Idaho student killings: Bryan Kohberger says he was out for a solo drive around the time of the slayings

Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder. Photo / Facebook

The man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death late last year was on a long drive by himself at the time, his lawyers say in new court documents filed this week.

Bryan Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths at a rental house near the campus in Moscow, Idaho, in November. He has exercised his right to remain silent during the court case, so a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf earlier this year.

Prosecutor Bill Thompson has said he intends to seek the death penalty. The case is scheduled for trial later this year, though it could be postponed.

The court documents filed this week mark the first time Kohberger has said anything about his whereabouts on the night of the stabbings. His defence team submitted it after prosecutors asked the court to force Kohberger to reveal whether he intended to offer an alibi.

Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for his arraignment hearing. Photo / AP

“Mr Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone,” lawyer Anne Taylor wrote in the document. “Often he would go for drives at night. He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022.”

Kohberger wasn’t claiming to be in any specific location at any specific time, according to the document, and might have witnesses who could corroborate that he wasn’t at the home where the students were killed.

His defence team wrote that they were still going over transcripts of grand jury testimony and other evidence from the investigation, so it was too soon to detail exactly who those witnesses might be and what they might testify.

“The defence has stated all that can be firmly stated at this time,” they wrote.

Idaho law requires that defendants notify the prosecution if they intend to present an alibi defence, which is generally a claim that they were somewhere other than at the crime scene and have witnesses who will verify that.

The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found on November 13 at a home across the street from the University of Idaho campus. The slayings shocked the rural Idaho community and neighbouring Pullman, Washington, where Kohberger was a graduate student studying criminology at Washington State University.