The quadruple murder trial of Bryan Kohberger, who is charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in November 2022, will not be held in the small college town of Moscow next year.

Instead, per an order Thursday from the Idaho Supreme Court, Kohberger will stand trial in the capital city of Boise with a new judge and arguably less prejudiced jury pool, according to Fox News.

The move comes just days after the previous presiding judge on the case granted a change of venue request from defense attorneys.

Idaho Supreme Court makes its decision

The Idaho Statesman reported that the Idaho Supreme Court issued an order on Thursday for Kohberger's quadruple murder case to be moved from small Latah County, where the four university students were murdered in an off-campus house, to the much larger Ada County, where the capital city is located.

The justices also assigned 4th District Judge Steven Hippler to take over presiding duties for 2nd District Judge John Judge, who indicated his desire to be removed from the case after granting the defense's request for a change of venue.

In addition, the high court ordered that custody of Kohberger, who has been held without bail since his arrest in January 2023, be transferred from the small jail adjacent to the small courthouse in Latah County to the much larger county jail in Boise operated by the Ada County Sheriff's Office.

Judge granted request to move trial elsewhere

When Judge Judge granted the change of venue request, he cited multiple reasons for doing so, including that Latah County had too small of a jury pool that was heavily prejudiced against the defendant and inadequate facilities to handle the high-profile murder case that has garnered national media attention.

"Considering the undisputed evidence presented by the defense, the extreme nature of the news coverage in this case, and the smaller population in Latah County, the defense has met the rather low standard of demonstrating 'a reasonable likelihood' that prejudicial news coverage will compromise a fair trial in Latah County," the judge ruled, according to ABC News. "Thus, the Court will grant Kohberger's motion to change venue for presumed prejudice."

The judge left it up to the state Supreme Court to determine where the trial should be moved but appeared to suggest that Ada County and Boise would be the ideal location, given its much larger population with a presumably less biased jury pool and better courthouse and jail facilities that would be capable of handling the intense public scrutiny and media attention.

Mixed responses to change of venue order

The Statesman reported that the 4th District Court in Ada County said that it was prepared to handle the high-profile Kohberger murder trial in statements released after the Supreme Court's decision on Thursday.

Prosecutors are not particularly pleased, however, as they had objected to the requested venue change as not being "necessary or convenient," and further argued that the massive amount of media coverage had likely prejudiced the jury pool in Boise just as much as in Moscow.

Nor are the parents of the victims happy about the move either, as it will force them and others to uproot themselves and travel the great distance from Moscow to Boise to witness justice being served against the alleged murder of their beloved children.

Will the change of venue matter?

NewsNation reported that a general consensus among legal experts was that the change of venue might prove somewhat beneficial to Kohberger by way of an arguably slightly less prejudiced jury pool from which jurors would be chosen for the tentatively scheduled trial next summer.

That said, one legal analyst surmised that the change of venue might not be a factor if prosecutors have done their jobs, and that "if the evidence is really overwhelming against Kohberger, it really doesn’t matter if the case is tried in Boise, Idaho or on Mars."