The Pennsylvania public defender who repped University of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger was so shocked that the case ended up in his lap, he hung up the phone after being told the news.

“I did not believe that they were telling me the truth,” Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar told local station WFMZ.

After Kohberger was arrested last month at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pa., the pair spent four hours over the course of five days as he helped the alleged killer navigate the extradition process, LaBar said.

“The first thing I said to him was ‘Bryan, don’t tell me anything about the case. I don’t want to know any of the facts and circumstances,'” said LaBar, who is no longer involved in the case now that Kohberger is back in Latah County facing four charges of first-degree murder and one charge of burglary.

The recently unsealed police affidavit offers a “strong circumstantial case” against his former client, but the public defender doesn’t think it is air-tight.

“Individually taken, the evidence could be attacked,” he said, although he couldn’t explain why Kohberger’s DNA was on the sheath if he wasn’t involved in the attack.