Bryan Kohberger Grins in Selfie Taken Just Hours After Brutal Murders of 4 Idaho College Students: Prosecutor

Prosecutors intend to introduce a grinning selfie they say Bryan Kohberger snapped just a few hours after four University of Idaho students were massacred inside their off-campus home as evidence in his murder trial.

The image appears in a new court document filed by Latah County Prosecutor William Thompson, which was obtained by PEOPLE.

Thompson writes in his filing that he hopes to use the photo to support the lone eyewitness' description of the person who they saw inside the home on the night of the murders.

The selfie shows a gaunt and pale Kohberger dressed in a button-down shirt and wearing black earphones while flashing a grin and thumbs up as he poses in what appears to be the bathroom of his campus residence at Washington State University.

At the time of the murders, the 30-year-old Pennsylvania native had been working towards his doctorate in criminology at the school.

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Kohberger is accused of murdering Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20. The four were found stabbed to death inside the Moscow home that Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle shared with two other individuals.

Those individuals were also in the house that night, and one came within approximately three feet of the suspected killer as they exited the home, according to the probable cause affidavit.

That individual spoke with detectives on numerous occasions, and, as Thompson notes in his filing, said that the person had "bushy eyebrows" in almost every interview.

Kohberger's defense team is now hoping to convince the judge overseeing the case that the eyewitness' statements about the suspected killer's physical appearance should not be admissible in court.

"In this case, the description provided by [the eyewitness] is unreliable and should be excluded," Kohberger's attorney Anne Taylor writes in her motion, a copy of which was obtained by PEOPLE.

"Although she has never identified Mr. Kohberger, testimony by [the eyewitness] from the witness stand, describing bushy eyebrows while Mr. Kohberger sits as the accused at trial, will be as damning as her pointing to him and saying, 'he is the man that did this.'"

Taylor also claims in her motion that the eyewitness did not recognize Kohberger when she saw a photo of him after his arrest.

Thompson counters this in his filing by noting the eyewitness texted the other surviving roommate about the eyebrows, mentioned them in five separate interviews with authorities and identified the eyebrows as the most notable attribute she recalled from seeing the suspected killer as he passed by her while exiting the residence in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.

In a probable cause affidavit, the witness describes a figure "5'10" or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows."

The witness described being in a state of "frozen shock" as the man walked past, but did not state they recognized him. Six hours after that, prosecutors say Kohberger took the selfie introduced into evidence.

Kohberger's murder trial is set to begin on Aug. 11 in Idaho. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

Kohberger told the public defender who represented him after his arrest in Pennsylvania that he expects to be exonerated at trial. He declined to enter a plea in court when the judge formally charged him with four counts of murder, at which time a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.

Read the original article on People