Bryan Kohberger’s newly added attorney says forthcoming court filings — and a possible evidentiary hearing — could bring fresh scrutiny to the Idaho student murders case, even as the defense’s immediate focus remains on challenging the constitutionality of the guilty plea Kohberger is now seeking to undo.
“We think the [amended] PCR and evidentiary hearing will naturally address some of the outstanding and unanswered questions,” Jason Goldman, a New York-based lawyer joining Kohberger’s defense team, told News Media on Monday. “That said, the main priority right now is to scrutinize the constitutional issues surrounding Bryan’s plea.”
In a handwritten petition for post-conviction relief filed in July, Kohberger claimed he received ineffective assistance from counsel. He also alleged that his guilty plea was “not knowingly or voluntarily entered because it was induced by unkept promises” and was “not voluntarily entered because of threats asserted by petitioner’s (Kohberger’s) legal counsel.”
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)
Goldman said the events surrounding Kohberger’s plea, particularly what happened in the crucial days before it was entered, require a thorough review by the court. “The circumstances surrounding Bryan’s plea — and what occurred in the critical days leading up to it — deserve careful, independent judicial scrutiny,” he said. “Some of those circumstances are already part of the public record. Others are not.”
He also said that the support Kohberger receives from his family is part of why he agreed to join the case.
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 nearly three years ago. (Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images)
“Most family and friends run for the hills when a loved one is quietly arrested, let alone charged with a highly-publicized murder,” he said. “The unwavering support Bryan maintains speaks volumes.”
Judge Steven Hippler set a Nov. 13 deadline for Kohberger’s lawyers to file an amended petition which is expected to be written by attorneys and include more in-depth legal arguments than the handwritten petition Kohberger submitted in July.
Idaho defense attorney Greg Rauch was appointed to represent Kohberger last month. Goldman said he would be joining as out-of-state counsel but is not yet officially on the docket.
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 on July 1, 2025. (The Image Direct for News Media)
Prosecutors have asked the judge to dismiss Kohberger’s petition on numerous grounds, but Kohberger’s lawyers filed a motion last week to have the judge removed from the case and to change the venue back to Moscow, Idaho, where the offices of Rauch and the Latah County Prosecuting Attorney are both located.
Kohberger had previously sought a change of venue out of Latah County, where the murders took place, which landed him in front of Hippler in Ada County.
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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)
“The motion speaks for itself,” Goldman said. “We must ensure that the serious constitutional questions at play are heard in a forum whose impartiality and neutrality cannot be questioned.”
The motion, signed by Rauch, questions Hippler’s impartiality, noting that he declined to give Kohberger’s former defense team more time when they said they were not finished with discovery review weeks before trial.
Rauch also took issue with some of the language Hippler has since used to describe his client: “someone in whom the Court could identify nothing remaining that was ‘good or intrinsically human.'”
Kohberger, 31, last year pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge for the 2022 stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
Maryann Kohberger, (wearing sunglasses) mother of Bryan Kohberger, along with her daughter, Amanda Kohberger, exit Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, Wednesday, July 23, 2025. The pair were in attendance for Bryan Kohberger’s sentencing for the murders of four University of Idaho students in November, 2022. (Derek Shook for News Media)
He did not give a motive.
In a motion filed last week, Deputy Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Keith Scholl asked for a transcript of Kohberger’s July 2, 2025, change of plea hearing, in which Kohberger’s own words could be used to rebut the new claims in his petition.
Hippler set a Nov. 13 deadline — four years to the day after the murders — for Kohberger’s legal team to file an amended petition and set aside two potential dates for a status conference and evidentiary hearing next year.
Hearings on the recusal and venue motions could be held before then.
“We will let the evidence and the filings speak in due course,” Goldman told News Media. “Stay tuned.”