Brian koberger trial request certainly not frivolous attorney the request by attorneys of the man charged with the murders of for University of Idaho students to move the trial is certainly not frivolous an attorney told Newsweek Brian koberger 29 is charged with four counts of Murder in the deaths of Kaye gon calz 21 Madison Mogan 21 Zanna kernel 20 and Ethan chapen 20 the four students were were stabbed to death in the early morning hours of November 13th 2022 in a rental house near the campus in Moscow police arrested koberger then studying at Washington State University in nearby pulman 6 weeks later at his parents home in Pennsylvania the killings shook the small community and garnered national attention cober's lawyers have asked a judge to move his trial scheduled for June 2025 to Boise or a larger City saying the widespread media coverage and strong emotions in the Community will make it impossible to find an impartial jury in LA County Prosecutors argued against moving the trial on Thursday saying the case attracted high levels of media coverage in other parts of Idaho and that issues with potential bias could be handled by calling a larger pool of potential jurors the defense request to move the trial is expected and certainly not frivolous Michael mcauliff a former Federal prosecutor and elected state attorney told Newsweek however as the pro prosecution argues in its response the publicity is so widespread that changing counties doesn't necessarily address the defense's stated issue of not being able to procure an impartial jury muli said pre-trial publicity can be better handled by limiting comments through a partial gag order and robust jury selection procedures including a larger jury pool and an appropriate questionnaire for prospective jurors he added notably the trial isn't set to start until next summer so the actual impact of publicity remains largely speculative attorney Nicole brki said the attempt to move the trial may not be as necessary as cober's attorneys have argued because both sides will have the chance to question potential jurors in a process known as Vader cober's attorneys can make a plausible argument that the local jury pool is more Prejudiced and biased against the defendant brki told Newsweek however all potential jurors will be subjected to vaere and if any person is determined to be so biased that they cannot render an opinion based on the evidence that person can simply be excused from service the process gives both sides a fair opportunity to impanel a jury that they believe is fully capable of serving in this particular matter she said as such Mr goldberger's attempt to move the case to another venue may not be as necessary as his attorneys want the general public to believe cober's defense attorney an Taylor argued that the results of a survey of L County residents conducted on behalf of the defense team found how pre-trial publicity has left the community strongly biased against coburger