Kohberger case prompts hefty budget request

As the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office prepares for the trial of the Moscow quadruple murder suspect, it is asking the county for a significant increase in its trial expense budget.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson met with the county commissioners Tuesday to submit his office’s annual budget request. He requested $135,000 for trial expenses, a significant jump from the $15,000 that has been consistently budgeted for that purpose in previous years.

His office is preparing for what is expected to be a long and complex trial of Bryan Kohberger, who faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary charges in the November stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.

Kohberger remains in Latah County Jail as he awaits his trial that is scheduled for Oct. 2 to Nov. 12. Latah County District Judge John Judge entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf as the suspect chose the option of standing silent during his May 22 arraignment.

According to Thompson’s request, trial expenses include paying for the services of expert witnesses, witness travel fees, transcript fees and exhibit displays.

“It’s hard to project exactly what’s going to be involved,” he said. “We know that it’s not going to be cheap.”

According to court documents recently filed by Kohberger’s attorneys, led by Kootenai County Public Defender Anne Taylor, the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office has disclosed 51 terabytes of information about the case that includes thousands of pages of discovery, thousands of photographs, hundreds of hours of recordings and gigabytes of phone records and social media data.

Thompson said his office is trying to keep its budget projections as conservative as possible, but at the same time “we need to make sure that we don’t cut corners on anything with regard to making sure this case is handled properly.”

Commissioner Kathie LaFortune expressed her support and even suggested he raise his request to $150,000 for trial expenses to safely cover any future costs.

The commissioners are expected to adopt the county’s annual budget in September.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.