Month: November 2023

An Idaho judge gave quadruple murder suspect Bryan Kohberger’s defense a minor victory last week after denying their efforts to dismiss the indictment against him for the stabbing deaths of four university students last year.

Kohberger, who is accused of killing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in a 4 a.m. ambush in an off-campus rental home, is seeking specific details about how law enforcement used investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) to thumb him as a suspect after he allegedly left a Ka-Bar knife sheath with his DNA on it under Mogen’s body.

In a 32-page order, Judge John Judge granted a request for an in-camera review of the IGG evidence.

He will look at all of the IGG evidence in the possession of the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI and determine what should be shared with the defense, what should be kept secret and what will be redacted from the public.

“I have a HUGE issue with this,” Edwina Elcox, a Boise-based defense attorney who previously represented “Cult mom” murderer Lori Vallow, told Fox News Digital Monday. “As a former prosecutor, I am of the position that the prosecution’s file should be absolutely open.”

In other words – none of the prosecution’s evidence should be withheld, she said.

“Anything should be fair game for defense,” she added. “Maybe it’s useful, maybe it’s not – but it shouldn’t be for the judge to decide.”

Prosecutors have argued that they shouldn’t have to turn over the IGG evidence because they didn’t use it to obtain any warrants. And they allegedly confirmed a direct DNA match between Kohberger and the knife sheath DNA with a cheek swab, according to court documents.

RELATED: Survivors of Idaho murders were awake, texting during rampage, report says

“The state’s argument that the IGG investigation is wholly irrelevant since it was not used in obtaining any warrants and will not be used at trial is well supported,” Judge wrote. “Nonetheless, Kohberger is entitled to view at least some of the IGG information in preparing his defense, even if it may ultimately be found to be irrelevant.”

Genealogy is the second-most popular hobby in the United States, according to court documents – at least anecdotally – behind gardening.

Fox News Digital could not find any polling or studies to support the claim – but it’s been reiterated in popular culture and the media since at least 2012, when ABC News referenced it in a report when Ancestry.com sold for $1.6 billion, and both genealogy and the use of investigative genetic genealogy have increased notably over the past decade.

The field is also the second-most searched topic online behind pornography, according to The New Yorker.

But, through a quote from a 2019 column written by University of Utah law professor Teneille Brown, the “hobby has been co-opted by law enforcement to solve cold cases, by linking crime-scene DNA with the DNA of a suspect’s relative, which is contained in a direct-to-consumer genetic database.”

Brown told Fox News Digital Monday that she believes it’s unlikely that the court will find anything involving IGG will have violated Kohberger’s Fourth Amendment rights, but that because the field is relatively new, the defense may want to understand how that’s the case.

“Think of it like as an interview with a neighbor,” she said. “They’re getting caught up on the fact that it seems science fiction because it’s the DNA that was used as circumstantial evidence, but it’s not actually that different from just other ways that we figure out who committed a crime.” 

Police typically would not have to hand over their note from every interview with a neighbor, she said, and prosecutors likely don’t want that to become the precedent by submitting to the defense’s request for IGG. Authorities also don’t want to divulge the identities of unknown relatives.

But defense attorneys should have a right to review even routine evidence, according to Elcox, who said they should try to see for themselves whatever the judge reviews as well.

“I have personally had a case involving cellphone forensic evidence where the prosecutor fought me every step of the way on giving me full access to the cellphone data,” she told Fox News Digital. “The judge conducted an in-camera review. I still insisted on looking at it myself, probably to the annoyance of everyone involved. I finally got to go to the police station and look at the cellphone data with a detective standing by. I found something that everyone missed. Case dismissed.”

RELATED: University of Idaho student woke up ‘trapped’ on night of quadruple stabbing, father says

Both the prosecution and the defense are bound by a gag order on the case.

The IGG information is all publicly available through the genealogy databases that collect it so hobbyists can trace their own roots.

However, even the court hasn’t been informed about the IGG specifics – prompting Judge to order the review.

Read the judge’s order (Mobile users go here)

Although police did not use the FBI’s IGG research to obtain any warrants in the case, according to court filings, investigators used it to gin up leads.

“Through the IGG process, the FBI constructed a family tree of individuals whose DNA matched with the DNA found on the knife sheath,” Judge wrote. “The FBI then sent local law enforcement a tip to investigate Defendant Bryan Kohberger.”

In that investigation, police in Pennsylvania took trash from the curb outside Kohberger’s parents’ house in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. There, they allegedly found a familial match between his father’s DNA and the knife sheath sample.

Police arrested Kohberger there on Dec. 30, 2022.

RELATED: Judge to decide on cameras in court after warning media about ‘pushing the envelope’

All four victims were undergrad students at the University of Idaho. Kohberger, who attended the neighboring Washington State University in pursuit of a Ph.D. in criminology, drove a white Hyundai Elantra, the same type of car investigators identified as the suspect vehicle, and allegedly turned his phone off before heading to and from the crime scene, according to the affidavit.

Police, citing phone records, also alleged that he stalked the victims’ home on a dozen occasions before the murders and drove by once more hours after.

Kohberger is being held without bail on four charges of first-degree murder and a felony burglary count. Judge entered not guilty pleas on his behalf at his arraignment in May.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

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Russian dictator claimed that the antisemitic riots in Makhachala were the result of manipulations from Western intelligence services, including those conducted from Ukrainian territory, Russian state-run news agency TASS reported on Oct. 31.

Putin claimed the manipulations were carried out via social media.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry previously accused Ukraine of involvement in the riot, claiming that Kyiv played “a direct and key role in carrying out the latest destructive act.”

Ukrainian officials categorically dismissed any involvement. Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko said that the events reflect the “deep-rooted antisemitism of Russian elites and society,” adding that Russia’s allegations of Ukraine’s involvement are a mere attempt to “shift responsibility from the sick to the healthy.”

“Of course, Ukraine has nothing to do with the latest large-scale surge of xenophobic sentiments on the territory of the Russian Federation,” advisor to Ukraine’s Presidential Office Mykhailo Podolyak said.

Antisemitic protesters stormed Makhachkala Airport in the Russian republic of Dagestan on Oct. 29 in an effort to find Jews on a plane that had arrived from Tel Aviv.

The rioters shouted antisemitic slogans as they protested against Israel amid its ongoing military conflict with the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.

Russian authorities arrested 60 people for their involvement in the riot, which injured more than 20 people.

Read also: Opinion: Russia’s defeat must be democracies’ goal

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The captain of a Russian airplane at Dagestan’s Makhachkala airport on Sunday urged passengers not to “try to open any doors, there is a mob is raging outside!” The aircraft had parked beside another plane that arrived from Tel Aviv just minutes ago.

Outside, frightening scenes were unfolding. Dozens of angry men were screaming and running around on the tarmac. None of the commotion seemed coordinated, but the atmosphere was clearly aggressive. One of the men managed to climb onto the wing of the Tel Aviv plane, while others attempted opening its locked doors. One picture that circulated after the incident showed one of the men peering into the airplane’s nozzle. The angry mob was searching for Jews and people with Israeli passports. 

A few thousand men had stormed Makhachkala airport, smashing windows and tearing out doors as they headed for the tarmac, shouting “Allahu Akbar!” As the event unfolded, videos of the unrest were posted online almost by the minute.

Rioters rushed onto the tarmac, chanting antisemitic slogansImage: AP/picture alliance

This outbreak of violence appeared to have taken Dagestan authorities completely by surprise. The police was slow to respond, and it took hours until authorities pacified the angry crowd. Ultimately, 60 individuals were arrested, 20 people injured, two of them seriously. Dagestan’s investigative committee has launched an inquiry into the unrest.

Meanwhile, much of the world remains aghast by this outburst of antisemitism in Russia’s Dagestan republic.

Antisemitic sentiments amplified by social media

Oleg Petrovich Orlov of the Memorial human rights organization told DW that antisemitic sentiments had been simmering in the Caucasus region since the latest Israel-Hamas conflict erupted. Even so, no one had expected such an outbreak, not even Dagestan authorities in the capital Makhachkala, Orlov added.

While he did say Dagestan is known as a region “where street action is much more visible than elsewhere in the Caucasus,” Orlov also emphasized that Telegram channels had played a “provocative role.” He said they called for the storming of the airport, above all the Morning Dagestan Telegram channel.

While the creators behind Morning Dagestan deny being antisemitic, their channel is full of antisemitic content and provocative articles. The fact that such a channel can exist is surprising given how closely Russia’s FSB intelligence agency controls such media outlets and how quickly, if necessary, it can block them, Orlov told DW.

“Of course, I don’t believe that the intelligence services would have deliberately wanted protests of such magnitude; it is possible the situation simply got out of control,” he said.

The Memorial expert said that although Russia is growing ever more totalitarian, the Russian state appears weak. In Dagestan, the Russian state has been caught off-guard, just like last June, when Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin marched on Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, used the Dagestan riots to attack the West. At a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, Putin said the events had been instigated in no small part from Ukrainian territory, “at the hands of Western intelligence services.” Putin did not provide evidence for the claim of foreign involvement. The US, meanwhile, rejected the allegations.

Some rioters were seen waving Palestinian flagsImage: Ramazan Rashidov/TASS/dpa/picture alliance

A feeling of helplessness

The fact that such an aggressive riot against people of the Jewish faith and Israeli citizens could break out in the first place stems from Dagestan’s dire overall situation, says Saida Sirashudinova of the Dagestani “Caucasus. World. Development” research center.

Personal and social problems as well as a lack of prospects had caused an “accumulated feeling of helplessness,” Sirashudinova told DW. “Of course, the situation of the Palestinians, which is not getting better [either], influenced people [in Dagestan].”

Even so, Sirashudinova mainly blames social media platforms for having incited this violence and having called on Dagestan’s Muslim population to protest.

“This aggression is dangerous, incendiary,” she told DW. “It is being orchestrated by radical, determined Muslims, who have not lived in Dagestan for a long time.”

In this regard, it is important that Dagestan’s religious leadership has taken a clear stand against the attacks, Sirashudinova said. Even so, there is a growing number of people willing to resort to violence, according to the researcher. This is a problem, she said, that is not being addressed: “This outburst of negative energy was possible because there was no outlet for people’s anger.”

She said it was important to emphasize that “not all of Dagestan wants to go around dragging Jews off planes.” DW asked her how prevalent antisemitism was in the Russian Caucasus, to which she replied that the region was highly diverse. “We are also seeing reactions from the Dagestani public that are not antisemitic,” she told DW, adding that Jews have lived in Dagestan for centuries.

Experts warn of a growing propensity to inflict violenceImage: AP/picture alliance

Will riots spill over into other Russian republics?

Sirashudinova said that for the past five to seven years, antisemitic sentiments in the republic had been stoked from outside. She said Jews have increasingly been made scapegoats, with people in Dagestan who are uneducated especially susceptible to such manipulation.

“Education is an issue in Dagestan,” the research said. “And this is also manifesting itself in this conflict.”

Dennis Volkov of Russia’s independent Levada polling center, however, doubts antisemitic aggression will spill over from Dagestan into other Russian regions.

“There is limited protest potential at the moment, although smaller demonstrations can be seen here and there, from time to time,” Volkov told DW.

He says current polls show two-thirds of the Russian population are not at all interested in the Middle East conflict: “People in Russia are much more concerned with their own problems.”

This article was originally written in German.