Why prosecutors want to show Kohberger's selfie to a jury

(CNN) — A flurry of court filings in the quadruple murder case against Bryan Kohberger reveal the suspect bought a knife on Amazon months before the killings and the victims’ surviving roommates texted family and were active on social media before calling 911.

The newly released documents illustrate how the defense and prosecution are trying to get their most useful evidence submitted in the case against the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in an off-campus home in 2022. A not-guilty plea has been entered on Kohberger’s behalf.

The prosecution’s new filings show Kohberger, a 30-year-old former graduate student in criminology, had purchased a military-style knife, a sheath and a knife sharpener on Amazon in the months leading up to the killings.

The state’s filings also include a selfie believed to be taken by Kohberger on the morning of November 13, 2022, just hours after the killings. The selfie shows the suspect smiling at the camera and giving a thumbs-up gesture.

But the defense released its own tranche of new evidence this week, highlighting phone records from the morning of the killings showing the two surviving roommates waited about eight hours from the time they perceived something suspicious to when they called 911.

The defense took issue with what they called the prosecutors’ selective use of surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke’s phone records from early that tragic morning.

The defense asked the judge to either ban prosecutors from showing the state’s selection of messages to the jury or allow more phone records to be admitted at trial.

‘No one is answering … I’m freaking out’

A spate of text messages between Mortensen and Funke revealed fear and panic after they couldn’t reach their roommates around 4:22 a.m., according to a recent filing by the prosecution.

Investigators believe Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were killed between 4 a.m. and 4:25 a.m.

Around 4:22 a.m., Mortensen texted Funke: “No one is answering.” Funke replied: “Ya dude wtf.”

Mortensen then texted Funke saying she saw what looked like a masked man in their house. “I’m freaking out,” Mortensen wrote.

Funke later texted Mortensen: “Come to my room” and “run.”

Records previously released by prosecutors suggest Mortensen tried to reach others in the house again around 10:23 a.m., only after “waking up and realizing that she had not heard from her roommates.”

But the new defense filing suggests the surviving roommates were awake and using social media hours earlier.

Snapchat, Instagram and several calls to family before dialing 911

Kohberger’s attorneys say after Mortensen joined Funke in her room, their phone activity was dark for only about three hours.

The surviving roommates also accessed Snapchat and Instagram between 4:22 a.m. and 4:37 a.m., the defense filing says.

Funke and Mortensen were both using their phones again by around 8 a.m., the new defense filing claims.

The defense listed details of Funke’s and Mortensen’s social media and call activity in the hours following their housemates’ deaths. The court documents identify Funke and Mortensen by their initials in the timeline, which included:

7:30 BF calls dad

8:00 BF calls dad

8:00 BF calls another number

8:01 BF calls home

8:02 BF calls mom

8:09 dad calls BF

8:05:43 – 10:00:45 DM on Instagram

8:41-8:42 BF takes photos

9:04:36 mom texts BF

10:00:56 – 10:01:40 DM messages, incoming and outgoing (Snapchat)

10:01:53 – 10:03:05 DM on Instagram

10:03:30 – 10:04:02 DM on Indeed

10:04:54 – 10:23:02 DM messages, incoming and outgoing (Snapchat)

In the motion, Kohberger’s attorneys dispute the prosecution’s claims that Mortensen woke up to realize her roommates hadn’t responded to her texts overnight.

Mortensen tried to reach Goncalves and Mogen again starting at 10:23 a.m., asking them if they were awake: “R u up??”

The new defense filing says Mortensen used Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok and texted her dad hours before she reached out to Mogen and Goncalves again. The timeline included phone activity such as:

10:23:23 DM text MM

10:24:01 – 10:25:04 DM on Instagram

10:30:18 – 10:45:43 DM messages, incoming and outgoing (Snapchat)

10:56:49 – 11:29:08 DM on Instagram and messages on Snapchat

11:29:41 – 11:32:45 DM on Instagram and messaging on Snapchat

11:35:36 DM on Yik Yak

11:36:07 DM on Tik Tok

11:37:36 DM messages (Snapchat)

11:39:09 – 11:40:14 DM and dad text

11:44:06 – 11:50:38 DM on Instagram

11:54:39 – 11:57:01 DM on Instagram

Funke eventually called 911 at 11:56 a.m. to report Kernodle unconscious at the residence, records show. Two other friends could be heard with them on the call.

‘Bushy eyebrows’ description resurfaces

Mortensen, one of the surviving roommates, has said she saw a masked man wearing all black in the home around the time of the murders. She described the intruder as having “bushy eyebrows.”

But after Kohberger was arrested, Mortensen couldn’t definitively say whether he was the man she saw in her home around the time of the killings, according to court filings.

Kohberger’s attorneys have asked the judge to block prosecutors from showing the defendant’s newly released selfie to jurors at trial. Defense attorneys argue the photo recovered from Kohberger’s phone could unfairly prejudice the jury against him.

But prosecutors say the jury should see Kohberger’s smiling selfie taken at 10:31 a.m. – just hours after the purported murders – because his photo matches Mortensen’s description of the intruder she saw that night.

The state also argued jurors can decide for themselves if Kohberger’s eyebrows are bushy and what relevance that might have to the case.

“The fact that this description may, or may not, implicate Defendant, is not a reason to keep this fact from the jury’s consideration,” the prosecution said.

“It is not reasonable to believe the jury will convict the Defendant based on the status of his kept or unkept eyebrows.”

What to expect at trial

Kohberger’s trial is expected to begin in August.

Prosecutors have indicated they expect both surviving roommates to testify and want to use their text messages to illustrate the timeline of the night.

But defense attorney Anne Taylor has pointed to what she described as inconsistencies in law enforcement interviews with Mortensen and Funke.

Prosecutors also plan to call law enforcement witnesses to testify about a test run they conducted to show that it was possible to commit four homicides in a time frame of only minutes including time to walk to and from a car and remove blood-covered clothes, a defense filing says.

Kohberger’s attorneys say they need an expert to testify about his developmental coordination disorder to show the jury he was not physically capable of committing the crime that they argue required such speed and coordination.

CNN’s Martin Goillandeau contributed to this report.

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