Bryan Kohberger has autism, OCD and a developmental coordination disorder — and jurors need to know that so they don’t mistake his “piercing stare” and emotionless face as a sign that he’s a cold-blooded killer during his trial for the murders of four University of Idaho students, his lawyers say.
Kohberger, 28, raised the defense à la Gen Z in a filing earlier this month — with defense attorney Elisa Massoth saying that the Ph.D. criminology student should be allowed to call expert medical witnesses at his Aug. 11 trial to tell jurors about his mental and physical conditions to help explain his courtroom comportment.
Additionally, the coordination disorder is evidence that he can’t possibly have committed the crimes — because he doesn’t have the dexterity that would have been required to butcher Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin in just a few minutes on Nov. 13 2022, the filing claimed.
Jurors “will watch his every move and pass judgement on him every minute of the jury trial simply based on how he looks and reacts” when evidence is presented and people testify about him, Massoth wrote.
It’s essential the panelists know that he has been diagnosed with autism, that he also has obsessive compulsive disorder and that he has “deficits in fine motor dexterity and visual motor function,” the court papers say.
Kohberger’s behaviors are “highly consistent” with autism but “without explanation others may misinterpret and misidentify Mr. Kohberger’s behaviors and cast them in a more sinister light,” the documents argue.
Some of his mannerism that could be wrongly misconstrued, include the fact he doesn’t show facial emotion, he has a “flat affect,” sits extremely still and rigidly, holds his hands in one position, “has a piercing stare” and speaks stiffly.
He also doesn’t react like one would expect in certain situations and his “facial expressions do not reflect what he is feeling,” the lawyer wrote.
Kohberger’s OCD and poor coordination also help disprove the prosecution’s case about the speed Kohberger would have had to have carried out the stabbings, and lend credit to his alibi that Kohberger — a Ph.D. criminology student at the nearby Washington State University — would have been out late driving that night, instead of butchering four students in their rooms.
His OCD causes him to sleep poorly and so he often runs or drives late at night “to decompress.” And he also compulsively washes his hands and wears gloves “to avoid germs,” the filing says.
Additionally, prosecutors’ assertions that he was seen wearing gloves and placing trash in baggies because of a guilty conscious and to hide DNA is contradicted by the fact he normally wore gloves “to avoid germs on surfaces,” the filing claimed.
Prosecutors did a test run, and concluded it’s possible to have carried out the four slayings, walked to and from his car, and changed out of blood-covered clothes all within 13 minutes.
The jury should know “that Mr. Kohberger has a developmental coordination disorder that impacts his fine motor dexterity and visual motor function,” the filing said.
Defense lawyers added: “Such speed and coordination are not possible for him.”
Prosecutors say testimony about Kohberger’s conditions shouldn’t be allowed into trial because they don’t meet the criteria for mental health evidence under Idaho law.
Kohberger pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
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