A former lawyer for Ted Bundy has described a “fascinating” parallel between the infamous serial killerBryan Kohberger’s final act and the student murder charges at the University of Idaho implicate Bryan Kohberger – while he also revealed that he was consulted about the latter but chose not to become involved.
Bundy escaped from prison in Colorado – where the death penalty would soon be found unconstitutional – only to move to Florida, commit more murders and end up on death row.
Bundy then torpedoed his own plea deal, which would have spared him from execution, said his former attorney John Henry Browne. But he thought it was eerily similar to the charges against Kohberger, a Ph.D. student accused of driving across state lines into Idaho to commit a crime quadruple murder.
“Here’s a man driving 10 miles from a state where there is no death penalty, (from) a state where there is an active mental health defense, to a state where there is no mental health defense health care, and the death penalty is very active,” he told Fox News Digital. “I think to me it’s just fascinating. I don’t know what to imply from it, but I know the facts are the facts.”
BRYAN KOHBERGER COULD PLEASE DEATH PENALTY IF convicted of IDAHO university murder
Ted Bundy, charged with the murders of FSU students Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, who were beaten and strangled at the Chi Omega House, is shown in this July 27, 1978 photo at a hearing before he was convicted at trial and sentenced to death was convicted. (Bettmann)
Like Bundy’s Florida State University Chi Omega sorority house frenzyKohberger is accused of attacking four students hours before dawn, entering through a back door while at least some of the victims slept.
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Browne also told Fox News Digital that prosecutors’ theory of a possible motive, while they are not required to file charges, would be of great interest to jurors.
“As the case became clearer and we were dealing with 30, 40, 50 or more deaths, the motives in Ted’s case became quite clear – that it was a power struggle, much more than sex,” he said. “And all the victims in Ted’s case were not sexually abused. A lot of people don’t know that.’
As for Kohberger’s case, prosecutors have revealed little about what his motive might have been.
Bryan Kohberger arrives at the Monroe County Courthouse in Pennsylvania for his extradition hearing. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
BRYAN KOHBERGER’S DEFENSE CHALLENGES DNA EVIDENCE, GUARANTEES IN IDAHO QUADRO-MURDER CASE
“I have no idea what the state’s theory is as to why Kohberger chose these people in this house to kill and leave a knife (sheath) with DNA on it,” he said.
Latah County Judge John Judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger’s behalf during his arraignment in May 2023.
The 30-year-old is accused of fatally stabbing 21-year-old best friends Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, their roommate Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, also 20. The attack happened around 4 a.m. on Nov. 1 . August 13, 2022, in a six-bedroom house just steps from the university campus.
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If it had happened on the Washington side of the state line, where Kohberger was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology, the suspect would not receive the death penalty and could use an “insanity” defense.
It is not the first time that Kohberger’s arrest has been compared to Bundy’s attack in Florida. Bundy survivors karen pryor and cheryl thomas spoke with FOX Nation about their ordeal last year.
Bundy demolished the Chi Omega House around 3 a.m. on January 15, 1978, entering through the back door. Inside, he beat the sleeping Margaret Elizabeth Bowman with a bat and then strangled her. In the next room, he beat, abused and murdered Lisa Janet Levy. Before fleeing the scene, he attacked two other young women, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner (now Kathy Kleiner Rubin), who survived.
“He was a coward,” Kleiner later told Rubin Fox News digital. Bundy had broken her jaw with the bat when the headlights of a late returning fraternity shined through the window. He fled. She survived.
Madison Mogen, above left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and two other roommates in Goncalves’ latest Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
The best defense? Offensive play
“If I were his lawyers, I would be playing a lot of offense,” Browne told Fox News Digital. ‘Because in a case like this, if you play nice, you won’t get anywhere.’
Kohberger, who earned a master’s degree in criminal justice from DeSales University and was attempting a Ph.D. in criminology from Washington State University, studied with Katherine Ramsland, a leading expert on serial killers who has written articles and books about many of them — including Bundy.
Browne tried to negotiate a plea deal for Bundy that would have spared him execution – but the serial killer sabotaged it himself and ended up in the electric chair.
Earlier this month, Boise Judge Steven Hippler rejected a dozen requests from the Kohberger defense team to pursue the death penalty. The death penalty remains on the table if he is convicted.
Bryan Kohberger will appear in court in Moscow, Idaho on October 26, 2023. (Kai Eiselein/Pool)
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Browne said the defense must continue to aggressively try to make the prosecutor’s life as difficult as possible, to aggressively attack the case — something Kohberger’s defense team of Anne Taylor, Jay Logsdon and Elisa Massoth has been working on for more than a year has worked.
But the defense’s plan of attack may also have deterred the judge. Kohberger’s team filed a motion for a Franks hearing, which is an attempt to dismiss some search warrants in the case. However, Hippler said they should resubmit it with the correct citations after reminding Logsdon that it’s not his job to wade through the 2,000 pages of attached evidence to find out what they’re talking about.
Ted Bundy watches intently during jury selection during his trial in Orlando for the murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. (Bettmann)
“By way of example, Defendant generally cites Exhibit D9 to argue that the law enforcement vehicle expert was more comfortable identifying the 2011-2013 period for the Elantra,” Hippler wrote. ‘That evidence consists of more than a hundred pages of duplicate emails. The defendant does not indicate which email supports his statement. The Court will not do the work of counsel and sift through the evidence to decide what portions the Defendant should suggest to support his claim.”
Browne said such motions are rarely successful – he is tried hundreds of cases and only three have succeeded – but it could cripple the state’s case if it works.
Another issue the defense may want to consider is whether Kohberger should give up Kohberger’s right to be tried before a jury and leave his fate in the hands of the judge.
The victims of the University of Idaho massacre on November 13, 2022, from left to right: Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen. (Instagram @xanakernodle / @maddiemogen / @kayleegoncalves)
Even after the venue change from Latah County to Boise was secured, the case is so high-profile that large groups of potential jurors could have already made up their minds.
“(There) is always an option, but not a very good one, and that is that you could forego the jury and take the case to trial,” Browne said.
Bundy, represented by another attorney at the time, did so in Utah and received a lenient sentence. It didn’t work out for Laken Riley’s killer Jose Ibarra, who was sentenced last week to life in prison without parole, the harshest sentence available because the prosecutor in that case did not seek the death penalty.
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But mathematically, Brown believes that sometimes it can be to the defendant’s advantage to have a jury.
“All you have to do is convince one in 12 that there is a reasonable doubt, and then you get a mistrial,” he said. “But then you start all over again.”
Frank’s motion, refiled by Kohberger, was due on Tuesday but had not yet been made public by the court at the time of writing.
His trial is tentatively scheduled to begin next year.
Browne is the author of the book “The Devil’s Defender: My Odyssey Through American Criminal Justice from Ted Bundy to the Kandahar Massacre,” about his experience as an attorney representing clients such as Bundy, Army Sgt. Robert Bales and the former teenage serial hijacker known as the ‘Barefoot Bandit’ Colton Harris Moore.
Bundy was a former law student. Kohberger studied criminology and serial killers.
