Kohberger defense team makes first statement since sentencing, scolds own expert
Lawyers for convicted killer Bryan Kohberger have taken aim at a forensic scientist hired to help in their client’s defense at his Idaho murder trial, asserting in their first statement since he pleaded guilty last summer that the expert witness violated a standing confidentiality agreement.
Attorney Anne Taylor, joined by public defenders Elisa Massoth and Bicka Barlow, alleged that recent public statements by defense expert Brent Turvey, including earlier this month to the Idaho Statesman, “falls outside of the ethical and legal norms that are applied to experts in criminal cases.”
Among a host of experts, Turvey was hired by Kohberger’s attorneys late into their handling of the closely watched case “solely to provide an opinion about the crime scene, nothing else,” they wrote. He signed a confidentiality agreement on Oct. 30, 2024, which the defense said remains in effect today.
“The agreement with Mr. Turvey was crystal clear that all materials, as well as any opinions that he developed as an expert, were to be kept confidential,” Kohberger’s defense wrote in the statement sent to the Statesman. “Mr. Turvey has not been released from his confidentiality agreement, and is now speaking about topics that are still confidential, many of which are outside of his areas of expertise.”
In response to a prior interview request, Turvey provided the Statesman with a previously unreleased photo of a police evidence bag. He said it showed the police chain of custody for a key piece of evidence in the case was insufficient and would have been challenged at trial.
Kohberger pleaded guilty last year to the November 2022 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students and a trial never took place.
Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger and legal experts in Idaho unassociated with the high-profile murder case told the Statesman that Turvey’s allegations were unfounded and would not have resulted in the knife sheath found at the Moscow crime scene, nor the DNA located on it, being excluded at trial.
Turvey also is thanked and features in a new book about the Moscow homicides case called “Broken Plea,” by Christopher Whitcomb, a former FBI agent who did not work on the case. The book hit shelves Tuesday.
“The defense team is appalled by Mr. Turvey’s behavior and his release of documents and information that he knows are confidential,” Kohberger’s defense team wrote. “His reliability should be seen through the lens of this conduct.”
On Tuesday in an interview with the Statesman, Turvey rejected his former contract employers’ accusations. He said the state already has released almost everything he’s talked about, and called the defense team’s claims about him a “deflection” away from issues with the case, after questions have continued to be raised about inconsistencies in the investigation and the decisions that led to Kohberger’s plea deal.
“The bottom line is, in my 30 years I’ve never divulged confidential or case-sensitive material that was outside my realm, or outside my anything,” Turvey said by phone. “Nothing that I shared was not already public, or at least provided in discovery that was actually data-dumped by law enforcement in Idaho.”
Rarely has Turvey chosen to speak with media unless asked to do so by a client, he added. This case is different, he said.
“This is an extraordinary case with extraordinary types of exculpatory evidence that were not being brought to light,” Turvey said, referencing items and information that allegedly could disprove Kohberger’s guilt. “And so that’s the reason for the discussion with Whitcomb, because so much stuff was being misstated and buried, and not talked about by both sides.”
He challenged Taylor and her team to point to specific violations of the confidentiality agreement he signed, because nothing he has said reveals attorney-client privileged information or would cause harm to their client, Turvey said.
“I couldn’t possibly guess what’s in her head,” he told the Statesman. “You’d have to ask her to be specific, and, if she’s too specific, she can get herself into a lot of trouble.”
Kohberger, 31, was sentenced to four life terms in prison with no chance of parole. As part of his plea deal that bypassed a trial and allowed him to avoid the death penalty, he also waived all of his appeal rights.
