Mike Baker
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 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“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” Kohberger said in a statement provided to the Times on Sunday night.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”.
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 claim of innocence, as well as the specific concerns he had about the plea process. It is rare for defendants to win post-conviction challenges.
The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the victims, said in a statement that Kohberger was like a “mosquito you just can’t seem to swat”.
“The real tragedy is this: If even a fraction of the energy spent trying to free a guilty man were directed toward honouring the victims, there would be statues of them on every corner, parks bearing their names, and days set aside to remember the lives they lost at the hands of a narcissist,” the statement read.
The Latah County Prosecutor’s Office did not return a call seeking comment. Idaho Attorney-General Raul Labrador released a statement saying his heart went out to the victims’ families, noting they had “already endured unimaginable loss and now must face today’s deeply painful news.”
“My office stands ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure justice is fully carried out,” he said.
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. 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 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 Hyundai Elantra, the type of car that investigators determined had been captured on surveillance video circling the crime scene before speeding away. Kohberger’s phone showed he was out that night, with his phone turned off at the time of the murders.
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.”
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 requested that a lawyer be appointed to help him going forward.
After he was arrested in December 2022, 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 Kohberger, only for a surprise plea deal to come together a few weeks before a trial was to begin.
Still no motive
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 US President Donald Trump, who had called on the judge to demand an explanation from Kohberger.
In court, the judge asked Kohberger: “Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?”
“Yes,” 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 November 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 Goncalves, 21, were found together in a bed on the home’s third floor. The bodies of Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were found in a bedroom on the second floor.
One of the experts who worked on Kohberger’s defence team has taken particular issue with the plea arrangement and the evidence. Brent Turvey, a forensic scientist who analysed the crime scene for the defence, argued that the crime was committed by multiple perpetrators, criticised how investigators documented evidence and questioned why more testing was not done on a hair found with one of the victims.
‘A lot went wrong in those plea discussions. I really do want that to be heard.’
Brian Kohberger
The lawyers who served as Kohberger’s defence team have rebuked 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. Turvey’s concerns were included in a book about the case, Broken Plea.
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 OK that a new trial would mean the prospect of a potential death penalty.
“Why am I breaking my silence?” 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.”
In the plea agreement that Kohberger signed, he acknowledged 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.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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