Three scheduled hearings involving convicted Idaho student killer Bryan Kohberger have been canceled without explanation, a move his family’s attorney says signals the opening stage of what could become an extended post-conviction legal battle.
Kohberger was taken into custody on Dec. 30, 2022, after being linked to the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students six weeks earlier.
He pleaded guilty in July 2025 under an agreement that removed the possibility of a death sentence. A year later, however, Kohberger asked to undo that plea, alleging that his attorneys provided ineffective representation and that he was misled before accepting the deal.
“This is only the beginning of a longer post-conviction relief process,” Jason Goldman, a New York attorney representing Kohberger’s family, said.
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)
More details may emerge in an amended scheduling order from Judge Steven Hippler. The first of the hearings was scheduled for Thursday.
The revised order had not been released publicly.
Thursday’s proceeding was expected to consider a request by Kohberger’s new Idaho attorney, Greg Rauch, who wants Hippler removed from the case because of alleged concerns about possible judicial bias.
Two additional hearings scheduled for next year have also been canceled. The court’s revised timeline is expected to affect several deadlines set for the coming months.
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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The killings shocked the nation. Four University of Idaho undergraduates were stabbed during a home invasion at an off-campus rental house located just beyond the school’s Moscow campus.
The victims were Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20.
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)
For weeks, investigators had not publicly named a suspect. Kohberger’s arrest at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania therefore stunned the country.
At the time, he was pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University, located roughly 10 miles from the University of Idaho across the state border.
Bryan Kohberger’s childhood home in Effort, Pennsylvania, located about 10 minutes north of Pleasant Valley High School, where he graduated in 2013. The family moved elsewhere in Monroe County in fall 2012, according to online messages between Kohberger and a high school friend. (Kevin Fixler/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Kohberger did not provide a motive or explanation when he entered his guilty plea. In a handwritten post-conviction filing submitted in July, he instead asserted that he was innocent.
This is a developing story.