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Kohberger’s case, which has already imposed a staggering $8 million burden on taxpayers, takes another financial toll as he is now assigned a public attorney. This development comes as he seeks to retract his plea concerning the fatal stabbings of the students.

In a decision made on Wednesday, Ada County District Judge Steven Hippler approved Kohberger’s request for legal assistance. He instructed the Idaho State Public Defender’s Office to appoint new counsel to represent Kohberger in all subsequent post-conviction matters.

This judicial order follows closely on the heels of Kohberger’s handwritten appeal for post-conviction relief. He is seeking to void the guilty plea he accepted last year, an agreement that saw prosecutors forgo the pursuit of the death penalty.

In his appeal, Kohberger alleges that he was “coerced into a false confession.” He further accuses his past defense team—Anne Taylor, Elisa Massoth, and Bicka Barlow—of failing to present what he describes as “exculpatory discovery.” This evidence, he claims, was explored in the book “Broken Plea” but never brought to light during court proceedings.

Kohberger previously said he was entering the plea knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily and that no one had coerced him or promised him anything beyond the terms of the agreement. His new petition directly contradicts those statements.

As News Media previously reported, the filing outraged the family of victim Kaylee Goncalves, whose mother, Kristi Goncalves, said the family is prepared to return to court if Kohberger succeeds in reopening the case.

Hippler’s order states Kohberger’s motion for appointed counsel was granted under Idaho’s post-conviction relief statute and directs the Idaho State Public Defender to appoint an attorney to represent him throughout the proceedings.

The judge also noted that Kohberger had filed a motion seeking to proceed on partial payment of court fees, but said filing fees do not apply to petitions for post-conviction relief.

Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, admitting he fatally stabbed the four students inside an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. He was later sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

An analysis by the Idaho Statesman found the investigation, prosecution and publicly funded defense have cost taxpayers more than $8 million.

Kohberger’s publicly funded defense alone accounted for nearly $5.5 million of that total, including nearly $2.8 million funded by Latah County before October 2024 and more than $2.65 million in additional defense costs after the state assumed responsibility for the case.

The remaining costs include spending by local and state law enforcement, prosecutors, the University of Idaho and the cost of housing Kohberger in custody after his arrest.

Public records reviewed by the Statesman show Kohberger’s attorneys have collectively earned more than $980,000 since the transition to the statewide public defender system.

It remains unclear how much his post-conviction proceedings will add to the taxpayer tab. News Media has reached out to the Idaho State Public Defender’s Office for comment.

Prosecutors said Kohberger turned off his cellphone before entering the off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, where the four students were fatally stabbed in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, and turned it back on after the killings.

Court records also show he searched online for local police dispatch audio after the murders. Investigators found none of the victims’ DNA inside his car after seizing it in Pennsylvania, but an FBI analyst concluded soil recovered from a shovel in the vehicle was consistent with dirt from the Moscow area.

At his sentencing last year, Kohberger received four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. He showed little visible emotion as relatives of the victims and the two surviving roommates delivered emotional victim impact statements condemning him for the killings.

In the midst of a heated investigation, Arizona Sheriff Chris Nanos has expressed strong disapproval of the FBI’s involvement critiques, following accusations from FBI Director Kash Patel regarding the agency being sidelined. Patel asserted that the police hindered the FBI’s entry into the initial investigative process concerning the Nancy Guthrie case.

Sheriff Nanos defended his department on Tuesday during an appearance on “The Sharpe Exchange,” confronting the claims made by Patel. He emphasized that the criticisms were unfounded and labeled the director as “misinformed” about the sequence of events.

Previously, in May, Patel had alleged that the FBI was excluded from participating in the investigation’s first four days—an assertion that Nanos strongly disputed.

“The FBI was present right from day one, alongside my deputies,” Nanos stated emphatically while speaking with Gen-Z commentator Wyatt Sharpe, targeting the FBI director’s claims.

Nanos further clarified, “It seems he’s not fully informed. Once our search and rescue team identified the situation, they immediately reached out to our detectives to begin the investigative process,” reinforcing the coordinated efforts of his officers.

“They immediately contacted the Violent Crime Task Force and their representatives were there,” he continued.

“They processed that scene early the next day. The concept or the representation that the FBI was held off and boy, we wish we’d have been there early on, that’s not just even accurate. They were there [on] day one just as my team was.”

Nanos — who has come under fire for his handling of the high-profile case — went on to speculate that Patel may have been given outdated or filtered information about the case.

“He certainly doesn’t owe me an explanation or a question or anything. He’s the director of the FBI,” he said.  “But when the information is put out there that’s not accurate, I think it hurts the case.” 

Patel had berated local law enforcement over the processing of evidence discovered early in the case. 

“What we, the FBI, do is say, ‘Hey, we’re here to help. What do you need?” Patel told Fox News star Sean Hannity on the “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” podcast.

“What can we do? And for four days, we were kept out of the investigation.”

For instance, evidence was sent to a private lab in Florida rather than the FBI’s facility in Quantico, Virginia– a move Patel believes cost investigators time.

“I had a fixed-wing aircraft on the ground ready to move it immediately through the night,” he said.

“And they said, ‘we’re sending it to Florida,’ and then, I don’t know, 60 days. They have jurisdiction, so it’s their call.

“We would have analyzed it within days and maybe gotten better information or more information. Our lab’s just better than any other private lab out there, and we didn’t get a chance to do that.

“The first 48 hours of anyone’s disappearance are the most critical.”

At the time, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department insisted to The Post that Nanos began working with the FBI “without delay.”

It has been almost six months since Guthrie, 84, vanished, but Nanos revealed the case isn’t cold.

“We have a lot of evidence that our scientific labs are working,” he said.

“There’s video evidence that we continue to work with, not just labs, but also some private corporations who have graciously given their time to help look at some of the video evidence and see if we can’t piece things together.

“And of course, there are literally thousands of tips that come in.”

Nanos also vowed to support Guthrie’s family and said if they believe the matriarch is still alive, he would also hold the same view.

But he revealed he would “absolutely” reveal if investigators stumbled upon a burial site.

“That’s critical [to the investigation],” he said.