PROSECUTOR IN BRYAN KOHBERGER CASE SEEMINGLY TRYING TO PULL (ANOTHER) FAST ONE

In an in-depth article published in the Idaho Statesman on February 25, 2024, journalist Kevin Fixler spelled out how Latah County [Idaho] prosecutors - directed in their actions by lead prosecutor William Thompson - are refusing to disclose relevant information related to DNA evidence to defense counsel in the Bryan Kohberger case, despite the information being necessary to providing a proper defense for their clients. The article is a primer on forensic DNA and should be required reading for every defense lawyer in the country.

Unfortunately, playing whack-a-mole and hiding information from defense counsel is not a new thing for Thompson, and it certainly seems to be the tact Thompson is taking in the Kohberger case.

In the 2000 capital murder trial of Dale Shackelford in Latah County [FN1], Thompson and his team - including a contracted deputy prosecutor (now Judge) Rich Christensen - withheld exculpatory autopsy evidence which would have proven beyond any doubt that the death of Shackelford's ex-wife Donna Fontaine was not a 'execution' as characterized by Christensen to the jury, but rather the result of a ricocheted bullet fired from Fontaine's own handgun. Based on Christensen's representations of an execution, the jury returned a guilty verdict on the charge of premeditated, first degree murder in December, 2020.

It wasn't until more than three years after Shackelford was in prison that another Latah County deputy prosecutor who participated in the trial accidentally released records that Thompson had obtained within weeks of the bodies of Fontaine and her boyfriend being found on May 31, 1999, yet refused to disclose despite legal requirements to do so [FN2]. Because of the lateness of the disclosure of the information, Judge John R. Stegner (now a retired Idaho Supreme Court Justice) refused to consider the ramifications of the information contained within the secreted files, preventing appellate review.

In preparing for the trial, Shackelford's defense team had consistently questioned [disclosed] ballistics reports that indicated the bullet determined to have been the cause of Fontaine's death weighed approximately 30% less than other bullets of the same calibre, type and brand. Further, questions arose as to reports that a portion of the full metal jacketed bullet had been "ripped" away from the main body of the round.

When the hidden autopsy information [including x-rays] was received by Shackelford in late 2004, it became clear that the missing piece(s) of the bullet were NOT in the body. It was also clear that the penetration of the bullet was not consistent with the so-called 'execution' style shot pushed by Thompson's contracted deputy prosecutor during the nearly two month trial. According to the report, the .32 calibre, full metal jacketed round penetrated less than one full inch into the neck of Fontaine, and was wedged between two neck vertebrae - causing instant death. More telling was that the impact of the bullet only slightly cracked, but did not break a bone.

When the withheld information was reviewed by a forensic radiologist, the science was clear - the bullet that caused the death of Donna Fontaine had ricocheted off something hard, harder than the military grade bullet itself, before it entered the body of Donna Fontaine, thus there was no 'execution' as portrayed by the state. This disproves not only the theory of the state's entire case as a premeditated homicide, it precluded the sentence of death that was imposed.

Although Shackelford was also convicted of premeditated murder as it applied to Fontaine's boyfriend Fred Palahniuk, the entire case, with its many facets, defendants and charges all hinged on the state's allegations that Shackelford intentionally tracked, shot [executed] and killed his ex-wife. Had the information secreted by Thompson been disclosed prior to trial as required by law, his entire case would have fallen apart.

As written by Kevin Fixler in his Statesman article, professionals agree that the state's ability to match Kohberger to the knife sheath at the crime scene is the seminal, cornerstone piece of evidence [in the state's case]. Based on Thompson's underhanded and unlawful tactics in hiding exculpatory evidence in the Shackelford case, you can be sure that Kohberger will not receive a fair trial as long as Thompson remains the lead prosecutor.

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[FN1] Read the full, detailed account of what really happened in the deaths of Donna Fontaine and Fred Palahniuk by clicking on "Dale's Case".

[FN2] Thompson himself did not participate in the trial, rather he pulled the strings of his 'deputies' from behind the scene. This may also happen in the Kohberger case because Thompson has made himself a potential witness for the defense based on his personal appearances in, and investigation of the crime scene immediately after the discovery of the bodies of four University of Idaho students in November, 2022.