that could help clear Kohberger’s name, it’s an issue to be raised at trial, not a preliminary hearing where Funke is required to attend, the filing says.
It’s unclear when the Washoe County judge will make a decision.
The law firm of Kelli Anne Viloria in Reno, Nevada, representing Funke, declined to comment Monday.
Neither the Washoe County public defender’s office nor Kohberger’s public defender in Idaho, Anne Taylor, could be immediately reached for comment.
Funke and the other surviving roommate, Dylan Mortensen, have not spoken publicly about the case, although they have honored their slain friends in letters read at a church vigil in December.
Funke and Mortensen shared their apartment complex with Maddie Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Xana Kernodle, 20, who were stabbed to death along with Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20. Chapin had spent the night in the house.
Researchers said they traced male DNA that was on a knife sheath left at the crime scene to Kohberger, who was then a doctoral student at Washington State University, less than 10 miles from the University of Idaho. Other evidence included video surveillance from the area spotting a white Hyundai Elantra that investigators say was driven by Kohberger, according to a likely statement.
Authorities have not said whether Kohberger knew the victims or why he allegedly attacked them or the home. The murder weapon, believed to be a large knife with a fixed blade, has not been recovered, Moscow police said.
According to initial reports from investigators, Funke and Mortensen were asleep during the stabbings, which police said took place sometime between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. One of the surviving roommates’ cell phones was used several hours later to call 911.
According to the probable cause statement, Mortensen provided police with the most detailed eyewitness account before the murders. She said she saw a figure dressed in black clothes and a mask, and she was in a “frozen shock phase” when she noticed the person walking to a sliding glass door in the back. She then “locked herself in her room after seeing the man.”
The affidavit did not clarify whether she said she made eye contact with the figure.
Further details in the case remain publicly unavailable after Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued a gag order in January barring lawyers, police and other officials from making statements.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
