One year after Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to killing four college students in Idaho, he has taken a step in withdrawing his plea and reopening the case by claiming he was misled into confessing to killing Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” Kohberger, 31, said in a statement to The New York Times on Sunday, July 26, while announcing that he filed a petition to reopen the case.
Kohberger then reiterated to the outlet that he had an “absolute claim of innocence.”
He declined to discuss any evidence he had to prove his innocence, but said “the intention is for all of those questions to be investigated and answered appropriately in a trial setting.”
“Why am I breaking my silence?” he said during the interview, which was conducted from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution. “A lot went wrong in those plea discussions. I really do want that to be heard.”
Kohberger, who was represented by court-appointed attorneys when he initially pleaded guilty, added that he prepared the documentation to challenge the case on his own. He said that he is seeking to have a lawyer appointed to him after he filed to have his plea withdrawn, though he has not yet been assigned new representation.
The murders took place in the early hours of November 13, 2022. Mogen, 21, and Goncalves, 21, were found dead in a bed on the third floor of an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. Meanwhile, Kernodle, 20, and boyfriend Chapin, 20, were found dead in a bedroom on the second floor.
Two surviving roommates were home at the time of the attack, though they said they did not report the killings until hours later when they realized what happened.
Kohberger was arrested for the murders in December 2022, and he did not enter his guilty plea until more than two years later in July 2025. As part of the plea deal, Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive fixed life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 10-year fixed sentence for felony burglary.
When he pleaded guilty in July 2025, Kohberger was not required to share a motive for the killings and it is still not clear why he may have targeted the victims.
During the initial hearings, law enforcement officials said that they found Kohberger’s DNA on a Ka-Bar knife sheath that was reportedly left next to two of the victims. Additionally, Amazon records showed that he bought a Ka-Bar knife and sheath months before the killings took place.
Law enforcement also said that he drove a white Elantra, which was the type of car that authorities determined was captured on surveillance video circling the crime scene.
However, some experts who took the stand cast doubts that Kohberger committed the crime alone. Forensic scientist Brent Turvey, who analyzed the crime scene for the defense, argued that the killings were committed by multiple people. He also criticized investigators for how they documented their evidence and asked why authorities didn’t do more testing after a hair was found with one of the victims.
