A new semester began today
at the University of Idaho.
Classes
resuming for the first time
since the suspect was arrested
in the murders of for students.
The killings
obviously gripped the campus
and the fear since with fear
since November.
Brian Burger
will appear in court again tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the victim,
the family of one of the victims,
told People magazine
that none of them knew the suspect
or had any idea that they were in danger.
Gary Tuchman
joins us now
live from Moscow, Idaho, with more.
So what happens tomorrow?
Anderson, the accused murderer will have
a second appearance
in court in this courthouse here
in Moscow, Idaho, exactly a week ago.
He had his initial appearance in court
when he came into the courtroom.
When he sat down,
he showed no emotion at all.
He smiled a little bit
to his public defender.
We'll see what happens
during the second appearance,
during this appearance that's expected
there will be scheduling discussions
about future pretrial hearings.
Now, last week,
during the initial appearance
hearing on the same day
the police affidavit was released,
we were awaiting that
because it contains reasons
they arrested this man, including police
believe they found
his DNA and a knife sheath
that was found in the bed
of one of the victims.
In addition,
police say that one of the housemates
who survived,
heard crying, stepped
outside a room, saw
a man in black clothes,
a mask and bushy eyebrows.
They say her description
helped lead to more evidence against him.
And finally, police
say that his cell phone
signal was detected
and at least 12 instances
over the five months prior to the murders
right near the house.
And also
it was detected about 5 hours
after the murders after the sun came up.
This is a death penalty state, Anderson.
Prosecutors will have to decide
if they will seek it.
As we mentioned,
the first day of the spring semester
was today for most students.
There
Have you talked to any students
about how it feels to be back on campus?
Yeah, I went out on campus today
and talked to some of the students.
Everyone.
I talked to
who came back to start class
today is very grateful
that a suspect was caught.
You know, this is a very safe city.
Moscow, Idaho.
And the campus is very safe.
And what happened over the past
several weeks
and the end of the fall break is
a lot of people were walking in pairs,
walking with buddies
or walking in groups.
And many of the people I talked to today
say they will continue to do that.
Even though a suspect has been caught,
they're taken.
Appreciate you being there. Thank you.
For more on
what to expect tomorrow
and suspect appears in court,
we're joined by criminal defense attorney
Mark O'Mara.
So you heard Gary's report
What are you anticipating
is going to happen in the hearing?
Well,
tomorrow's not going to be as significant
as the one a week from now.
Tomorrow, sort of a status conference.
The judge will let them know
what's coming up next.
The most significant hearing, Anderson,
is going to be
within about a week
because 14 days from last week,
they have
what's called a preliminary conference
and that's where the state presents
even more evidence
to try and show off
that they have affirmative
probable cause to keep him.
And then at that point,
trial rates will start getting set.
So tomorrow, as was said by the reporter,
some scheduling, keeping things on track.
It always has to be a next court date.
But I think the most significant ones
are coming up
the next couple of weeks
before the release,
the probable cause affidavit.
The suspect's attorney in Pennsylvania
said that the suspect believes
he'll be exonerated.
Now, investigators
seem to have
what would appear
to be strong evidence against him,
especially with the DNA
found on the on the knife sheath.
What are the chances
you think this would go to trial
as opposed to a plea deal?
Well, you know,
so hard
to say in many of these cases,
like the ones that we see
with this type of horrific events,
what happened with the death
of four young college students?
You know what?
What is he going to get offered that
he would accept?
If it's his hubris,
they think he's going to be exonerated.
But he may very well
want his day in court,
even if he just has this belief,
sort of like Ted Bundy years
and years ago.
He liked the idea of the spotlight.
So it's really hard to say.
But I will tell you
with the enormity of evidence,
even in the
just the 20 pages that we have
and the tens of thousands
that are coming,
it is going to be hard pressed for any
even a very good defense team
to be able to convince
reasonable doubt exists in this case.
It again, may turn into something
of trying to minimize the damage to him.
And in the
court documents
that were released last week.
I mean, we
there were a number of details,
but there's a lot more
that police
probably have already or that
that law enforcement already has
that they don't need
to put into those court documents.
Well, absolutely.
They're going to keep
they had to put a card
or two on the table.
They had to put enough on the table.
To make sure that this judge kept him in
under no bond.
And in the next hearing,
the probable cause hearing,
they're going to another court or two.
But don't forget,
they have a lot of work to do.
They want to make sure
that all of their T's are crossed
and their eyes are dotted.
They don't want to give the defense
any more than they have to
unless and until they have to in
Idaho has discovery requirements,
it will have that. But no, no, no.
I think they're going to play their cards
close to the chest
for a while to make sure that everything
that they've said, the forensic
and whatnot, is very well founded.
We learned last week that there
according to law enforcement,
there is a witness.
There were a roommate
who actually saw the the killer
leaving the room.
And we
we don't know much more about them.
We only obviously not their identity,
just the initials in the
in the court documents,
but we haven't heard from that person.
Is that something
that would come out
in court documents prior to a trial?
Oh, absolutely.
Prior to a trial.
We may hear more about that next week
and certainly
is going to come out in discovery
because there's
so many unanswered questions
with that witness why she waited 8 hours.
So it could be something as simple
as, you know,
college kids,
they were drinking or intoxicated
or whatever
else, didn't want the cops in the house
There's something more about that.
And not nefarious, not some conspiracy,
but some reason
why she waited 8 hours to do anything
even with just the idea
that some stranger was in her house,
you would think something more
would have been done than nothing.
But again, I think we'll find out
with the thousands of pages
that are coming,
the as we mentioned into tonight,
the parents of one of the victims
has said
that the alleged assailant
didn't know any of the victims.
I'm not sure
how they would have that knowledge,
but you've seen a lot in your career.
Would that surprise you?
It would
surprise me for a number of reasons.
One, the stalking
that he was looking at the house
or around the house or pinging
cell phone around the house
for weeks prior.
There's something there.
And plus,
even the type of murder,
if you really just try to analyze it,
you know,
using a knife
is a very personal way to kill somebody.
It's very violent.
So you have to wonder, was he infatuated
or was he getting back at being rejected?
There's probably something
in that background of him
and the interaction
with at least one of the people,
if not more,
at that household that caused this type
of violent reaction by him.
It's more than just
you know,
he picked the house by coincidence.
That is not what happened here.