Bryan Kohberger, the suspect accused of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022, can face the death penalty if convicted.
Ada County Judge Steven Hippler made the ruling.
The big picture: Kohberger’s defense team sought to remove the death penalty as a possible punishment, but the judge denied the request.
- The trial for Kohberger is scheduled to begin in August.
Driving the news: Kohberger, 29, is charged in the deaths of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in an off-campus house in November 2022.
- The victims were Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, whose deaths shocked the small town of Moscow, Idaho.
- Investigators initially had few leads and spent considerable time tracing the activities of the four students before their deaths.
- Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania weeks after the killings, with law enforcement allegedly shattering a sliding glass door to the home and holding the entire family at gunpoint.
