BOISE, Idaho — Bryan Kohberger is headed to trial this summer.

Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler rejected a request Thursday to delay the highly anticipated capital murder trial after the 30-year-old’s public defense team argued that the delay was “necessary to protect” Kohberger’s constitutional rights.

“Defendant argues a continuance is necessary for him to sufficiently review relevant discovery, conduct a full and complete investigation of mitigation evidence,” Hippler wrote in his 20-page order. “Absent from defendant’s materials, however, is any good cause for the continuance or legitimate showing of prejudice should the trial proceed as scheduled.”

Hippler hinted last week at a brief hearing, where he heard arguments from both sides, that it was “likely” they’d be going to trial. He reaffirmed that Thursday by also issuing an amended scheduling order that pushed prior dates for jury selection and the trial back by a week. Opening statements are now scheduled for Aug. 18, rather than Aug. 11.

At the hearing last week, Hippler indicated that attorneys should plan accordingly.

“I fully encourage everyone to continue as if the trial is going to take place when it is scheduled for,” he said at the close of the half-hour public hearing at the Ada County Courthouse. “Again, I reserve the right to write the decision that I come to. But as of now, I would tell you that it’s likely you’re going to trial on the date indicated.”

Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing four U of I undergraduates in November 2022 at an off-campus home in Moscow. He faces four first-degree murder charges and a burglary charge, and could face the death penalty if convicted. At the time of the homicides, Kohberger lived about 10 miles west in Pullman, Washington, just over the Idaho state line, studying at Washington State University as a Ph.D. student of criminal justice and criminology.

The victims were seniors Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21; junior Xana Kernodle, 20; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20. The three women lived in the Moscow home with two female roommates who went physically unharmed in the attack early on a Sunday morning. Chapin was Kernodle’s boyfriend and stayed over for the night.

Anne Taylor, Kohberger’s lead attorney, filed a motion last month that asked the long-awaited trial be pushed out after previously unreleased case details were disclosed in an episode of NBC’s “Dateline.” The leaks likely violated the court’s gag order. Taylor also argued in court Wednesday that they weren’t prepared to go to trial as they didn’t have enough time to review all of the remaining evidence, which she called “vast.”

“This court has a duty — a responsibility — to make sure that Mr. Kohberger receives a fair trial,” she told Hippler, “and a continuance may be the way that the court can best protect Mr. Kohberger.”

But prosecutor Josh Hurwit, former U.S. attorney for Idaho, said in court that a delay puts the state at the “whim of the media” and argued that despite widespread publicity in a case, the Idaho Supreme Court has found that an impartial jury can be seated. The defense has had enough time to prepare and doesn’t need to learn everything about its client to present a fair case, Hurwit added.

“Every time there’s a breaking story, every time there’s a new book or a new documentary, are we going to continue the trial indefinitely?” Hurwit argued. “And that seems to be the danger in what the defense is asking for. We call it a perpetual continuance.”

If a jury finds Kohberger guilty at trial, prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty. His defense team has maintained its client’s innocence since Kohberger’s arrest in Pennsylvania in late December 2022 following a sprawling, seven-week homicide investigation that traversed multiple states and garnered federal involvement.

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