Bryan Kohberger’s Lawyer Says New Information Has Emerged in Idaho Murders Case

Bryan Kohberger’s newly hired attorney is signaling that there may be more to the Idaho student murders case than the public has been told, as the convicted killer moves to take back his guilty pleas.

Kohberger pleaded guilty last year to the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students: Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20. The victims were killed inside their Moscow, Idaho, home in November 2022.

His admissions came under a plea agreement that allowed him to avoid a possible death sentence.

Now 31, the former criminology student has brought on New York attorney Jason Goldman, who issued a statement to People on Monday suggesting the case may not be as settled as it appears.

Goldman said he would “simply caution against assuming that everything the public believes it knows about this case tells the complete story.”

He also said “there remain serious questions about how this case reached its present posture,” adding that a court hearing would offer “an appropriate forum to address those issues.”

Kohberger is now trying to rescind his guilty pleas. He has also filed a motion seeking to remove Judge Steven Hippler, the Ada County magistrate who sentenced him to four life terms for the killings.

Last week, Kohberger filed a petition for post-conviction relief, a move that could allow him to withdraw his plea and return the case to trial — a scenario that could once again make him eligible for the death penalty.

‘My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,’ Kohberger said in a statement to The New York Times last week. 

Kohberger filed a handwritten petition last month asking the court to let him take back his plea, saying his attorneys manipulated him into making the deal by promising him better prison conditions and scaring him about the quality of life on death row.

The convicted killer offered only a few details in elaboration, saying they failed to disclose or review evidence that might have helped his case during plea discussions. 

Kohberger has since been appointed a new attorney, Greg Rauch, along with Goldman. 

Judge Hippler did not grant Kohberger a hearing on his claims that his guilty plea should be withdrawn. Instead, Hippler scheduled in a date for next June in case he determines an evidentiary hearing is warranted.

 Hippler told prosecutors and Kohberger’s attorney that they must ‘strictly adhere’ to the Idaho Rules of Court Procedure, particularly the sections detailing what evidence is admissible in court. 

The judge also detailed how both sides should object to evidence that they feel is not admissible.  

Hippler said both sides should disclose any potential witnesses, including experts, by the start of February. He also set a status conference for next June.

Anyone who doesn’t comply with the court’s order could be subject to sanctions, Hippler wrote. 

Goldman said the separate motion seeking to dismiss Hippler from the case was ‘not about attacking the Court nor asking for special treatment’.  

‘It is about ensuring that the serious constitutional questions now before the Court are heard in a forum whose impartiality and neutrality cannot be questioned,’ Goldman said.

For this reason, he explained, ‘it would be an inherent conflict for the same presiding judge to decide these very issues.’

Rauch also previously argued that Hippler’s statements about Kohberger, including describing him as a ‘faceless coward’, are a cause for concern. 

‘Those statements are fundamentally different from believing Kohberger committed terrible crimes or deserved severe punishment,’ Rauch said. 

‘They are forward-looking judgments about his credibility. And credibility may now be at the center of this proceeding,’ the motion said. 

The attorney argued it was not simply ‘one harsh statement’ that was leading to the request for dismissal, also noting that Hippler was assigned to the post-conviction hearing despite presiding over the criminal trial. 

‘The question is not merely whether Judge Hippler has formed strong views about Kohberger,’ Rauch said. 

‘The question is whether an informed and reasonable observer could question the impartiality of having the same judge.’

Kohberger’s latest move came just days before a new three-part Netflix documentary series, The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare.

Kaylee’s mother, father and sister, Kristi, Steve and Alivea Goncalves; Xana’s father, Jeff Kernodle, and her little sister, Jazzmin Kernodle, were featured in the new show, among friends of the victims and law enforcement officials involved in the case.

After hearing about Kohberger’s latest legal move, Alivea – who slammed her sister’s killer during victim impact statements last year in court – said she wants him ‘no longer breathing on this earth.’ 

Alivea, 29, told NBC’s Today earlier this month exactly how she feels now that Kohberger is trying to rewrite his past. 

‘The fact that someone locked behind bars still has the ability to revictimize their victims, that’s something that isn’t just very easy to get over,’ she told the outlet.

‘This will never be over for us until the defendant is no longer breathing on this earth.’

The Goncalves family has remained vocal since the day they found out they lost Kaylee and her friends. 

Alivea previously unleashed fury at Kohberger in the courtroom after he accepted a plea deal.

‘I won’t stand here and give you what you want. I won’t give you tears. Instead, I will call you what you are: sociopath, psychopath, murderer,’ she said in the face-to-face courtroom confrontation that was broadcast live. 

‘The truth is you’re basic. You’re a textbook case of insecurity disguised as control. You spent months preparing and still all it took was my sister and a sheath,’ she added. ‘You’re as dumb as they come. Stupid, dumb, weak, dirty.’