Kohberger seeks to withdraw guilty plea in Idaho killings

Bryan Kohberger, who is serving four life sentences for killing four University of Idaho students, has asked an Idaho court to let him withdraw his guilty plea and seek a trial, claiming he is innocent and was misled into admitting to the murders.

Kohberger filed a petition for post-conviction relief Monday in Ada County District Court, court records show. The filing is a way to challenge a conviction outside the appeals process, and the docket indicates Kohberger is representing himself. It was not immediately clear from the court record what specific legal grounds he cited in the petition.

In a statement shared with The New York Times, Kohberger said he intended to plead not guilty and wanted prosecutors to prove their case in court.

“I hereby declare my intention to enter a not guilty plea, and welcome the State the opportunity to prove their case at trial, as well as to, again, file for the death penalty,” he wrote, according to The Guardian. “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”

Kohberger also dismissed investigators’ account of the killings as a “myopic narrative” and a “work of fiction,” NBC News reported, saying that “its faulty premises were never challenged at trial.” He added: “Circumnavigated by a broken plea, the trial never provided the public the clarity conducive to closure, and justice shall remain abjectly miscarried unless that plea is withdrawn.”

Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to avoid a quadruple murder trial. He was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the opportunity for parole for four counts of first-degree murder, plus 10 years in prison for burglary.

The victims — Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 — were found dead in an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger admitted in court that he broke into the home and killed four of the six students there, most of them as they slept. He has never publicly provided a motive.

The Guardian reported that the victims were found with dozens of knife wounds, and that Goncalves also showed evidence of asphyxiation and blunt force trauma.

Kohberger was a doctoral student in criminal justice at Washington State University at the time of the killings. Investigators said DNA matching Kohberger’s was found on a knife sheath left at the scene, according to The Guardian. Surveillance video showed a white Hyundai Elantra like Kohberger’s passing multiple times around the house where the killings occurred, and his cellphone was turned off at the time, the outlet reported.

Kohberger was arrested the following month in Pennsylvania, where he was visiting his father for the holidays in late December. The Guardian reported that investigators found a pistol, two knives, black gloves, a black hat and a black face mask on Kohberger or in the Kohberger family home. One surviving roommate described seeing a shadowy figure dressed in black.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador said his office “stands ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure justice is fully carried out.”

“My heart goes out to the families of Madison, Kaylee, Xana, and Ethan, who have already endured unimaginable loss and now must face today’s deeply painful news,” Labrador posted on X.

Goncalves’ family sharply criticized Kohberger’s effort and The New York Times for publishing his claims, calling him “the mosquito you just can’t seem to swat.” In a statement, the family said the article offered “little else” beyond “a guilty man once again claiming he is innocent.”

“He chose not to leave his fate – or the facts of the case – to a jury,” the family said, according to The Guardian. “He never cried foul, never claimed he was uninformed or pressured, and never suggested there were problems with the discovery materials he and his counsel had reviewed for two years that should have been challenged. He admitted his guilt.”