BOISE, Idaho — Joshua Hurwit, Idaho’s former U.S. attorney, has become part of the prosecution team in the Bryan Kohberger case, the individual accused of the 2022 killings of four University of Idaho students.
Court documents filed this week reveal that Hurwit will serve as a special deputy prosecuting attorney for the state during the murder trial set for August. Bill Thompson, the Latah County Prosecuting Attorney, is leading the prosecution team.
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Hurwit, who was appointed as the U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho by President Joe Biden in June 2022, held the position until February. He had been working in the office since 2012 as an assistant U.S. attorney but resigned in February prior to the White House’s dismissal of more than 50 U.S. attorneys and deputies.
Kohberger, 30, is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, students who were killed in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022, at a rental home near their campus in Moscow, Idaho.
Autopsies showed the four were all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds, and each was stabbed multiple times.
RELATED: Frantic 911 call from Idaho college quadruple murder case released: ‘She’s not waking up’
Kohberger, who was a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
A judge previously entered a not-guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.
A hearing is set for April 9 to consider pretrial motions, including arguments over whether an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis would preclude Kohberger from being eligible for the death penalty if convicted, and over whether jurors should hear audio of a 911 call hours after the killings, as the callers realized one of their roommates wasn’t waking up.
Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 11 and is expected to last more than three months.
