Bryan Kohberger's Quadruple Murder Trial Moved to Boise

Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, is accused of killing four people in November 2022. On Thursday, it was approved that his trial be moved from Latah County, Idaho, to Boise, the state capital. File photo via Monroe County Correctional Facility/UPI | Licensed photo

September 13 (UPI) — The quadruple murder trial of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022, will be moved to Boise, the state Supreme Court ruled.

The Idaho Supreme Court announced the decision in an order issued Thursday, which also appointed District Judge Steven Hippler to oversee the trial.

With this decision, the defendant will also be transferred to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office in Boise.

The announcement comes days after Judge John Judge on Monday sided with Kohberger’s legal team, which had requested a change of venue on the grounds that their client would not get a fair trial in Latah County, where the crime took place.

According to the U.S. Census, Latah County has a population of approximately 39,500 people.

The judge heard arguments in the case in late August, when Kohberger’s attorneys said a telephone survey of the local community found that 98 percent of respondents were aware of the case and 70 percent believed their client was guilty.

“Given the uncontested evidence presented by the defense, the extreme nature of the media coverage in this case, and the smaller population of Latah County, the defense has met the rather low standard of demonstrating a ‘reasonable likelihood’ that prejudicial media coverage would compromise a fair trial in Latah County,” the judge said in his ruling Monday.

Kohberger is set to stand trial on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary for the Nov. 13, 2022, killings of four college students at a residence in the small town of Moscow, home to some 28,600 people on the Idaho-Washington border.