Potential witness in Bryan Kohberger murder case appears to say she saw him at the scene, police video shows
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By Andy Rose, Veronica Miracle, Jack Hannah, CNN
(CNN) — Amid a critical hearing in the Bryan Kohberger murder trial, an 8-month-old police video is drawing attention for a woman who said she will be a key witness in the case.
“I’m a DoorDash driver,” the woman told a police officer after an unrelated traffic stop in Pullman, Washington, last year, then appears to say, “I saw Bryan there.”
Kohberger is accused of murdering University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. Not guilty pleas have been entered on his behalf.
Judge Steven Hippler on Wednesday heard a new request from defense attorneys to delay the trial because of a recent episode of NBC’s “Dateline” which, they argue, included information that must have come from unauthorized leaks.
Hippler said he will write a decision “in short order” about the defense’s request to delay Kohberger’s trial date but advised, “it’s likely you’re going to trial on the date indicated.”
The driver’s police interview
The videotaped interview with an officer dated September 4, 2024, shows the 44-year-old woman being questioned after an arrest for allegedly driving under the influence of prescription medicine. Bodycam video was posted to a YouTube channel last year, but only recently gained attention after her reference to the Moscow murders was noticed.
The woman’s name, which CNN is not publishing because she has not been named in court documents in the Kohberger case and has not publicly identified herself, matches initials listed in court documents for a DoorDash driver who made a delivery to Kernodle early on the morning of November 13, 2022.
Final witness lists have been sealed by the court, so it is not clear if she will be called to testify, but Steve Goncalves, Kaylee Goncalves’ father, told the Idaho Statesman Monday that he was informed by a private investigator that the DoorDash driver was female. Steve Goncalves did not return CNN’s requests for comment Wednesday.
The woman – who said she took a prescription painkiller – told an officer that her fragile emotional state was due to stress over her connection to the extremely high-profile case, as well physical ailments and what she described as PTSD after the killing of her husband in Moscow in 2013.
“Now I have to testify in the big murder case, too, because I’m a DoorDash driver, so yeah,” she said.
When the officer asked her to clarify which case, the woman replied, “The murder case with the college girls.”
The woman was released from custody and assigned a court date. Court records obtained by the Idaho Statesman confirmed statements from the video that the woman had been pulled over for driving with expired tags. Pullman is about 10 miles from Moscow.
The defense objected last year to introducing DoorDash records into evidence at the trial. Prosecutors said in a response last year the evidence regarding a delivery made to the scene of the crime on the morning of the murders was important because it “provides a timeline of events … before the homicides and corroborates State’s witness’ testimony.”
The driver’s testimony may be critical because a court document from prosecutors says Kernodle is believed to have been the only person awake in the house when her DoorDash order was delivered just before 4 a.m., minutes before investigators believe the killings began.
CNN reached out to email addresses associated with the woman for comment. There was no answer on her home phone Wednesday, and her cell phone was disconnected.
DoorDash did not respond to a request for comment from CNN on Wednesday. The local court clerk’s office and Whitman County, Washington, Prosecutor Denis Tracy declined to share information on the outcome of the driver’s DUI case.
Kohberger’s pretrial hearing
During a brief proceeding Wednesday, lead defense attorney Anne Taylor listed “challenges and difficulties” over the 2.5 years of this case, telling the court “the record is replete with notice that we are not prepared to go to trial.”
Venue issues, media coverage and what she says is 68 terabytes of information to review are just some of the issues Taylor said her team has contended with while defending Kohberger.
Kohberger’s trial, which has gone through numerous delays due to disputes about evidence and witnesses, as well as a change of venue to the state capital of Boise, is currently scheduled to start on August 11.
Taylor specifically referenced the “Dateline” episode, saying, it “wasn’t just a one-time deal back in May, it continues to be talked about.”
Last month, Hippler ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to preserve records after the apparent leak and said at the time that it was “imperative to attempt to see that the source of such leak is identified and held to account.”
“In addition to what is going on with what happened with the ‘Dateline’ episode, that’s not all. There’s a book set to be released just a few weeks from now, to be followed by a docuseries on Amazon Prime,” about the murders, Taylor said. She argued that the jury pool will likely be tainted due to the media coverage.
The prosecution argued that delaying the trial would put them “at the whim of the media.”
“We know there’s going to be a lot of publicity, regardless of when this trial happens,” said prosecutor Joshua Hurwit. “The issue is whether the court, using the procedures it has established or maybe even modifying them as the court wants to, can seat a panel of impartial jurors.”
“That is possible in this case, despite the challenges.”
In addition to the potential pushback of the trial’s start date, Hippler is set to consider a defense request to allow them to introduce evidence of an “alternate perpetrator” in the killings. The judge sealed the details of the defense request.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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CNN’s Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.
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