Bryan Kohberger’s defense team tried to compel surviving roommate Bethany Funke to testify at his preliminary hearing after a defense investigator claimed she possessed information that was both material to the charges and potentially exculpatory. Because Funke was living in Nevada, the defense could not simply serve her with an ordinary Idaho subpoena. Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall signed an order asking a Nevada court to require Funke to travel to Idaho, and a formal subpoena was issued directing her to appear for the June 2023 preliminary hearing. The defense investigator said Funke’s information was unique to her own experience and could not be supplied by another witness, a significant assertion because exculpatory information could potentially undermine the state’s probable-cause showing against Kohberger. The filing did not publicly explain exactly what Funke supposedly knew, leaving the substance of the defense claim largely hidden.
Funke fought the subpoena through her Nevada attorney, who argued that the defense had offered only conclusory statements about the supposed exculpatory information and had not shown why her testimony was necessary at a preliminary hearing. Her lawyer also argued that Nevada law required a hearing before an out-of-state resident could be compelled to testify elsewhere and questioned whether an Idaho criminal defendant had authority to summon a Nevada witness under those circumstances. The dispute ultimately eased when Funke agreed to sit for an interview with Kohberger’s attorneys in Reno instead of being forced to travel to Idaho for the preliminary hearing. That arrangement meant the defense could explore whatever information it believed Funke possessed without immediately compelling her courtroom testimony, and the subpoena fight effectively became another early indication that Kohberger’s attorneys believed one of the two surviving roommates might possess information useful to the defense.
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