Kohberger Accused Anne Taylor of Hiding WHAT?!

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This is The Big Breakdown, a long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers Podcast and True Crime Today. This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Dre.

Tony Brueski (0:17)

There's a version of the Bryan Kohberger story where he gets everything he's asking for. A new judge pleaded vacated. Case goes back to trial.

And then what?

He stood in front of a judge and said the word guilty four times.

His DNA was on a knife sheath left next to one of the victims. His phone pinged near that house at least a dozen times in the months before the murders and the days leading up and then went dark during the killing window. His only alibi was that he was out driving alone stargazing. Looking at the moon and stars on a cloudy Idaho night.

So okay, let's say, let's just go down this road. Let's say he gets a new trial. Attorney Eric Faddis and former prosecutor is with us to help us break all this down along with Robin Drake, retired FBI Special Agent, Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program and master class instructor. So let's go there. Let's play devil's advocate here at the plea hearing. Prosecutor Bill Thompson laid out the evidence that was ready for trial. It's probably going to be the same evidence if it were to go back to trial. DNA on the knife sheath, the Amazon purchase of the Ka-Bar knife with the gift card, his phone near the house over 20 times, surveillance footage of his car, a meticulously clean vehicle, a roommate who saw him inside the home. Eric, you're the prosecutor here. If you're sitting across the table from that pile, what is the defense's argument? Where are they planning on going here? Or is it just part of the journey that they're on? And the reward is the journey of getting to the courtroom. And then you get there and it's like, oh shit, we really don't have a case, do we?

Eric Faddis (2:04)

Well, you listed off a number of compelling pieces of evidence. And so the defense would have to take measures to try and undermine those. Chief among them in my eyes is the DNA that was allegedly on the knife sheath that was traced back to Kohberger. How in the world are you going to overcome that? Well, you've got to explore, hey, is there any colorable argument that this evidence could have been planted? Is there any colorable argument that the DNA analysis and the type they used is rather nascent? It's still established, but it's newer than old school DNA analysis. Is there a chance that that analysis was flawed or erroneous in some fashion? And then you build to, I think they would have to maintain that alleged alibi that he was stargazing. But the only way they're getting that in front of the jury, Tony, in my mind, is if Kohberger testifies. And so we're talking about potential fireworks if this thing comes back.

Tony Brueski (2:59)

Go ahead, Tony. They filed the alibi notice. They had to do that in leading up to the last trial. Is that something, and this is the driving and stargazing, and that's what he was doing, that's the alibi.

Is that something that gets reset in round two? Does he have to file an alibi if he wants to use the stargazing? Could they go back and say, well, you filed it once. Did you change your story or what? I mean, could he file another alibi notice? And it's a completely different story than what his initial one was. And how would all that play out in court?

Eric Faddis (3:35)

Sure, so the alibi notice preserves your ability to run an alibi defense at trial, but it doesn't mandate that you run that defense at trial. So I think he's adequately preserved his ability to run an alibi. Could that alibi be changed if there is a second trial? It could. Now, the thing is, Tony, the alibi seems so terribly weak to me because usually with an alibi defense, it requires a witness, a witness to say, Bryan was with me or we were at the house watching movies or something. He's got no such witness. It would have to come from his own mouth, I think.

Robin Drake (4:11)

Yeah. So I want to go a little bit into how the sausage is made on this one, Eric, as I always say. The attorney, because many times we've talked about these cases and defense attorneys and the cost of them, and we did it on the Lindsay Clancy case. I mean, there's a lot of money that goes behind the amount of hours on this one, and Kohberger, no doubt. And so my curiosity is this. So the parents, this is according to the Daily Mail and other sources said that the parents took out and refinanced their home for $246,000 back in May.