Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students in a deal that spared his life, but a violent crime expert says his attempt to withdraw that plea fits the profile of a manipulator still trying to control the narrative.
Kohberger, 31, stood in court and answered "Yes" when Ada County District Judge Steven Hippler asked him directly whether he was pleading guilty because he was guilty. He admitted to killing Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, at their King Road home near the University of Idaho campus on November 13, 2022. The plea agreement took the death penalty off the table. Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison.
Now he wants a do-over. Kohberger filed a handwritten petition seeking to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging he was subjected to "coercion, disinformation, false promises" and that evidence favorable to his defense was withheld. He also claimed he was told that whether he was actually guilty was "not an important factor" when considering the deal. A court granted his request for new counsel, appointing public defender Gregory Rauch to represent him.
Before accepting the plea, Judge Hippler did not rush the process. He addressed Kohberger directly in open court:
"I want to make sure that your plea is given voluntarily. 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."
Kohberger sat through hours of emotional victim impact statements from the families of the four young people he admitted to killing. He said nothing. Then, when Hippler asked him point-blank, "Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?", Kohberger answered yes.
That exchange matters now. Kohberger's handwritten petition paints him as a victim of his own legal team. But the judge's careful, on-the-record colloquy was designed for exactly this scenario, to create a clear record that the defendant understood what he was doing and chose to do it freely.
Dr. Gary Brucato, a clinical psychologist who specializes in violent crime and early psychotic illness, helped profile the person responsible for the Idaho murders before Kohberger was identified and arrested. In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Brucato offered a detailed psychological assessment of Kohberger's behavior and likely motivations.
Brucato said Kohberger's profile looks far more like a serial offender than a mass murderer, someone who, if not caught, might have continued:
"I have a very strong sense that Kohberger was so much like a serial offender rather than a mass murderer, where you do something once and either take your own life or get incarcerated and that's the end of it."
He went further, describing Kohberger as someone still learning his craft when the killings spiraled beyond what he planned:
"I think this is somebody who was sort of trying to master it and lost control the first time he did it."
Prosecutors had alleged that Kohberger entered the King Road home intending to attack specific targets but encountered more people than expected, including Ethan Chapin. Cellphone data placed Kohberger's phone near the residence on multiple occasions before the murders, suggesting he had visited the area repeatedly.
One popular theory about Kohberger's motive centered on the idea that he was an "involuntary celibate", someone who turned to violence out of romantic frustration. Brucato pushed back on that framing. He noted that Kohberger did go on dates but was, by all accounts, profoundly off-putting on them.
"For example, the date that he reportedly had where he told the woman that he wanted to tickle her or that she had, you know, nice birthing hips."
Brucato described Kohberger as "a sort of weird person, more than somebody who couldn't get a date." The distinction matters. In Brucato's analysis, Kohberger's problem was not an inability to attract attention but a mechanical, detached quality that repelled people, and a deep frustration that human relationships could not be reduced to something predictable and controllable.
"I think that this is precisely the kind of person who would have been frustrated that he couldn't make a science out of women and other people, and how to get people to like him and so forth."
Kohberger had few contacts saved in his phone. Digital forensics experts previously hired to examine the case reported that he had researched serial killers including Ted Bundy and Danny Rolling, known as "the Gainesville Ripper."
Before his guilty plea, Kohberger's defense had floated an alibi: that he was at Wawawai Park, looking at the stars, on the night of the murders. Brucato found this claim psychologically revealing on multiple levels.
"I was fascinated by the alibi that was given by Kohberger because he claimed that he was looking at the stars at Wawawai Park. First of all, on a psychological level, this notion of studying something that you can never touch the way an astronomer studies a star, but he can't touch it."
The location itself carried an unsettling historical footnote. The remains of Joyce LePage, a Washington State University student who disappeared in 1971, were discovered near Wawawai Park. Her case has been considered by some as a possible Bundy case, though Bundy was never charged or confirmed as her killer. Bundy kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered dozens of young women and girls across the country between 1974 and 1978.
Brucato drew a direct parallel between Kohberger's current legal maneuvering and Bundy's behavior at trial. Bundy pleaded not guilty and represented himself. Kohberger has now obtained new counsel and is seeking to withdraw his plea, a path that could, in theory, lead to self-representation.
"Let's say he gets rid of all his attorneys and he wants to represent himself, that's a little too Bundy-like for my taste."
Brucato flagged a specific danger in that scenario: a self-representing defendant gains access to discovery materials, including crime scene photographs and forensic evidence.
"But then he's allowed to have access to all kinds of evidence and think about the perversion of this person having crime scene photos and information and so forth."
If Kohberger succeeds in withdrawing his plea and forces a trial, the families of Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle, and Chapin would be dragged back into a courtroom to hear the details of their children's deaths presented as contested evidence rather than admitted fact. Brucato questioned whether that outcome might serve Kohberger's psychological needs as much as any legal strategy.
"You almost wonder if, in some twisted way, there's also an element of reliving [the murders] and then the family being dragged back and having to listen to it."
Brucato described Kohberger as someone who craves control above all else, and who would find ways to assert it even from behind bars. He noted that Kohberger has reportedly been upset over minor deprivations in prison, such as not receiving the food items he wanted. In Brucato's assessment, Kohberger's pattern of behavior, from the plea to the withdrawal to the demand for new lawyers, reflects a single consistent drive.
"I think ultimately, one way or another, he always seems to be the puppet master."
Brucato also predicted that if Kohberger were found guilty at a trial, he would likely seek to control the narrative through other means, writing a book or telling his story publicly to manipulate public perception.
The case has continued to draw intense public attention. The Netflix documentary The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare reached the number one spot on the platform. Kohberger's handwritten petition, his new attorney, and the unresolved question of whether a court will allow him to undo his own sworn admission of guilt have kept the case in the headlines.
Key questions remain unanswered. What specific evidence does Kohberger claim was withheld? Who told him his actual guilt was "not an important factor"? Has a hearing been scheduled on the withdrawal petition? None of those details have been made public.
Four young people, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, were killed in their home. The man who admitted to killing them now says he did not mean it. The families who buried their children deserve finality, not a convicted killer's latest bid to put himself back at the center of the story.
