Idaho student murders suspect Bryan Kohberger has added one of his own defense expert witnesses to his legal team as he faces charges that could carry the death penalty in connection with the home-invasion murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022.
San Francisco attorney Bicka Barlow, an expert on DNA forensics who testified for Kohberger’s defense during an August 2023 hearing, has been admitted pro hac vice in the case, meaning the judge gave her permission to represent Kohberger alongside his other lawyers even though her license is in California.
Barlow earned a bachelor’s degree in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, before getting a master’s from Cornell University, according to her website. She then went to the University of San Francisco School of Law.
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Geneticist and lawyer Bicka Barlow speaks during Bryan Kohberger’s hearing on Aug. 18, 2023, at the Latah County Courthouse in Moscow, Idaho. (August Frank/Lewiston Tribune)
She began her career as a researching attorney in the criminal division of the San Francisco Superior Court and eventually founded a private practice dedicated to cases involving DNA.
She claims to have led the first successful challenge in an American court to the admissibility of short tandem repeat (STR) DNA evidence, one of the most common methods of DNA analysis.
She also has experience with mitochondrial DNA and Y-STR, which is STR testing specific to the Y chromosome.
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Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for a hearing on Aug. 18, 2023, at the Latah County Courthouse in Moscow, Idaho. (August Frank/Pool via REUTERS)
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Jay Logsdon, a deputy to lead defense attorney Anne Taylor, will remain on the team as a consultant but will not represent the 30-year-old Kohberger at trial, according to an order from Ada County Judge Steven Hippler.
DNA evidence has been central to identifying Kohberger as a suspect in the murders of Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
Police recovered a knife sheath from under Mogen’s remains with DNA on the snap.
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During a closed-door proceeding that was unsealed this week, Moscow Detective Brett Payne, the lead investigator, testified that Kohberger’s name had not been known to him prior to Dec. 19, when the FBI offered it up as a tip after a genetic genealogy investigation.
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
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But the FBI’s use of genealogy databases violated an internal policy, defense witness Dr. Leah Larkin testified at the same hearing. Investigators used at least two databases that were not supposed to be accessed by law enforcement.
Hippler previously ruled that the FBI’s actions did not violate the Constitution or undermine probable cause used to arrest Kohberger.
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Kohberger’s trial is expected to begin in August and take up to 15 weeks. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
