BOISE, Idaho – One of two surviving roommates in the University of Idaho case saw victim Xana Kernodle lying on the floor shortly after she was killed, but thought Kernodle was drunk and didn’t call 911.
That information was revealed in a new court ruling Thursday in the case against Bryan Kohberger.
Kohberger is accused of killing Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves in an off-campus home in November 2022.
Previous filings have revealed new details of what the two other roommates saw and did in the minutes and hours after the murders, but the new filing is the first time it’s mentioned that one of the roommates saw Kernodle on the floor.
Police say the murders happened just after 4 a.m. One of the roommates heard commotion and peered out of her room to see a masked man, walking through the house.
In recent months, court records have revealed that she tried to call and text all of the roommates, but only one of them responded. The two texted back and forth about the man and ultimately, one roommate told the other to come down to her room.
In the court filing, it says one left her room and started running to the other.
“On her way, she noticed Xana lying on the floor of her bedroom, with her head towards the wall and her feet toward to the door,” the ruling says. “D.M. thought Xana was drunk.”
Now in the same room, the two locked the door and started calling and texting the other roommates, but no one answered.
Around 5:30 a.m., the court record says one of the roommates was on her phone “primarily creating, editing and deleting images and videos.”
The phone activity was sporadic after that. The girls said they were surprised Kaylee and Madison didn’t respond because they usually woke up early.
The court record shows at 11:50 a.m., one of the roommates called a friend and asked him “to come over and check the house” because she was scared.
Two friends came over and checked the house. One of the roommates said she again saw Xana “for a split second” and was scared because “I thought maybe she was still drunk and all asleep on the floor.”
Shortly after is when the roommates called 911.
According to the court record “[the friend] was pale white and mentioned something about someone being unconscious.”
The significance of the 911 call
The new ruling is the judge’s decision about whether the 911 call should be admitted at trial.
Kohberger’s attorneys wanted the 911 call omitted, saying it was hearsay. The defense specifically pointed one roommate’s description of the man she saw in the house around the time her roommates were killed.
The judge ruled mostly in favor of prosecutors, who said the entire call and the transcript of the call should be permitted.
The judge said “the bulk of the statements are likely admissible”.
Judge Hippler also had to consider the admissibility of the text messages the roommates sent back and forth before they called 911.
Hippler said they likely are admissible, but that prosecutors have to establish why they’re relevant at the trial.
‘Self-described scaredy cats’
The judge’s ruling says comments made by the girls via text message were excited utterances based on the circumstances.
He said given the fact they were awoken from sleep after a night of drinking and that one of them saw the masked intruder in the house would have been traumatic.
“It would be potentially terrifying for anyone, including these young women,” Judge Hippler wrote. “To argue that they would have run out of the house or called someone else for help had they really been startled unempathetically ignores these circumstances and the trauma and confusion they were evidently experiencing, which likely offset logical thought.”
Statements not allowed
Judge Hippler did offer some exceptions for what should not be admitted at trial.
He pointed to one of the women on the 911 call who was a friend of the surviving roommates. She said Xana was unresponsive, but because she didn’t see it herself, so that statement would qualify as hearsay and would not be admissible.
The state also cannot use that friend’s statement that “they saw some man in their house last night” because, again, she didn’t see it herself.
Also in court this week, attorneys filed proposed jury instructions and witness lists.
The judge has ordered those documents sealed.
Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to start in August. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
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