Bryan Kohberger is given NEW court date in his bid to withdraw guilty plea for Idaho murders
Bryan Kohberger has been given a new court date amid his bid to withdraw his guilty plea for murdering four University of Idaho students.
The convicted killer, 31, is set to return to court on October 15 at the Ada County Courthouse, according to a court docket reviewed by People.
The hearing will see Kohberger’s defense team attempt to block Judge Steven Hippler from presiding over his post-conviction relief request, the docket stated.
Hippler previously ordered that Kohberger serve four life sentences for the murders of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, and Madison Mogen, who were found stabbed to death in their off-campus home on November 13, 2022.
This follows Hippler scheduling the first status conference and evidentiary hearing in the case for June 2027.
After accepting a plea deal last July, Kohberger escaped a trial and a potential death penalty sentence for stabbing the young friends to death.
But in a shocking twist of events, he filed a petition for post-conviction relief in July that is allowed under state law. It is not the same as a direct appeal.
‘My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,’ Kohberger said in a statement to The New York Times.
Bryan Kohberger will be in court on October 15 as he tires to overturn his guilty plea in the murders of four University of Idaho students
He pleaded guilty to killing Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves , and Madison Mogen, last July. They were all found stabbed to death in their off-campus home on November 13, 2022
He further claimed that he has ‘ineffective assistance of counsel’ and that he was ‘advised to lie’ by his legal team.
Prosocutors have gone on to file a motion seeking to dismiss the case, but Kohberger might have missed his chance after he signed a written factual basis document that stated he is willing to ‘hereby admit responsibility’ for the slayings, the outlet reported.
In it, he also confessed that the ‘killing and murder’ of the victims was ‘willful, unlawful, deliberate, with premeditation and with malice aforethought.’
After the court document was filed, Kohberger admitted his guilty and accepted a plea deal. In addition to the four life sentences, he was also handed another 10 years for a burglary charge. He also owes $270,000 in civil penalties and fines.
As part of his plea deal, Kohberger waved his right to appeal. His only chance of getting a new trial is throught a petition of post-conviction relief.
The former criminology student will likely face the death penalty if he is convicted in his new trial.
The judge who will procide over the new trial remains unknown.
In the meantime, Kohberger has been appointed a new defense attorney, Gregory Richard Rauch.
The off-campus home where the four friends were callously murdered
James Goldman, one of Kohberger’s lawyers, previously told People about his defense team’s efforts to disqualify Hippler.
‘This is not about attacking the Court nor asking for special treatment. It is about ensuring that the serious constitutional questions now before the Court are heard in a forum whose impartiality and neutrality cannot be questioned,’ Goldman stated.
Because of that, Goldman said that ‘it would be an inherent conflict for the same presiding judge to decide these very issues.’
It its not yet known if Kohberger will appear at his upcoming hearing. He remains in custody at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
