Bryan Kohberger, the man who pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the November 2022 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, now wants to take it all back. A Latah County court has scheduled a hearing for his bid to withdraw that plea and disqualify the judge who accepted it.
The hearing is set for July 9, 2025, before a new judge yet to be assigned. Kohberger's legal team filed the motion to disqualify Judge John Judge and vacate the guilty plea in June 2025. The motion argues that Kohberger's plea was not made knowingly and voluntarily, and that Judge Judge should be removed from the case for alleged bias. Fox News first reported the new court date after filings were updated in the case docket.
Kohberger, a former criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University, entered guilty pleas on May 29, 2025, to all four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. The victims were Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20. All four were stabbed to death in an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022.
Kohberger's guilty plea came as a surprise to many observers. For more than two years, his defense team had maintained his innocence and mounted an aggressive pretrial strategy. The plea deal removed the death penalty from consideration. In exchange, Kohberger faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison, with the judge retaining discretion over whether to allow the possibility of parole.
Judge John Judge accepted the plea in open court after conducting a colloquy with Kohberger, the standard judicial exchange designed to confirm that a defendant understands the charges, the rights being waived, and the consequences of pleading guilty. Defense attorney Jay Logsdon was present and did not object at the time.
Less than two weeks later, Kohberger retained new counsel. Attorney D. Craig Atkinson of Boise filed the motion to withdraw the plea and disqualify the judge. The filing contends that Kohberger did not fully understand the terms of the agreement and that his prior counsel failed to adequately explain them. It also alleges that Judge Judge exhibited bias during the plea proceedings and in pretrial rulings.
The defense motion lays out several arguments. Atkinson contends that Kohberger was under extreme psychological duress at the time of the plea. The filing claims Kohberger felt pressured to accept the deal because of what it describes as a coercive environment, including extensive pretrial publicity and conditions of confinement.
On the question of judicial bias, the motion points to specific pretrial rulings that Atkinson characterizes as favoring the prosecution. It also cites statements Judge Judge made during the plea hearing that the defense interprets as reflecting a predetermined view of Kohberger's guilt. The motion does not allege any ex parte communication between the judge and prosecution.
Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson has not filed a formal response to the motion as of the most recent docket update. Thompson's office secured the guilty plea after more than two years of preparation for what was expected to be one of the most closely watched murder trials in Idaho history.
Withdrawing a guilty plea after it has been accepted is no small task under Idaho law. Idaho Criminal Rule 33(c) permits a court to allow withdrawal of a guilty plea before sentencing if the defendant shows "a just reason" for the request. After sentencing, the standard tightens further, requiring proof that withdrawal is necessary to correct a "manifest injustice."
Because Kohberger has not yet been sentenced, the "just reason" standard applies. Idaho appellate courts have interpreted this to require more than simple regret or a change of heart. The defendant must typically demonstrate that the plea was entered involuntarily, that counsel was ineffective, or that some other factor undermined the knowing and voluntary nature of the plea.
Courts weigh several factors: whether the defendant was competent at the time of the plea, whether the plea colloquy was adequate, whether the defendant received effective assistance of counsel, and whether withdrawal would prejudice the prosecution. The burden falls squarely on the defendant.
The motion to disqualify Judge Judge adds a separate procedural layer. Under Idaho law, a party may seek disqualification of a judge for cause under Idaho Criminal Rule 25(b). This requires a showing that the judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or personal knowledge of disputed facts.
Unlike a peremptory disqualification, which Idaho law allows as a one-time right early in a case, a for-cause motion at this stage demands specific factual allegations. The defense has not released the full supporting affidavit publicly, but the motion itself references pretrial rulings and in-court statements as the basis for the bias claim.
If a new judge is assigned to hear the disqualification motion, that judge will also likely preside over the plea withdrawal hearing. The Idaho Supreme Court or the administrative district judge would handle the reassignment. No replacement judge had been named as of the latest available filings.
For the families of the four victims, the motion reopens wounds that the guilty plea had only begun to close. The Goncalves family had been vocal throughout the case, pushing for transparency and expressing frustration with delays. The plea deal, while removing the possibility of a death sentence, had offered a measure of finality.
Steve Goncalves, Kaylee's father, had previously expressed mixed feelings about the plea agreement. He acknowledged relief that a trial would not force the families to relive the details of the killings in open court, but he also voiced concern that life in prison might not constitute adequate justice. The families have not issued public statements in response to the withdrawal motion.
The prosecution built its case on DNA evidence, cellphone location data, and surveillance footage. Investigators matched DNA found on a knife sheath at the crime scene to Kohberger through genetic genealogy and a subsequent direct DNA comparison. Phone records placed Kohberger's device near the victims' home in the hours surrounding the killings on multiple occasions, including the night of the murders.
The Idaho student murders drew intense national attention from the moment the bodies were discovered. Moscow, a small college town of roughly 26,000, had not seen a homicide in years. The initial investigation drew criticism for its pace. Police did not name Kohberger as a suspect until nearly seven weeks after the killings, arresting him at his parents' home in Pennsylvania on December 30, 2022.
Kohberger was extradited to Idaho in January 2023. His defense team, initially led by public defender Anne Taylor, fought aggressively on multiple fronts. They challenged the probable cause affidavit, sought to suppress evidence, and filed motions to change venue. Taylor argued that pretrial publicity had made a fair trial in Latah County impossible.
The case was moved to Boise for trial, which had been scheduled for multiple dates before the plea agreement rendered it unnecessary. The defense also retained experts to challenge the DNA evidence and the reliability of cellphone tower data. Those challenges never reached a jury.
The July 9 hearing will likely address threshold procedural questions. The court must first determine whether the disqualification motion has merit. If Judge Judge is removed, a new judge would then take up the plea withdrawal motion on its merits.
If the plea withdrawal succeeds, the case would revert to its pretrial posture. Kohberger would again face four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, and the death penalty could potentially return to the table, depending on the prosecution's decision. Thompson's office has not indicated whether it would re-file a death penalty notice in that scenario.
If the motion fails, the case would proceed to sentencing before whatever judge is assigned. Kohberger would face mandatory life sentences on the murder counts, with the judge deciding whether to impose fixed life terms or leave open the possibility of parole after a set number of years.
Investigators have not publicly confirmed whether additional evidence was gathered after the plea that might affect the prosecution's posture in the event of a trial. The defense has not indicated whether Kohberger would seek a jury trial or pursue other plea options if the withdrawal is granted.
Plea withdrawals in high-profile murder cases are rare, and successful ones rarer still. Courts are reluctant to unwind plea agreements that were entered after full colloquy and with counsel present. The defense bears a heavy burden to show that something went fundamentally wrong.
Kohberger's new attorney, Atkinson, has handled criminal defense cases in Idaho for years, but this case dwarfs anything on a typical docket. The legal arguments he raises will test the boundaries of Idaho's plea withdrawal framework in a case with enormous public interest and four grieving families watching every filing.
Four students went to sleep in their own home and never woke up. A guilty plea was supposed to be the final word. Whether the court allows Kohberger to erase that word will say something about how Idaho's justice system handles accountability when a defendant tries to take it back.
