An Idaho judge has set the timeline for the next step in Bryan Kohberger’s attempt to withdraw his guilty plea in the murders of four University of Idaho students.
Fourth District Judge Steven Hippler, who sentenced Kohberger to life in prison without parole after Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders last year, set out guidelines for how the case will proceed in a written order, viewed by The Associated Press, on Wednesday.
Global News has not independently viewed the written order.
Hippler reportedly warned lawyers on both sides that he will hold any new evidence in the case to a strict legal standard.
The judge did not grant Kohberger a hearing on his claims that his guilty plea should be withdrawn. Instead, he scheduled a date for next June in case he determines that an evidentiary hearing is warranted.
Kohberger, 31, is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the Moscow, Idaho, campus in 2022. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
Last month, Kohberger filed a petition asking a court to let him withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial after alleging that his lawyers manipulated him into making the deal by promising him better prison conditions and scaring him about the quality of life on death row.
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Kohberger filed the handwritten petition, viewed and obtained by Global News, on July 27 from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary.
Kohberger offered only a few details in elaboration, saying they failed to disclose or review evidence that might have helped his case during plea discussions. Kohberger has since been appointed a new lawyer, Greg Rauch.
In Wednesday’s order, Hippler told prosecutors and Kohberger’s lawyer that they must “strictly adhere” to the Idaho Rules of Court Procedure, particularly the sections detailing what evidence is admissible in court, according to The Associated Press.
The judge reportedly detailed how both sides should object to evidence that they believe is not admissible.
Hippler reportedly said that anyone who does not comply with the court’s order could be subject to sanctions.
Both sides were encouraged to disclose any potential witnesses, including experts, by the start of February.
Hippler set a status conference for next June.
In a statement released in July to the New York Times, Kohberger said, “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
It’s been just over one year since he pleaded guilty to the stabbing deaths.
In his request to withdraw his guilty plea, Kohberger said his lawyers didn’t adequately represent him and that his guilty plea wasn’t knowingly or voluntarily entered because it “was induced by unkept promises” and threats, according to the handwritten petition.
He also wrote that the lawyers insisted that his plea “need not be truthful, despite petitioner’s vehement denial of actual guilt,” that they promised that life in prison would come with “immediate contact visits, freedom of movement, [and] employment” and that they told him “elaborate lies of DR (death row) life.”
Kohberger’s petition was filed just days before the release of Netflix’s three-part docuseries, The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare.
On July 2, 2025, Kohberger told Hippler that he was pleading guilty “freely and voluntarily” because he was guilty and not because he had some other incentive.
He agreed to waive his rights to appeal and confirmed that he understood the punishments on the table for the crimes and assured the court that he wasn’t coerced by his lawyers or anyone else to make the plea.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed they would not seek the death penalty and would recommend that he be sentenced to four back-to-back life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 10 years.
“Have any other promises been made to you that have influenced your decision to plead guilty?” Kohberger was asked on the plea agreement document. He checked the box indicating “no.”
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Hippler asked him in court a few days later.
“Yes,” Kohberger replied.
If Kohberger is granted a new trial, he could face the death penalty if convicted.
—With files from The Associated Press
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