Kohberger's former jail guard called to testify in quadruple murder case as witness list grows

Fox News

6 hours ago

FIRST ON FOX: Two more Pennsylvania men have been called as witnesses for Bryan Kohberger's upcoming trial in the University of Idaho student murders case – including a jail guard at the facility where the suspected killer was held before his extradition.
William Searfoss and Anthony Somma join a group of five other Pennsylvanians who are due in court next week for a hearing on whether they should be compelled to travel cross-country and testify in connection with Kohberger's quadruple murder trial, which is slated to begin in August, according to newly released documents.
Searfoss' wife told Fox News Digital that she did not know why he would be asked to testify, but she said he is a correction officer at the jail where Kohberger was taken after his arrest at his parents' house in Albrightsville on Dec. 30, 2022.
Shortly after his arrest, reports emerged that Kohberger had shouted at and threatened guards at the Monroe County Correctional Facility – claims Warden Garry Haidle said were not true, according to a report in the Idaho Statesman. Kohberger was held in isolation, and his stay was "uneventful," he told the paper.
Attempts to reach Somma were unsuccessful Tuesday. A Facebook profile under the same name belongs to a graduate of the Monroe Career & Technical Institute.
Kohberger had attended that school for a youth law enforcement program. Administrators reportedly kicked him out after complaints from female classmates.
"Ultimately what had him removed from the program, when I look back on it now, makes sense... the fact that he wanted law enforcement more than anything else in the world, if you look at it from just that perspective alone not knowing what I know… you'd be like, I'm so shocked," Tanya Carmella-Beers, a former school official told "The Idaho Massacre" podcast in 2023. "In that respect I am, but I know another little piece, which is the piece that occurred at the school... so that makes sense."
Kohberger transferred to an HVAC program – the industry his father worked in – and left a year later. Despite his removal from the program, he would later list his time there on a job application seeking employment at the nearby Mount Pleasant High School as a part-time security guard.
District officials eventually forced him to resign from the security job for reasons that have not been made public, according to records obtained by Fox News Digital.
It was not immediately clear whether it was the prosecution or the defense that is seeking to compel either man's testimony.
Earlier this month, five other individuals from Kohberger's Pennsylvania past were identified as potential witnesses for his defense, including his former boxing coach, a school adviser and a professor who recommended him for the Ph.D. program he was attending at the time of the murders.
Kohberger wrote that he boxed daily at Jesse Harris' gym on a 2015 job application previously obtained by Fox News Digital. He explained that the training helped him develop discipline and maintain physical fitness.
Initially, Marie Bolger had also been summoned to court, but her name was removed from a later filing. In a 2023 interview with the Daily Mail, Bolger said Kohberger was one of her brightest students and one of only two she had recommended for Ph.D. programs in a decade as a criminology professor at DeSales University in Pennsylvania.
Kohberger obtained a master's degree from DeSales before moving on to Washington State University, about 10 miles from the off-campus home where he is accused of killing Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
Bolger told the outlet she had never met Kohberger in person and only taught him over email and Zoom during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. She helped him work on his graduate thesis, which centered on "how and why criminals commit their crime," she said.
The other witnesses include Ann Parham, an adviser at the high school Kohberger attended, Ralph Vecchi, Maggie Sanders and Brandon Andreola.
Prosecutors allege he left his DNA on a knife sheath detectives found with Mogen's body. They also plan to introduce some of his DeSales homework as evidence that he was well-versed in concepts related to crime scene handling and the transfer of evidence.
Kohberger could face death by firing squad if convicted on any of the four charges of first-degree murder he faces. He is also charged with felony burglary in connection with the 4 a.m. home invasion attack.