University of Idaho killer Bryan Kohberger granted new hearing as he attempts to withdraw guilty plea
Convicted killer Bryan Kohberger has been granted two new hearings as he attempts to withdraw his guilty plea.
Kohberger previously accepted a plea deal admitting to the killings of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in November 2022.
However, a year into his life sentence, Kohberger claimed that his plea had been made from ‘disinformation’ and filed a petition for postconviction relief seeking to withdraw it.
In the filing, Kohberger said he was ‘convinced to falsely confess to capital murder and felony burglary by coercion, disinformation, false promises, and the withholding of exculpatory discovery’.
Advert
In a statement to The New York Times, he said: "My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
He added: "Over a year later, it is self-evident that, in State v. Kohberger, justice was not served."
It was later reported that Kohberger had sacked his legal team and has since been appointed a new defence attorney.
On Wednesday (26 August), Judge Steven Hippler has granted an evidentiary hearing for 17 June 17 2027, to review Kohberger’s request for a new trial, a court filing shows.
The judge has also scheduled a status conference on the hearing 3 June 2027.
If successful, Kohberger would be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea and his convictions would be vacated.
However, he wouldn’t become a free man, instead the case would go back to its pre-plea stage, allowing prosecutors to again seek the death penalty or life in jail.
Kaylee Goncalves' family branded the killer a 'narcissist'
Last month, when news of Kohberger’s petition to withdraw his plea was reported, the family of Kaylee Goncalves hit out and branded him a ‘narcissist’ who wanted ‘another day in court’.
"A nice break from his solitary confinement, getting to go for a ride, maybe some different food, photos taken and the attention all back on him and his 'innocence'," they said in a statement on their Facebook page.
"He never cried wolf or claimed he was uninformed, pressured, or that there were issues with the discovery that he and his counsel had for two years that he thought should have been challenged.
"The real issue is that if as much energy was put into honouring the victims in this case as trying to set a guilty man free there would be [statues] of the victims on every corner."
Kohberger’s attempt to rescind his guilty plea came just days before a Netflix documentary about the case was due to land.
Titled The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, the documentary centred on the horrific killings and featured accounts from the group's friends and family, including surviving roommates Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen.
A timeline of the Idaho murders
12 November 2022
Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, attend a party at Chapin’s fraternity Sigma Chi. Meanwhile, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, go to sports bar the Corner Club.
13 November 2022
1.45am - Kernodle and Chapin return home to their house on King Road
1.56am - Goncalves and Mogen arrive home
2.44am - Kohberger’s Hyundai sedan is spotted by a CCTV camera at Washington State University. Shortly afterwards, the car is seen again heading towards a road that connects Pullman, Washington, to Moscow, Idaho, where the victims live.
4am - Bryan Kohberger is believed to have entered the property
4.17am - A security camera reveals the sound of a barking dog, voices and what sounds like a thud. At some point around this time, their housemate Dylan Mortensen is awoken and hears a male voice say: “It's OK, Kaylee, I'm here for you.” She later hears crying and sees a masked man in the property.
4.19am - Mortensen attempts to call Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen, but all calls go unanswered. She started texting Bethany Funke, saying she’s ‘freaking out’ after seeing a man in a ‘ski mask’. Mortensen joins Funke in her room and they lock themselves in.
11.58am - After Mortensen calls her friend Emily Alandt, she and her boyfriend Hunter Johnson come over to the King Road property. Johnson discovers Chapin and Kernodle's bodies and calls 911.
17 November 2022
Preliminary autopsy results show all four victims were attacked with a large knife
7 December 2022
Police say they are looking to speak to any occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra from 2011-13.
30 December 2022
Kohberger is arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. Police later reveal they used DNA on a knife sheath to link him to the crime scene, and tracked his car and phone across the area.
22 May 2023
Kohberger remains silent when asked to enter a plea during his arraignment. The judge enters a not guilty plea on his behalf.
26 June 2023
Prosecutors announce they will seek the death penalty.
28 December 2023
The King Road property where the murders took place is demolished to allow the community to heal.
17 April 2024
Kohberger’s defence team claims in court documents that phone mast data shows Kohberger was miles away from Moscow, Idaho at the time of the murders.
4 March 2025
Kohberger’s defence team say he exhibits traits of autism spectrum disorder, and putting him to death would be unconstitutional.
2 July 2025
Weeks before the trial is set to begin, Kohberger pleads guilty to burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.
23 July 2025
Kohberger is sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years for the burglary charge.
He comes face to face with the families of his victims for the first time, who read out impact statements.
Goncalves' sister Alivea gives a powerful statement in court, while Mortensen says she’s suffered from debilitating panic attacks since the night of the murders, telling Kohberger he has taken away her ‘ability to trust the world’.
27 July 2026
Kohberger announces he is seeking to take back his guilty plea and overturn his conviction.
He tells the New York Times: “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
Claire Reid