Three upcoming hearings for convicted Idaho student killer Bryan Kohberger have been unexpectedly vacated in what a lawyer for his family says is just the beginning of what is expected to be a much longer court process.Kohberger was arrested on Dec.30, 2022, in connection with the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students six weeks earlier.In July 2025, he took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, only to petition the court a year later asking to withdraw it and claiming he'd had ineffective counsel and been misled into pleading out."This simply marks the start of a longer post-conviction relief process," said Jason Goldman, a New York attorney representing Kohberger's family.BRYAN KOHBERGER'S NEW LAWYER SAYS KEY QUESTIONS MAY SOON GET ANSWERS IN COURTBryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse for his sentencing hearing on July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho.
Kohberger pleaded guilty in exchange for being spared the death penalty for the stabbing of four University of Idaho students.Netflix's documentary about the case, "The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare," is now streaming.
(Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images)Judge Steven Hippler’s amended scheduling order is expected to shed more light on the vacated hearings, the first of which was set for Thursday.It has not yet been made public.KOHBERGER PROSECUTORS SAY NO AS IDAHO KILLER TRIES TO BOOT JUDGE WHO CALLED HIM A 'FACELESS COWARD'Thursday's hearing was initially scheduled to address a motion from Kohberger's new Idaho lawyer, Greg Rauch, seeking to have Hippler disqualified from the case over concerns of potential bias.Two other hearings set for next year have also been vacated, and a series of deadlines in coming months are also expected to be impacted by the new order.University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were killed in a November 2022 attack at an off-campus house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho.(Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Gett...