Bryan Kohberger granted new hearing in bid to withdraw guilty plea for murdering 4 Idaho students
Bryan Kohberger will return to court next year as he continues his attempt to overturn the guilty plea that put him behind bars for life.
Ada County District Judge Steven Hippler has scheduled a status conference and an evidentiary hearing in Kohberger’s post-conviction case, according to court records reported by the Daily Mail.
The hearings will examine his effort to have his 2025 guilty plea withdrawn.
The development does not mean Kohberger has been granted a new trial.
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Instead, the court will hear arguments over whether there is a legal basis to revisit his conviction and the circumstances surrounding his plea.
When is Bryan Kohberger’s next hearing?
A status conference is scheduled for June 3, 2027, followed by an evidentiary hearing on June 17, according to the latest court schedule.
The hearings come after Kohberger filed a petition for post-conviction relief in July.
He is challenging the outcome of the case despite having previously agreed to give up his right to a standard appeal as part of his plea agreement.
Kohberger, now 31, pleaded guilty to killing University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle in November 2022.
His admission came shortly before his murder trial was due to begin in 2025.
Under the agreement, prosecutors dropped the possibility of pursuing a death sentence, while Kohberger received four consecutive life sentences.
The case then appeared to have reached its conclusion.
That changed when Kohberger filed his post-conviction petition and began arguing that his own legal team had been mishandled the process that led to his guilty plea.
Why does Bryan Kohberger want to withdraw his guilty plea?
Kohberger has alleged that his former lawyers used misleading information and pressure to persuade him to accept the deal.
In documents filed with the court, he claimed he was 'advised to lie' and enter a guilty plea even though he maintained that he was innocent.
He also alleged that his attorneys failed to provide information he considered potentially favourable to his defence.
In a statement reported by The New York Times, Kohberger said: “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
The allegations represent a dramatic change from his position when he last entered his guilty pleas in court.
Kohbergers new legal team will include attorney Gregory Richard Rauch, who was appointed to represent him after he filed the position.
Rauch is now tasked with pursuing the post-conviction case, with is separate from a conventional appeal.
The distinction is important because Kohberger's plea agreement included a waiver of his appeal rights.
His current petition instead seeks relief based on claims about the way his conviction and guilty plea were obtained.
If the court ultimately allows Kohberger to withdraw the plea, the murder case could return to the trial process.
That could also reopen the possibility of a death sentence, which was removed from consideration under the original agreement.
The scheduled evidentiary hearing will give the court an opportunity to examine Kohberger’s claims before deciding whether his conviction or guilty plea should be disturbed.
A timeline of the Idaho murders
November 12 2022
Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, attend a party at Chapin’s fraternity Sigma Chi. Meanwhile, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, go to sports bar the Corner Club.
November 13 2022
1.45am - Kernodle and Chapin return home to their house on King Road
1.56am - Goncalves and Mogen arrive home
2.44am - Kohberger’s Hyundai sedan is spotted by a CCTV camera at Washington State University. Shortly afterwards, the car is seen again heading towards a road that connects Pullman, Washington, to Moscow, Idaho, where the victims live.
4am - Bryan Kohberger is believed to have entered the property
4.17am - A security camera reveals the sound of a barking dog, voices and what sounds like a thud. At some point around this time, their housemate Dylan Mortensen is awoken and hears a male voice say: “It's OK, Kaylee, I'm here for you.” She later hears crying and sees a masked man in the property.
4.19am - Mortensen attempts to call Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen, but all calls go unanswered. She started texting Bethany Funke, saying she’s ‘freaking out’ after seeing a man in a ‘ski mask’. Mortensen joins Funke in her room and they lock themselves in.
11.58am - After Mortensen calls her friend Emily Alandt, she and her boyfriend Hunter Johnson come over to the King Road property. Johnson discovers Chapin and Kernodle's bodies and calls 911.
November 17 2022
Preliminary autopsy results show all four victims were attacked with a large knife
December 7 2022
Police say they are looking to speak to any occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra from 2011-13.
December 30 2022
Kohberger is arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. Police later reveal they used DNA on a knife sheath to link him to the crime scene, and tracked his car and phone across the area.
May 22 2023
Kohberger remains silent when asked to enter a plea during his arraignment. The judge enters a not guilty plea on his behalf.
June 26 2023
Prosecutors announce they will seek the death penalty.
December 28 2023
The King Road property where the murders took place is demolished to allow the community to heal.
April 17 2024
Kohberger’s defence team claims in court documents that phone mast data shows Kohberger was miles away from Moscow, Idaho at the time of the murders.
March 4 2025
Kohberger’s defence team say he exhibits traits of autism spectrum disorder, and putting him to death would be unconstitutional.
July 2 2025
Weeks before the trial is set to begin, Kohberger pleads guilty to burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.
July 23 2025
Kohberger is sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years for the burglary charge.
He comes face to face with the families of his victims for the first time, who read out impact statements.
Goncalves' sister Alivea gives a powerful statement in court, while Mortensen says she’s suffered from debilitating panic attacks since the night of the murders, telling Kohberger he has taken away her ‘ability to trust the world’.
July 27 2026
Kohberger announces he is seeking to take back his guilty plea and overturn his conviction.
He tells the New York Times: “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
Topics: Bryan Kohberger, True crime
Thomas Bamford