BOISE, Idaho (Court TV) — The man who pleaded guilty to killing four college students in their home is doubling down on efforts to have the judge removed from his case, citing the judge’s comments and his apparent emotions at sentencing.
Bryan Kohberger appears at his sentencing hearing on July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)
Bryan Kohberger, 31, was sentenced to consecutive life terms after pleading guilty to burglary and four counts of murder in the deaths of Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves.
Kohberger previously filed motions to withdraw his guilty plea and to have a different judge oversee the hearings. Prosecutors opposed both requests, saying the guilty plea was valid and that Idaho law requires the sentencing judge to hear any postconviction hearings.
Kohberger’s appellate attorney, Gregory Rauch, said that Idaho law allows a judge to be removed if the judge can’t be impartial. “[Kohberger] is entitled to an impartial adjudication of the claims he can support,” Rauch wrote. “A request for an impartial adjudicator is certainly not a request for a sympathetic one. Reassignment would change the judge, not the evidence or governing law.”
At Kohberger’s sentencing on July 23, 2025, Judge Steven Hippler referred to the defendant as a “faceless coward” and the “worst of the worst” while questioning the defendant’s credibility. “Yet, even if I could force him to speak, which legally I cannot, how could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth,” Hippler said. “Do we really believe, after all of this, he is capable of speaking the truth or giving up something of himself to help the very people whose lives he destroyed? Rather, I suspect the so-called reason would be dished out in enticing, self-serving and aggrandizing untruthful bits, leaving people wanting more information, more insight, and thus enhancing further the power he seeks to hold.”
While Rauch said that Hippler’s statements alone do not warrant recusal, they need to be considered alongside the judge’s behavior. The motion cited a report from People magazine that said Hippler “appeared to wipe away tears” during the sentencing. “The report does not establish the cause of the apparent reaction or place it at the precise moments of the remarks concerning truthfulness,” the motion said. “But the appearance of this court in the eyes of the public would indicate that it was emotionally charged. … Petitioner does not ask the Court to be unmoved by the loss of four lives, and tears alone do not require disqualification. The concern is the complete presentation: the Court’s reported demeanor, its intensely personal descriptions of Petitioner, its expressed doubt about his capacity for truthfulness and its earlier rejection of counsel’s preparation concerns as empty and tactical.”
Kohberger’s motion to withdraw his plea alleged that when Hippler denied his trial attorneys’ motion for more time to address discovery issues and mitigation, he felt forced to plead guilty.
The four victims in the case were killed on Nov. 13, 2022; they were found stabbed to death in the off-campus home they shared. Prosecutors said DNA evidence linked Kohberger to the crimes, though the defendant had no apparent connection to the victims. At the time of his arrest, Kohberger was a Ph.D. candidate in the criminal justice and criminology program at Washington State University.
Hippler initially scheduled a hearing to discuss the disqualification issue for Oct. 15, but vacated the date without rescheduling.
