Kohberger endorses public defender in hearing over possible conflict

The courtappointed public defender for Bryan Kohberger asserted she does not have a conflict of interest representing the University of Idaho homicide suspect after previously acting as attorney for a parent to one of the four stabbing victims, according to a newly unsealed legal filing.

Anne Taylor, chief of the Kootenai County Public Defender’s Office since 2017, told Latah County Court Judge Megan Marshall in a closed-door hearing Jan. 27 that she never met or provided any legal advice to her former client of about three months, the court record showed. Taylor also said she talked with Latah County Prosecutor

Bill Thompson and Ashley Jennings, the office’s senior deputy prosecutor, about the details of the situation.

Marshall directly asked Kohberger if he wished to continue with Taylor as his defense attorney, according to the court record, which included minutes from the hearing.

“Given the information he has heard and the conversations he has had with Ms. Taylor,” read Kohberger’s response, “he feels comfortable proceeding with her as his counsel.”

The hearing was held after Taylor’s past representation of the victim’s parent raised conflict-ofinterest questions with legal experts. An active court-issued gag order in the case prohibits Taylor from sharing information publicly outside of court filings, and neither she nor her office responded to prior requests seeking comment.

Taylor was appointed to Kohberger’s case when he was arrested in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30. She formally withdrew as the active attorney on a misdemeanor charge for her other client on Jan. 5, the date of Kohberger’s first appearance in Idaho court.

Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in the November homicides in Moscow, Idaho. The four victims were University of Idaho seniors Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21; junior Xana Kernodle, 20; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20.