Bryan Kohberger seeks judge’s removal in escalating bid to undo guilty plea
Bryan Kohberger, the man convicted of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, is asking a court to disqualify the judge in his case and has asked for a change of venue as he attempts to take back his guilty plea.
Motions for both requests were filed Thursday by Kohberger's new court-appointed attorney, Gregory Rauch. The move came after Kohberger was convicted of first-degree murder.
He has since claimed that he is innocent and has blamed his defense team for leading him to make a false confession.
The motions are asking for Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler to be disqualified for Kohberger's post-conviction court proceedings, and for the hearings to be moved out of Ada County. The motion to disqualify Hippler questions his impartiality.
"This motion does not rest upon one adverse ruling, one harsh statement, or the mere fact that the judge who presided over Bryan Kohberger’s criminal case has been assigned to his post-conviction proceeding," the motion states. "It rests upon the extraordinary convergence of all of them."
Although his original criminal trial was relocated to Ada County in 2024 to ensure an impartial jury and adequate resources, his lawyers argue those concerns are irrelevant to a bench proceeding decided solely by a judge.
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Kohberger, 31, last year pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge for the 2022 stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
However, Kohberger is now asking to be granted a trial even though he could possibly face the death penalty.
The central pillar of the motion to remove the judge rests on the "constitutional adequacy" of the trial counsel's preparation. Defense lawyers argued the capital trial schedule made it impossible to review the massive amount of evidence in the case.
The defense cautioned the court that forcing them to proceed to trial under those conditions threatened Kohberger’s constitutional right to effective representation. Hippler rejected the defense’s claims that they were unprepared for trial, accusing them of using the massive volume of discovery as a tactic for delay rather than a genuine concern.
The motion also refers to Hippler's statement during sentencing where he made pronouncements regarding Kohberger's ability to tell the truth.
"Do we really believe, after all of this, he is capable of speaking the truth?" he said, according to the document.
The judge also called Kohberger a "faceless coward" and the "the worst of the worst."
"Those statements are fundamentally different from believing Kohberger committed terrible crimes or deserved severe punishment," the motion states. "They are forward-looking judgments about his credibility. And credibility may now be at the center of this proceeding."
The move to change the venue asks the court to relocate the proceeding from Ada County, where Kohberger pleaded guilty and was sentenced, to Latah County, where the murders occurred.
"Transfer is warranted in a case like this where ‘the convenience of witnesses and the ends of justice would be promoted by the change,’" that motion states.