Lawyers for the man accused of killing four Idaho college students have requested that an unusual two-word phrase be banned from his trial.
The request has come about as a roommate of the four victims, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were brutally stabbed to death in November 2022, initially told detectives that the masked male intruder she saw the night of the killing had one particular attribute.
Madison and Kaylee were discovered on the second floor of the home, meanwhile Xana and Ethan were found together on the third floor, in what has been described by police as the most 'gruesome' crime scene they'd ever seen.
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There were two other roommates in the home at the time - Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen - but they were left unharmed.
The following month, criminology PhD student Bryan Kohberger was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the killings. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
The lawyers of Bryan Kohberger are now asking the judge in his capital murder case to ban the key witness, Dylan, from using the phrase to describe the assailant during the trial.
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The phrase in question is 'bushy eyebrows' - something which has since made headlines around the world.
Kohberger's attorneys argued that the description is 'unreliable'.
"The description provided by [the roommate] is unreliable and should be excluded," defence lawyer Elisa Massoth wrote, as per ABC News.
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"Although she has never identified Mr. Kohberger, testimony by [the roommate] from the witness stand, describing bushy eyebrows while Mr. Kohberger sits as the accused at trial, will be as damning as her pointing to him and saying, 'he is the man that did this'."
The legal team also pointed to artwork seen on Dylan's bedroom walls, many pieces she had drawn herself, including 'many pictures of eyes with prominent eyebrows'.
"Some of the eyebrows are heavy, voluminous, puffy, or perhaps subjectively bushy," the defence claimed.
The defence attorneys have also asked the judge to refrain from using the words including 'murder', 'psychopath' and 'sociopath' during the trial, claiming: "To label Mr. Kohberger as a 'murderer', the alleged weapon consistent with an empty sheath as a 'murder weapon' or to assert that any of the four decedents was 'murdered' by Mr. Kohberger denies his right to a fair trial and the right to be presumed innocent."
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Kohberger is next due in court in April, and his trial is expected to begin in August. Prosecutors have indicated they will seek the death penalty against him.
Rhiannon Ingle