Unsealed Memo Says Bryan Kohberger Didn’t Understand Guilty Plea

Before Kohberger accepted a plea deal, his former attorneys told an Idaho judge that he was struggling to “rationally understand” the court proceedings and make “consequential decisions” about his case—including whether to testify or plead guilty—according to court records that were recently unsealed.

“The memo is pretty clear that there’s a serious issue there that shows different reasons why that plea might not have been accepted,” Kohberger’s new attorney, Greg Rauch, told News Media. “Those issues have to be flushed out and explored.”

Rauch said the memo’s release Tuesday appeared to catch him off guard. He explained that he had originally filed it under seal as a precaution, seeking to comply with earlier court orders in the case.

Kohberger, 31, is a former criminology doctoral student serving four consecutive life sentences without parole, along with an additional 10-year sentence. Rauch was appointed to the case over the summer and was not part of the defense team during the proceedings that led to the plea and sentencing.

“In the May 20 [2025] ex parte supplement, counsel advised the Court that Kohberger was having difficulty comprehending adverse rulings and discerning their effect upon the case as a whole,” the unsealed memo states. “Counsel represented that, despite the accumulation of significant rulings concerning the death penalty, suppression issues, and motions in limine, Kohberger was having difficulty meaningfully incorporating those developments into a rational assessment of the case and its potential outcomes.”

Rauch filed the memo under seal in support of an earlier motion seeking to disqualify the judge. In the document, he said his purpose was not to establish that Kohberger was incompetent, but to support the claim that the judge could be biased.

“Before June 26, [2025,] the Court knew that counsel was asking for additional time not only to review evidence and continue investigation, but also to investigate Kohberger’s ability to rationally understand and make consequential decisions and to obtain expert assistance in communicating with him about whether to resolve the case short of trial,” Rauch wrote. The document remained sealed for nearly a month.

Kohberger’s original defense team requested additional time to examine whether he could understand the proceedings, while expressly denying that he was incompetent.

Judge Steven Hippler ordered the Aug. 27 memo unsealed Tuesday after rejecting Kohberger’s argument that it should remain confidential.

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“The Court disagrees that the information contained in the Supplemental Memorandum is intimate, protected or will result in harm if disclosed,” Hippler wrote. “It simply describes in very general terms trial counsel’s concerns about Petitioner’s difficulty in comprehending adverse rulings and understanding their effect on the outcome of the case.”

Kohberger’s former defense team, led by Anne Taylor, had asked for more time to pursue discovery as the trial approached last year. The newly unsealed filing indicates that the attorneys were also privately seeking assistance to help Kohberger understand the proceedings.

“The Court thereafter denied the requested additional time,” Rauch wrote. “The sealed June 26 Order rejected the need for further investigation and concluded overall that Kohberger had not demonstrated good cause for a continuance or prejudice from proceeding to trial as scheduled.”

Less than a week later, Kohberger pleaded guilty to every charge stemming from the killings of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

He is now seeking to overturn that plea through a petition for post-conviction relief.

“That sequence does not establish that the pleas were constitutionally invalid,” Rauch wrote. “But it does identify a factual issue that the PCR court may now have to resolve: whether trial counsel had sufficient time and assistance to ensure that Kohberger rationally understood the circumstances confronting him and could meaningfully participate in the decision to resolve the case short of trial — the very decision counsel had specifically identified to Judge Hippler as requiring continued expert assistance before the continuance was denied.”

According to Rauch, within days of Kohberger’s guilty plea, his former lawyers “expressly advised” the court of their questions about this ability to rationally make the decision to plead guilty.

Six days after the Court denied additional time, that decision was made.

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