When Bryan Kohberger admitted in an Idaho courtroom in July 2025 that he had murdered four University of Idaho students, their families believed the long nightmare was finally coming to an end.
There would be no trial, no crime-scene photographs shown to a jury and no possibility of an acquittal.
But there would also be no explanation of why he killed them.
Under the plea agreement, the former criminology PhD student would spend the rest of his life in prison without ever being required to reveal his motive.
Now, just over a year later, the 31-year-old has hired a Manhattan attorney to help withdraw his guilty plea and pursue a trial—raising the prospect of reopening wounds that had only begun to heal for the victims’ families.
Jason Goldman, a 36-year-old former Brooklyn prosecutor who is now a defense attorney, joined Kohberger’s post-conviction legal team in August.
He is also working to overturn the conviction of Rust movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was jailed after the fatal 2024 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
In an exclusive interview with Our News Outlet, Goldman said he accepted Kohberger’s case—the most high-profile assignment of his career—not because of the attention, but because of his principles.
‘It’s not about me,’ he said. ‘I want to make sure the system works correctly, and that’s whether it’s Bryan Kohberger or John Smith on the street.’
Jason Goldman, 36, joined Bryan Kohberger’s post-conviction legal team in August
Kohberger admitted in an Idaho courtroom in July 2025 that he murdered four University of Idaho students
Goldman has not discussed with his client whether he is innocent or what occurred on November 13, 2022. That is the night Kohberger admitted entering a student home in Moscow, Idaho, and fatally stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20.
Instead, the attorney is concentrating on what he calls ‘significant constitutional issues’ involving the plea agreement and whether Kohberger was misled into confessing to the killings, which drew intense national attention.
‘We have such a large mountain to climb,’ Goldman said, acknowledging that post-conviction challenges rarely succeed. ‘We’re kind of in the first inning of the case… we’re only at the very beginning.’
Even if the appeal succeeds, a trial could still be ‘years away,’ he said.
‘We’re at the phase in a case that is not that juicy. This is a constitutional, potentially Supreme Court, legally thorny issue.’
Goldman added that Kohberger understands he could face the death penalty if his guilty plea is overturned and the case proceeds to trial.
Although Goldman and Kohberger have not yet met face to face, the lawyer regularly speaks with him by phone at the maximum-security Idaho prison where he is serving four life sentences.
‘Sometimes a long time can go by where I don’t need anything from the client. And then there’s other times where day to day I’m speaking with a client because I need them to answer certain things for me and point me in certain directions.’
Goldman said he intends to visit Kohberger ‘at some point when it’s appropriate’—likely next year, when the appeal process is expected to move forward in court.
On the convicted killer’s current state of mind, he said: ‘Conditions are tough, no matter what jail you’re in. I’m sure that [Kohberger’s] coping in a very difficult way… sleeping on a metal bed. Every day is difficult.’
Goldman speaks to Kohberger on the phone and plans to visit him in Idaho in the future
He is part of the legal team looking to overturn Kohberger’s conviction by throwing out his guilty plea
Goldman explained that he ends up playing counselor to his clients during their phone conversations.
‘We act as a therapist and it weighs heavily on us,’ he said. ‘A lot of times I don’t delve into the personal mindset of someone. I know the answer. The answer is that it sucks, and they don’t want to be there.’
Goldman suggested Kohberger, with his background in criminology, was ‘passionate’ about his case and wanted to be involved.
‘I love when clients are passionate about their own case. It shows me that they care, as opposed to them just being a product of the system or this is normal for them,’ he said, later adding: ‘And he knows how it works. He knows how the system works.’
The brutal murders in Moscow, a college town that had gone seven years without a homicide, gripped the country for weeks as investigators struggled to identify the killer.
Kohberger’s guilty plea brought relief to the community but also fueled mystery and speculation about the murders, as investigators never established a motive or any connection between the killer and the victims.
Goldman suggested that the plea deal had not only let down Kohberger, but the public too.
‘There was no evidence that was presented. There was no motive presented. There was no cross examination that took place,’ he said. ‘Where’s the “why”? The “why” is always important.’
He added: ‘I wish every [defendant] exercised their right to be able to go to trial.’
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On why Kohberger would admit to the crimes if he truly believed in his innocence, Goldman drew on recent developments.
Maddie Mogen (top) Kaylee Goncalves (second from left) Xana Kernodle (second from right) and Ethan Chapin (center) – all students at the University of Idaho – were knifed to death on November 13, 2022 in the quiet, college town of Moscow (source: kayleegonclaves/Instagram)
The home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on November 20, 2022, days after the murders
‘You just saw a case in Tennessee where they tried to execute somebody and they injected her and… it didn’t work,’ he said, referring to Christa Pike, a convicted killer who survived a botched lethal injection earlier this month.
‘Why would someone take a guilty plea if they’re not guilty? Well, here’s a great example. He [Kohberger] got off of death row, so now he doesn’t have to deal with what just happened in Tennessee or doesn’t have to deal with a firing squad on national television like was going to happen in Texas recently.
‘That’s example number one of how this system coerces and forces and persuades people into pleading guilty.’
He added: ‘Not saying that happened or didn’t happen in this situation, but I see it all the time.’
While Kohberger has since claimed his ‘absolute innocence,’ Goldman said his guilt was not something the pair had discussed.
‘We have rarely spoken about anything other than his plea and what it means to file a post-conviction motion,’ he said.
‘I don’t have the capacity or the bandwidth to sit down with each client and learn about things that I don’t need right now. I want to find out the things that are the most important issues up front.’
But he did not deny it could be crucial in future.
‘Sometimes there’s questions that I have on a notepad that I’m going to ask them [down the line].’
Goldman insisted he had taken Kohberger’s case, the most high-profile of his career, not for the spotlight but on principle
Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in the Poconos in Pennsylvania on December 30, 2022, after a weekslong nationwide manhunt.
Investigators tracked him down 2,000 miles away after getting a DNA match from a knife sheath left at the crime scene.
Cell phone tower data obtained after his arrest then placed him at the student home on multiple occasions leading up to the killings.
On the evidence against Kohberger, Goldman said it was for a jury to decide.
‘Let’s talk about fairness [with the plea system] first, and then we can get things to a jury.’
Goldman is under no illusions about how the public sees his client and argues that is precisely why he is speaking publicly.
‘I don’t think you’re doing the client a favor in a lot of situations by saying nothing,’ he said. ‘If the storm is coming, you have to respond.’
‘So if you don’t speak up for the person… the narrative is only going to be one thing and one thing only: that this person’s guilty and they’re a monster.’
Goldman said he had received an influx of hate mail since taking on the case.
Kohberger professed his ‘absolute innocence’ to the New York Times earlier this year
‘There have been internet trolls and I’m deleting emails pretty frequently.’
The news that Kohberger was seeking to withdraw his plea earlier this year prompted backlash from the victims’ families.
But Goldman said he has had no contact with any victim’s family and will not seek it.
‘I have nothing to say,’ he said. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever reached out to a victim’s family or had contact with them before, during, or after a case.
‘I don’t think that’d be appropriate. Sometimes it could [even be seen as] witness tampering.’
But he also does not want to downplay their pain or the horror that unfolded that night: ‘No one’s disputing that.’
Asked how Kohberger’s family, which Our News Outlet revealed last week were living a reclusive lifestyle in their hometown, were coping, he said they were ‘cautiously optimistic.’
He said the backing Kohberger had received from his family showed ‘this is a person that is cared about, that there’s sympathy and empathy for, and an understanding that maybe all of us don’t even know yet.’
