Judge in Idaho murder case rules on whether to toss Kohberger's grand jury indictment

BOISE, Idaho — The district court judge in the University of Idaho murder case threw out all attempts by the defense to toss the grand jury's indictment of defendant Bryan Kohberger, shutting the door on delaying a future trial on those grounds.

Judge John Judge of Idaho's 2nd Judicial District in Latah County issued his written decisions late Friday denying the defense team's request to dismiss the indictment on five separate legal grounds, including that the prosecution committed misconduct because it allegedly withheld evidence from jurors. Judge's rulings were published to Idaho's court website Monday morning.

At a hearing in October, Judge issued one oral ruling from the bench concerning the defense's effort, quickly dismissing the argument from Kohberger's attorneys that there was an error in the instructions given to the grand jury. The hearing was one of two held that day to consider a number of legal arguments posed by the defense, with the other hearing closed to the public to protect confidential information, as grand juries are an intentionally secretive judicial process.