07/27/2026
Man Convicted in Idaho College Killings Seeks to Take Back Guilty Plea
7/27/26, 11:51 AM
Man Convicted in Idaho College
Killings Seeks to Take Back Guilty
Plea
In an interview from prison, Bryan Kohberger said
he had filed a petition to reopen the case. He
blamed his guilty plea on ‘false promises’ and wrong
information.
July 27, 2026, 12:49 p.m. ET
Mike Baker began covering the Idaho murders on the day they happened. He
is writing a book about the case.
The criminology student convicted last year of murdering four University of
Idaho students in their home is seeking to abandon his guilty plea and obtain
a trial, claiming he is innocent and was misled into confessing to the high-
profile killings.
In an interview with The New York Times, Bryan Kohberger, who is currently
serving four life sentences, said he had filed a petition challenging his
conviction, citing concerns about how the plea deal came together.
“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises
and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” Mr. Kohberger said in a
statement provided to The Times on Sunday night. He reiterated in a phone
call from prison in Idaho that he had an “absolute claim of innocence.”
Mr. Kohberger had not granted an interview or made public comments before
speaking with The Times. He declined to discuss any evidence or other
specific details related to his innocence claim, as well as what specific
concerns he had about the plea process.
It is rare for defendants to win post-conviction challenges, which often
revolve around claims of newly discovered evidence or an ineffective
assistance of counsel.
Steve Goncalves, the father of one of the victims, declined to comment
Monday morning, saying he wanted to discuss the issue with his family. The
Latah County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately return a call seeking
comment.
In November 2022, the four murders in Moscow, Idaho, a college town that
had not seen a homicide in seven years, captivated the country for weeks as
investigators struggled to identify a suspect. Mr. Kohberger’s arrest brought
relief to the community but also stoked further mystery and speculation, as
investigators never identified a motive or any previous relationship with the
victims.
In court, law enforcement officials outlined the evidence against Mr.
Kohberger. His DNA was found on a Ka-Bar knife sheath that had been left
next to two of the victims. Amazon records showed he had purchased a Ka-
Bar knife and sheath months prior. He drove a white Elantra, the type of car
that investigators determined had been on surveillance video circling the
crime scene and then speeding away from it. Mr. Kohberger’s phone showed
he was out that night, with his phone turned off at the time of the murders.
Mr. Kohberger declined to discuss the evidence against him in his call with
The Times. He said “the intention is for all of those questions to be
investigated and answered appropriately in a trial setting.”
Mr. Kohberger, who had court-appointed representation throughout the case,
ending with his guilty plea, said he prepared the documentation to challenge
the case on his own. He will seek to have a lawyer appointed to help him
going forward. Records show the filing reached the court Monday morning.
An Excerpt From Bryan Kohberger’s Statement to The
Times About Abandoning His Guilty Plea
My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false
promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.
After he was arrested in December 2022, Mr. Kohberger’s initial lawyer said
his client was eager to be exonerated. Court-appointed lawyers spent more
than two years challenging the evidence collected against Mr. Kohberger, only
for a surprise plea deal to come together a few weeks before a trial was to
begin.
Mr. Kohberger accepted responsibility for the murders at a July 2025 hearing.
He was not required to offer a motive for the killings — and never has. The
lack of a detailed confession outraged some of the victims’ family members
and even President Trump, who had called on the judge to demand an
explanation from Mr. Kohberger.
In court, the judge asked Mr. Kohberger: “Are you pleading guilty because
you are guilty?”
“Yes,” Mr. Kohberger responded. He later sat in silence at a sentencing
hearing at which family members of the victims expressed their grief and
anger.
In the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, after a typical Saturday night
out, the four victims were stabbed to death in an off-campus home. The
bodies of Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were found
together in a bed on the home’s third floor. The bodies of X**a Kernodle, 20,
and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were found in a bedroom on the second
floor.
Two surviving roommates were in a bedroom on the home’s first floor. One of
them reported seeing a shadowy figure in the middle of the night and
hearing a commotion. But the roommates did not seek help until later in the
morning, saying they had not realized what had transpired.
One of the experts who worked on Mr. Kohberger’s defense team has taken
particular issue with the plea arrangement and the evidence. Brent Turvey, a
forensic scientist who analyzed the crime scene for the defense, argued that
the crime was committed by multiple perpetrators, criticized how
investigators documented evidence and questioned why more testing was not
done of a hair found with one of the victims.
The lawyers who served as Mr. Kohberger’s defense team have rebuked Mr.
Turvey, telling The Idaho Statesman that he “is now speaking about topics
that are still confidential, many of which are outside of his areas of
expertise.” The lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for
comment Monday. Mr. Turvey’s concerns were included in a book about the
case, “Broken Plea.”
Mr. Kohberger alluded to those issues in his statement, saying that
“unanswered questions seem to multiply with each piece of discovery
unsealed.” He said he was not concerned that, if offered a new trial, he could
face the death penalty.
“Why am I breaking my silence?” Mr. Kohberger said Sunday in the interview
from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, just south of Boise. “A lot went
wrong in those plea discussions. I really do want that to be heard.”
Mr. Kohberger grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to Pullman, Wash., in
2022 to pursue a Ph.D. in the criminal justice and criminology program at
Washington State University, just across the state border from the University
of Idaho. He had long been interested in serial killers and the minds of
criminals.
Mr. Kohberger had signed a plea agreement agreeing that he “knowingly,
voluntarily, and intelligently waives all rights to appeal any and all issues in
this case.” Still, defendants can make other claims about the legal process
through post-conviction relief.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/us/bryan-kohberger-idaho-col…2699&segment_
Mike Baker is a national investigative reporter for The Times, based in
Seattle.
our murders in Moscow, Idaho, a college town that
