Video Expert says Kohberger plea deal backfired as killer seeks to undo conviction Dr. Kris Mohandie, a renowned forensic psychologist who predicted Bryan Kohberger would attempt to appeal his guilty plea last year, weighs in on the 'narcissist's' latest legal move.
Convicted quadruple murderer Bryan Kohberger, who admitted to stabbing four University of Idaho students a year before he proclaimed his innocence and asked to withdraw his guilty plea, has been granted two days in court next year as part of his petition for post-conviction relief.
Judge Steven Hippler, who accepted Kohberger's guilty pleas in July 2025, set a status conference for June 3, 2027 and an evidentiary hearing two weeks later on June 17 of that year, according to a court order dated Wednesday.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to dismiss Kohberger's petition without a hearing.
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Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse for his sentencing hearing July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. (Kyle Green/AP Photo, Pool)
Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the murders of four University of Idaho students — Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — in a plea deal that spared him from the potential death penalty.
A year later, he asked to withdraw his guilty pleas and proclaimed his innocence in a petition for post-conviction relief.
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Bryan Kohberger arrives at a Pennsylvania courthouse for an extradition hearing in January 2023. He pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students July 1, 2025. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Kohberger, in a handwritten petition on July 27, 2026, claimed that he was "convinced to falsely confess," by his high-profile defense team of Anne Taylor, Elisa Massoth and Bicka Barlow. He alleged that they failed to tell him about "exculpatory discovery" — hair found at the scene that was not tested for DNA. It was excluded as Kohberger's through a physical analysis.
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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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His new attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Police found his DNA on a knife sheath recovered from the crime scene, in a bed with two of the victims, according to authorities. They also tracked his vehicle coming and going, and forensic investigators were prepared to testify about how, although he shut his phone off during the murders, the evidence suggested he drove to and from the crime scene anyway.
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)
Separately, Sy Ray, a former expert witness working for Kohberger's defense team, last month alleged that there is additional damaging evidence that investigators hadn't introduced before Kohberger's guilty plea.
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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)
Hippler sentenced him to four consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole, plus another 10 years.
The plea deal required Kohberger to waive his right to appeal, however, that doesn't block him from seeking post-conviction relief, which could potentially reopen the case or result in a new trial.
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Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador told Fox News Digital shortly after Kohberger's petition was filed that his office is "ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure justice is fully carried out."
