{"id":2024758,"date":"2023-09-07T15:05:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T19:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-investigating-key-witness-for-accused-university-of-idaho-killer\/"},"modified":"2023-09-07T15:06:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T19:06:48","slug":"fbi-investigating-key-witness-for-accused-university-of-idaho-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-investigating-key-witness-for-accused-university-of-idaho-killer\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI probes key witness in Idaho university murder case."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffbi-investigating-key-witness-for-accused-university-of-idaho-killer%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2024758&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Prosecutors Seek \u200cFBI \u2064Investigation into Expert Witness in University of\u2063 Idaho Murder Case<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Prosecutors leading \u2063the case against the \u200dman accused of \u2062killing four University \u2063of Idaho \u2062students have contacted the FBI to investigate one of the defense\u2019s expert witnesses.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Latah County Prosecutor\u2064 Bill Thompson sought the FBI\u2019s help\u2064 investigating \u2063the expert witness, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-investigating-key-witness-for-accused-university-of-idaho-killer\/\" title=\"FBI probes key witness in Idaho university murder case.\">allegedly gave contradictory testimony<\/a>, Fox News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/fbi-investigates-key-witness-bryan-kohberger-defense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>. Prosecutors contacted the FBI instead of cross-examining the witness, Gabriella Vargas,\u2063 an expert on \u2063genetic genealogy.<\/p>\n<p>Vargas testified during an August 18 hearing about alleged issues with the DNA evidence \u200bin the case, and just days later, the FBI showed up at\u200c her door, \u200dthe suspect\u2019s attorneys said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast night she was visited by two FBI agents and interrogated about her testimony and\u200d the findings of her declaration,\u201d said the suspect\u2019s attorney, Anne Taylor, during a hearing in August. \u201cThat, \u200bin our view,\u2062 impacts [the suspect\u2019s] due process rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Daily \u200bWire is not naming the 28-year-old\u200c suspect due to a policy aimed\u2062 at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ag-garland-defies-biden-seeks-death-penalty-for-accused-islamist-maniac\/\" title=\"AG Garland Defies Biden, Seeks Death Penalty For Accused Islamist Maniac\">depriving mass killers<\/a> of the notoriety they so\u2062 often crave.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson filed an\u2063 explanation for the FBI\u2019s involvement\u2062 last week, saying that investigators allegedly heard \u200dthrough Vargas\u2019 colleagues that \u201cshe was reneging on \u200bsome of the\u2064 things she was testifying\u2062 to in court,\u201d according\u2063 to Fox.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we heard of that, I reached \u200cout to investigators and asked, \u2018Can you find out what\u2062 is going on?\u2019\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThe FBI indeed undertook an investigation, and other reports are that Ms. Vargas claimed that \u2062some of what was in her declaration she had inadvertently agreed [to] or signed without fully reading it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The suspect in \u200dthe case has been charged with killing Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Madison Mogen,\u2064 21, in the early morning hours of November\u200c 13, 2022. DNA found on a knife sheath left\u200c behind at \u200bthe crime scene has been matched to the suspect\u2019s \u2064DNA.<\/p>\n<p>In early August, his attorneys <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/accused-university-of-idaho-killer-offers-alibi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">offered an alibi<\/a> for the suspect\u2019s whereabouts on the night of\u200d the murder, saying he was \u2063out driving late at night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The suspect] has long had a habit \u2064of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at \u200bnight. He did so \u2064late on November 12\u200c and into November 13, 2022,\u201d Taylor wrote in the filing. \u201c[The suspect] is not claiming to be\u2063 at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a\u2062 specific witness to say precisely where [my client] was at each moment of the hours between late night November\u2064 12, 2022, and \u200bearly morning November 13, 2022. He was out, driving during the late\u200c night and early morning hours of \u200bNovember 12-13, 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Part \u200bof the evidence that \u2062led to the \u200dsuspect\u2019s arrest, mentioned in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/heres-how-police-captured-the-man-suspected-of-killing-four-university-of-idaho-students\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">previously unsealed<\/a> probable \u200dcause affidavit, showed that police were able to narrow the timeframe of the crime to between 4:00 a.m. and 4:25 a.m. and reviewed video footage taken in the \u200barea in the time before and\u2064 after the murders are believed to have \u2064occurred. The footage showed a white Hyundai Elantra without a\u2064 front license plate (front license plates are required in Washington and \u200cIdaho, but not in Pennsylvania, where the car was registered) in the area between 3:29 a.m. and 4:20 a.m. The vehicle can\u2064 be seen passing\u2064 the off-campus residence three times before returning a fourth time around 4:04 a.m. and attempting to turn around on the road. The \u200cvehicle \u200bwas next seen around 4:20 \u2062a.m. traveling away from \u2062the\u2062 direction of the off-campus residence at high speed heading in the direction \u2064of a road that eventually leads to Pullman, Washington, where the suspect attended Washington State University (WSU).<\/p>\n<p>Video footage\u200c from the WSU campus showed a white\u200d Hyundai Elantra leaving the area and heading toward\u2063 Moscow at\u200c around 2:53 a.m. This vehicle was again observed on five cameras in Pullman and the WSU campus at around 5:25 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Police pulled records for white \u200bHyundai Elantras registered at WSU on November 29 \u2013\u200d just\u2062 over\u200c two \u200bweeks after the murders were \u2064committed \u2013 and found one belonging to \u200cthe man who was \u200deventually \u200darrested. Police \u200creviewed the \u2063owner\u2019s Washington state driver\u2019s license and determined he matched\u200b the \u2063physical description of the suspect provided by one of the surviving \u2064roommates.<\/p>\n<p><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\"><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Police matched the suspect \u200dto the vehicle through two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jail-trying-to-accommodate-accused-idaho-killers-vegan-diet-but-wont-buy-new-pots-and-pans\/\" title=\"Jail Trying To Accommodate Accused Idaho Killer\u2019s Vegan Diet But Won\u2019t \u2018Buy New Pots And Pans\u2019\">previous traffic stops<\/a> in\u2064 the months before the murders. They also learned that\u200c the suspect registered\u2063 his\u2062 vehicle in Washington \u2063and received Washington plates on \u200cNovember 18 \u2013 five days after the murders.<\/p>\n<p>In a previous \u2062filing, the suspect\u2019s attorneys \u200bclaimed \u200bthat DNA found at the crime scene may have been planted by police.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe State\u2019s argument\u2063 asks this Court \u200dand [the suspect] to assume \u2013 is \u200dthat the DNA on the sheath was placed\u200d there\u2062 by [the suspect], and not someone else during an investigation that spans hundreds of \u200cmembers of law enforcement and apparently at least one lab the \u200cState refuses\u200c to name,\u201d the suspect\u2019s \u2064defense attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prosecutors in the University of Idaho student murder case have asked the FBI to investigate a defense expert witness. The witness allegedly provided conflicting testimony. Instead of cross-examining, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson sought the FBI&#8217;s assistance, as reported by Fox News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":2024759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2024758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2024758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2024759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2024758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2024758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2024758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}