Bryan Kohberger struggled with key case decisions, new filings show
New court documents reveal Bryan Kohberger struggled to comprehend legal rulings and make decisions about his defense in the Idaho student murders case. Attorney Katie Zacharia analyzes the implications of these filings.
Three upcoming hearings for convicted Idaho student killer Bryan Kohberger have been unexpectedly vacated in what a lawyer for his family says is just the beginning of what is expected to be a much longer court process.
Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30, 2022, in connection with the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students six weeks earlier.
In July 2025, he took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, only to petition the court a year later asking to withdraw it and claiming he'd had ineffective counsel and been misled into pleading out.
"This simply marks the start of a longer post-conviction relief process," said Jason Goldman, a New York attorney representing Kohberger's family.
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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 for the stabbing of four University of Idaho students. Netflix's documentary about the case, "The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare," is now streaming. (Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images)
Judge Steven Hippler’s amended scheduling order is expected to shed more light on the vacated hearings, the first of which was set for Thursday.
It has not yet been made public.
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Thursday's hearing was initially scheduled to address a motion from Kohberger's new Idaho lawyer, Greg Rauch, seeking to have Hippler disqualified from the case over concerns of potential bias.
Two other hearings set for next year have also been vacated, and a series of deadlines in coming months are also expected to be impacted by the new order.
University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were killed in a November 2022 attack at an off-campus house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho. (Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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The student stabbings rocked the country. Four undergrads were stabbed to death in a home invasion attack at an off-campus rental home just steps from the edge of school grounds.
The victims were Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
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)
With no suspects publicly identified for weeks, the arrest of Kohberger at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania came as a national surprise.
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He had been studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University, just 10 miles away and across the state line from the University of Idaho.
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Bryan Kohberger's childhood home in Effort, Pennsylvania, located about 10 minutes north of Pleasant Valley High School, where he graduated in 2013. The family moved elsewhere in Monroe County in fall 2012, according to online messages between Kohberger and a high school friend. (Kevin Fixler/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Kohberger gave no motive or explanation when he pleaded guilty last year. In July, filing a handwritten motion for post-conviction relief, he claimed he was innocent.
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This is a developing story.
