Bryan Kohberger seeks to withdraw guilty plea in Idaho murder case
Bryan Kohberger, the man accused in the killings of four University of Idaho students, is now trying to undo the guilty plea he previously entered. In a post-conviction petition, Kohberger alleges ineffective assistance of counsel, coercion, disinformation and broken promises, arguing that he should be granted a new trial. Relatives of the victims, including Kaylee Goncalves’ mother, said they were disappointed by the move, though not caught off guard by the latest turn in the case.
Bryan Kohberger faces a “monumental uphill battle” as he seeks to withdraw his guilty plea in the murders of four University of Idaho students, according to a veteran defense attorney who represented D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo and once helped another client retract a guilty plea before securing an acquittal.
Mark Petrovich, who handled Malvo’s post-conviction proceedings in Virginia and has decades of experience in criminal defense, told News Outlet that courts seldom allow defendants to take back guilty pleas after sentencing. That remains true, he said, even when defendants argue they did not know about potentially exculpatory evidence before deciding to plead guilty.
Petrovich also warned against making a straight comparison between Malvo’s post-conviction litigation and Kohberger’s current legal challenge. Malvo’s appeals centered on shifts in constitutional law involving juvenile sentencing. Kohberger, by contrast, is seeking to unwind a plea agreement he entered as an adult after prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty.
“It’s a monumental uphill battle,” Petrovich said. “First of all, getting the judge to allow you to withdraw the plea, and then second of all to winning any new proceeding, because there’s a lot against you.”
Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse for his sentencing hearing on July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho. Kohberger pleaded guilty in exchange for being spared the death penalty in the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students nearly three years earlier. (Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images)
Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. Under the plea deal, he avoided a potential death sentence and instead received four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
In recent court filings, Kohberger contends that he was pressured to accept the plea agreement, did not fully grasp potentially exculpatory evidence before entering his plea and was misled about the prison conditions he would face after sentencing.
He contends those factors undermined the voluntariness of his decision to plead guilty.
Petrovich said he once represented a client who sought to withdraw a guilty plea before sentencing. A judge granted the request, the case proceeded to trial and the client was acquitted, but he said Kohberger’s circumstances are fundamentally different because he has already been sentenced.
In this Oct. 20, 2003 file photo, Lee Boyd Malvo listens to court proceedings during the trial of fellow sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad in Virginia Beach, Va.
“You can’t wait until after you’re sentenced and see what the consequences of the plea are and then change your plea,” Petrovich said. “It’s going to be a very, very difficult burden to overcome.”
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Petrovich said Kohberger would face two significant hurdles even if a judge allowed him to withdraw his plea.
One would be convincing jurors after previously admitting guilt under oath.
Even if a judge allowed Kohberger to withdraw his plea, Petrovich said jurors would almost certainly learn he had already admitted guilt, creating another significant obstacle at trial.
Bryan Kohberger attends a status hearing at Latah County District Court in Moscow, Idaho, U.S., January 12, 2023. (Kai Eiselein/Pool via REUTERS)
“One thing that’s important is that you still can’t hide from the jury the fact that you said under oath that you’re guilty,” Petrovich said. “Even if you withdraw, then you have to explain that … if you’re going to get anywhere with any kind of jury finding.”
Petrovich also questioned whether Kohberger’s attorneys would have advised him to accept a plea agreement without first reviewing the evidence disclosed during discovery.
He noted that defense attorneys handling capital cases typically spend years reviewing discovery before recommending whether a client should plead guilty.
“The attorneys on the case … were intimately familiar with the evidence and the information that was provided to them by law enforcement and prosecution,” Petrovich said. “I’m sure they knew all about everything. If they encouraged him or if there was a discussion and a plea was decided on, I’m sure it was for good reason.”
Kohberger’s case is not the first involving a notorious killer who later sought to undo a guilty plea.
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in 1969 to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to avoid a potential death sentence. Three days after entering his guilty plea, Ray sought to withdraw it, arguing he had been pressured into confessing. He spent the rest of his life trying to undo the plea but died in prison in 1998 without ever receiving the jury trial he sought.
Serial killer Clifton Bloomfield unsuccessfully sought to withdraw guilty pleas after admitting to five murders in New Mexico to avoid capital punishment. Washington serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. also challenged his plea agreement after admitting to murdering 13 women, but courts ultimately rejected both efforts.
Kohberger’s plea agreement spared him from facing a capital trial and ended years of pretrial litigation in one of the country’s most closely watched murder prosecutions.
Petrovich said that history, combined with the years of discovery and plea negotiations leading up to Kohberger’s agreement, makes the effort to withdraw it especially difficult.
