Bryan Kohberger's legal team is suggesting new information has emerged in the case of the 2022 University of Idaho student murders, as the convicted killer moves to withdraw his guilty pleas. Kohberger pleaded guilty last year to the stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle at their Moscow home in November 2022. This plea deal spared him the death penalty.
Jason Goldman, a New York-based attorney recently retained by Kohberger, stated that "there remain serious questions about how this case reached its present posture and a hearing will provide an appropriate forum to address those issues." He cautioned against assuming the public's current understanding of the case is complete.
Kohberger, now 31, is seeking to rescind his guilty pleas and has filed a motion to disqualify Judge Steven Hippler, the Ada County magistrate who sentenced him to four life sentences without parole. Kohberger contends that his guilty plea was based on "false promises and blatant disinformation." He has filed a petition seeking post-conviction relief, which could allow him to retract his plea and potentially bring the case back to trial, which could reintroduce the possibility of the death penalty.
In a handwritten petition filed last month, Kohberger alleged that his previous attorneys manipulated him into accepting the plea deal by promising better prison conditions and by frightening him about life on death row. He also claimed that his attorneys failed to disclose or review potentially exculpatory evidence during plea negotiations.
Kohberger has since been appointed new attorneys, including Greg Rauch alongside Goldman. While Judge Hippler did not immediately grant a hearing on Kohberger's plea withdrawal claims, he scheduled a date for next June to determine if an evidentiary hearing is warranted. Hippler has instructed both the prosecution and defense to strictly adhere to Idaho Rules of Court Procedure regarding admissible evidence and has set a deadline for disclosing potential witnesses by early February, with a status conference in June.
Goldman also filed a separate motion to dismiss Judge Hippler from the case, arguing that it is essential for the constitutional questions to be heard by a judge whose impartiality cannot be questioned, citing an inherent conflict if the same judge presides over both the post-conviction relief and the original criminal proceedings. Rauch has previously raised concerns about Judge Hippler's public statements regarding Kohberger, including referring to him as a "faceless coward," arguing that such remarks could lead a reasonable observer to question the judge's impartiality.
Kohberger's recent legal actions come shortly before the release of a new three-part Netflix documentary series, "The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare." Families of the victims, including Alivea Goncalves, Kaylee Goncalves' sister, have expressed distress over Kohberger's attempts to retract his plea. Alivea Goncalves stated that the ability of an incarcerated individual to "revictimize their victims" is difficult to overcome and that the situation will not be resolved for her family until Kohberger is no longer alive. She previously confronted Kohberger in court after he accepted the plea deal, calling him a "sociopath, psychopath, murderer."