Bryan Kohberger, the former criminology grad student accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, appeared in court Thursday morning in one of the last pretrial hearings before the start of his much-anticipated trial.Video above: Battle over evidence in Idaho college student killingsKohberger, 30, was shown in the courtroom on the livestream seated in between his attorneys, wearing a white shirt and a dark, patterned tie.He faces four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were fatally stabbed at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, in the overnight hours of November 13, 2022.Kohberger was arrested in the killings over a month later in his home state of Pennsylvania. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf in May 2023.Jury selection is scheduled to begin in late July, with the trial slated to start August 11. If convicted, Kohberger could face the death penalty.The lurid case has riveted the public and has already been featured in multiple true crime documentaries. Still, prosecutors have not outlined his potential motive, and a sweeping gag order has kept the parties from speaking publicly, making each pretrial hearing an opportunity to quench the public’s thirst to learn more details.Recent pretrial hearings have touched on the admissibility of key pieces of evidence, including Kohberger’s autism diagnosis, DNA analysis, his Amazon purchase history and a witness’s description of the suspect’s “bushy eyebrows.”Kohberger’s legal team also has previously said it plans to present evidence of alternate perpetrators ahead of trial. Judge Steven Hippler on Thursday set a hearing on the issue for June 18.During Thursday’s hearing, Hippler broke down the trial process in stages, discussing matters including jury selection, hours for the trial and seating within the trial courtroom.“I’m not a fan of surprises,” Hippler noted.The judge directed to the defense team that he would like to get back from them a declaration of the last best offer – referring to a possible plea deal from prosecutors – by late June or early July. “In other words, identifying whether the defendant received an offer and whether he has accepted or rejected, etc.,” Hippler said.Prosecutors aren’t required to entertain a plea deal to bargain away the death penalty but often they do. Whether Kohberger is actually considering a plea deal in the killing of four University of Idaho students on November 13, 2022, is unknown.For jury selection, the judge outlined his plan to assign a scramble number to each person within the universe of jurors, who will then receive questionnaires. Hippler stressed the “security and confidentiality” of those questionnaires.Hippler decided there will be eight alternates and told counsel he wants a pool of between 50 to 55 final jurors, from which 12 jurors and eight alternates – totaling 20 jurors – will be selected.The trial will run Monday through Friday, beginning at 8:45 a.m. and ending at 3:30 p.m. local time. If the jury becomes sequestered, Hippler said he is likely to extend those hours. He noted they may ultimately need to sequester jurors once the trial goes to deliberations.Hippler ordered that seats be reserved inside the trial courtroom for the surviving roommates. “I don’t know whether they would have any desire to be here. I suspect not, given the way they’ve been treated in the media, but if they do that, they would have seats available,” he said. Seating will also reserved for family members of the victims and four Kohberger family members.The possibility of the death penalty hangs over the case. If he is convicted of capital murder, Kohberger would then face a penalty phase in which the jury will consider further evidence and decide whether he is sentenced to death or a lesser punishment – life in prison. The jury will receive capital punishment case instructions in the pre-proof phase of the trial, the judge said.If there is a guilty verdict on any of the murder counts, the penalty phase would likely begin the next day, Hippler said, “given that the jury will certainly be sequestered during that process.”