One of two roommates who survived the November slayings of four University of Idaho students in their off-campus residence is fighting a subpoena to appear in court for suspect Bryan Kohberger’s preliminary hearing.
According to court records obtained by CBS News, attorneys for Bethany Funke, 21, filed a motion Friday in district court in Washoe County, Nevada — Funke’s hometown — to quash a request by the suspect’s public defender.
The hearing for Kohberger is scheduled for June 26. According to Funke’s motion, “an Idaho criminal defendant has no authority to summon a Nevada witness to Idaho for a preliminary hearing.”
Kohberger must enter a plea to four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in the stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, her friend Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, and Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, both 20 on Nov. 13 in Moscow.
According to an affidavit signed by Richard Bitonti, the suspect’s attorneys claim Funke has “information material to the charges against Mr. Kohberger; portions of the information Ms. Funke has is exculpatory to the defendant.”
According to the affidavit, Funke was “interviewed by police on several occasions,” and she “disclosed things she heard and saw.”
The defense’s statements claiming Funke has exculpatory information are “without support,” according to Funke’s motion, and there is no “further information or detail pertaining to the substance of the testimony.” Attorneys argue that even if Funke has incriminating evidence, it should not be presented at a preliminary hearing, which is intended to establish probable cause and is not intended to become a “mini-trial.”
Funke’s attorney, Kelli Anne Viloria, did not respond to a request for comment by publication.
Funke and the other surviving roommate, Dylan Mortenson, lived on the first floor of the King Road residence, which was the scene of the stabbing.
In an unsealed police report, Funke, who lived on the east side of the first floor, told investigators that on Nov. 13, the residents of the King Road residence were home by 2 a.m. and asleep in their rooms by 4 a.m.
In unsealed court documents, Mortenson, who slept in the southside bedroom, told police that she opened her door for the third time after hearing the crying and saw “a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her.”
They awoke the next morning to find the four students had been fatally stabbed. Kohberger was apprehended in Pennsylvania on December 30 after a nationwide manhunt.