Kohberger says he was out driving alone the night of University of Idaho killings in new court filing

The man accused of killing four University of Idaho students last fall said he was out driving alone the night of the attacks in a new court filing about his alibi Wednesday.

Brian Kohberger, 28, is accused of slaying Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at the women’s off-campus home in November.

Last week, Kohberger’s legal team declined to provide a pretrial alibi in response to the state’s demand for one, exercising his right to remain silent on the issue.

The state then motioned to compel an alibi from Kohberger. In an objection to that motion filed Wednesday, Kohberger’s team reaffirmed his right to remain silent while offering more information on his location.

“Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone,” the objection reads. “Often he would go for drives at night. He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022.”

Kohberger is not claiming to be at any specific location at an exact time. The defense wrote there’s not a specific witness to say precisely where he was at each moment that night.

The defense believes more information on Kohberger being somewhere other than 1122 King Road, where the homicides occurred, may come out through cross-examining prosecutor’s witnesses.

The defense noted they would have been able to cross-examine some of the state’s witnesses if a preliminary hearing had gone ahead as planned instead of a grand jury proceeding to indict Kohberger.

Kohberger has previously motioned to get the indictment thrown out, arguing grand jurors were not given the correct burden of proof needed to levy charges against him.

The defense team says they’re continuing to go through the massive amount of discovery documents continuing to be provided by prosecutors and cannot provide a more specific alibi until they have more information.

The defense team asked the court to exempt Kohberger from further inquiry into his alibi at this time, arguing they’ve disclosed as much as they can.