Bryan Kohberger’s lead defense attorney Anne Taylor may be avoiding news cameras, but she has shown she is able to use widespread attention to the case to her advantage in her courtroom maneuvering.
Even before Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued the first gag order in the case, Taylor declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital. Since then, she has declined to respond to additional requests for comment.
“It is unusual for defense counsel to avoid trying to grab the spotlight and possibly influence public opinion via press conferences, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat,” said Royal Oakes, a Los Angeles-based litigator and media analyst.
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In Kohberger’s case, convincing evidence has already been made public — including the allegation that police found his DNA on a Ka-Bar knife sheath under 21-year-old Madison Mogen, one of the four victims, and surveillance video of a suspected vehicle coming and going at the crime scene.
“You’ve got the car circling the victim’s house,” Oakes told Fox News Digital. “You’ve got the DNA. You’ve got the cell phone records. The strategy instead is to go kind of a technical route and question the science of the DNA and also to argue autism by the criminal defendant. That’s a key factor, and that’s not the kind of thing you necessarily go public with.”
Taylor used unflattering depictions of her client to have news cameras thrown out of the courtroom and to secure a change of venue, which moved Kohberger’s upcoming trial out of Latah County, where the students were killed, to Boise.
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Defense filings have highlighted widespread news coverage, as well as social media discussions involving thousands of web sleuths and true crime followers.
More recently, Taylor is arguing that two major media projects — a “Dateline” episode and a forthcoming book from bestselling crime author James Patterson and crime reporter Vicky Ward — should justify another postponement of her client’s trial in the deaths of four University of Idaho students.
In particular, she claims the May 9 “Dateline” episode contains damning material that could put Kohberger’s right to a fair trial at risk.
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“The program includes details and materials, including video footage, cellphone records, and photographs of documents, that are not publicly available through official channels,” she wrote in a motion to continue filed on May 20. “The show repeatedly emphasizes the non-public nature of this information, stating it was obtained from unnamed sources who are close to the investigation, and that the materials were obtained exclusively by ‘Dateline.'”
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Some of it will be inadmissible at trial, she added.
Furthermore, she asserted that “the leaked materials appear carefully curated to promote a narrative of guilt.”
“The defense strategy of delay and moving the trial is working beautifully,” Oakes said. “She was able to change the venue. She gets some postponements, and now she wants further postponement.”
If she gets it, there are two key factors that would benefit the defense, he added.
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“No. 1, give her time to come up with something to overcome this amazingly strong physical evidence against him, and also maybe diminish the public anger,” he said. “As the months and the years go by, people will forget how horrific the crime was, and maybe give her a better chance to get a good result at trial.”
“They are trying to keep it out of the court of public opinion,” said David Gelman, a Philadelphia-area defense attorney and former prosecutor who is following the case. “How do you do that? Stay away from media.”
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However, that is tough in a case where many updates receive international attention.
Kohberger is accused of killing Mogen, two roommates and another friend in a 4 a.m. home-invasion stabbing spree. There is no publicly known motive, but a concerning detail is that he was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at the time of the murders.
The other victims were Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
Jack Lu, a retired Massachusetts judge and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Lowell School of Criminology and Justice studies, said Taylor could consider trying to “humanize” her client — but anything else could be dangerous for the defense.
“That case sends a chill down the spine of every professor in a school of criminology in the United States,” he told Fox News Digital.
