Could Bryan Kohberger, convicted ۱۳ months ago of the murders of four University of Idaho students, now find himself on death row? That’s one potential outcome of a perplexing petition he filed last week in which he claimed he was misled by his defense attorneys into pleading guilty.
A new trial could grant the wishes of family members who hoped to see the ۳۱-year doctoral criminology student convicted by a jury in open court and sentenced to death. Or is Kohberger simply following the example of many serial killers in attempting to gain control of the narrative and extend the suffering of his victims’ families?
“I want to make sure that your plea is given voluntarily,” Ada county district judge Steven Hippler had told Kohberger in court last summer. “I want to make sure that you actually committed the crimes to which you’re pleading guilty, because I don’t want you to plead guilty to a crime you didn’t commit.”
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Hippler asked Kohberger at the hearing before twice reading the specific murder charge tied to each of the four victims. “Yes,” Kohberger responded.
Yet in a ruling on Wednesday, Hippler granted Kohberger’s request for a new court-appointed counsel, days after he filed a handwritten petition seeking to withdraw the guilty plea he had entered in exchange for prosecutors dropping the death penalty.
He now alleges that his attorneys misrepresented death row by fabricating a story about their “horrific experience” touring that portion of the state’s maximum security prison and claimed he was “advised to lie” and told he would gain a “legal victory” by entering a “false plea”.
Kohberger further claimed that his attorneys had failed to disclose what he said was “exculpatory discovery”, including in a recent book Broken Plea that claimed there were chain-of-custody issues relating to the sheaf of the ۷in knife Kohberger used to kill his victims and was left at the crime scene. He wrote that he “was convinced that actual guilt was not an important factor” in accepting his plea deal, as he could have faced the death penalty.
Kohberger, who is serving four consecutive life terms in segregation at Idaho’s maximum security prison south of Boise, told the New York Times he was breaking his silence because “a lot went wrong in those plea discussions. I really do want that to be heard.”
The legal avenue open to Kohberger is not an appeal against his conviction for the murders of Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen in November ۲۰۲۲ – he waived that right as part of his plea deal – but a civil petition for post-conviction relief that could result in a new trial.
His move has stunned and horrified the families of his victims.
Shanon Gray, an attorney for the family of Goncalves, said Kohberger had become “the mosquito you just can’t seem to swat”. In a statement, he accused the New York Times of giving Kohberger a platform.
“People are forgetting about about him,” Gray added to the Guardian. “He has this opportunity to file this petition with a deadline coming up so it’s not really a big surprise to us. He’s a narcissist who thinks he’s the smartest.”
The Idaho Statesman estimates that Kohberger’s case has cost Idaho taxpayers more than $۸m, of which $۵.۵m covered the expense of the public defense he now rejects. The petition, if it goes forward, could cost a further $۲m.
Gray acknowledged that the families would have preferred a death penalty trial where the evidence against Kohberger would have been laid out in court. Instead, he said the defendant “received exactly what he asked for: a deal that spared his life. Know this – he hates that life. He wants another chance to roll the dice.”
The extent to which Kohberger may simply be seeking attention should not be underestimated, says Rachel Toles, a clinical and forensic psychologist who specializes in extreme violence and serial homicide.
“Attention is currency,” Toles said. From a psychological perspective, Toles suggests, Kohberger may be stuck in the same “obsessive loop that he could outsmart everyone by committing the perfect crime. Now that he’s in jail, he’s probably telling himself he can outsmart people with a new trial and win.”
Issues of ego, power and control are what often defines serial killers – even after they have been caught and prosecuted. By seeking a new trial, says Toles, Kohberger is trying to assert control.
“He’s no longer letting the prosecution define the ending, he’s no longer letting his attorneys define strategy, and filing a motion restores his agency. In jail you have a lot of time to ruminate. He’s bored and wants to reclaim the narrative. He wants the outcome on his own terms,” she said.
“Getting attention and energy from the media and the victims’ families feeds him,” she added. “Even though this may be torturing the families it may also be giving them hope that if the guilty plea is off the table, the death penalty is back on.
“He’s dangling a carrot in front of the families because he knows how desperately some of them wanted him to be put to death and they they didn’t get what they wanted.”
Kristi Goncalves told Newsweek she was confident that Kohberger’s petition would go “nowhere … but in the case that a judge were to accept it and give him a new trial, we’re all for it. So either way, we’re like, it is what it is.”
Idaho law asserts that the petitioner “bears the burden of proving that counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness”. That could pit Kohberger against his trial attorneys, who would be called as witnesses to defend against the allegations of incompetence.
“It’s going to come down to credibility,” Adam Ondo, a Boise-based defense attorney, told the Idaho Statesman. “Who are you going to believe? The attorney, or the defendant who is accused of rape or murder or forgery.”
Idaho attorney general Raúl Labrador said in a statement: “My office stands ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure justice is fully carried out.”
Even if Kohberger can prove that leaving his conviction intact would result in a miscarriage of justice and he receives a new trial, the families of his victims may get no closer to understanding why he stole into the house in Moscow and killed four people.
In Kohberger’s case, no motive was put forward by prosecutors, and he was not required to offer one as part of his plea. Toles says that may never be forthcoming because there may not have been one.
“He does not possess the true introspection to say why he did it. He could give any answer: I wanted to commit the perfect crime or I was pissed off at pretty blondes. He could give any answer and people will say, ‘Ah, that’s it!’”
But, she cautioned, that what all serial killers do. “They will taunt you. Even if they know the answer, they won’t give it away because that’s giving up power and control.”
