Bryan Kohberger challenges guilty plea in Idaho student murders case

The family of one of Bryan Kohberger’s victims has criticized his attempt to challenge his conviction for the murders of four students in Idaho.

Kohberger was sentenced last year to four consecutive life terms after pleading guilty to the November 2022 killings.

In recent days, he told the New York Times that he was taking back his plea, which had been entered to avoid the death penalty. He said it had rested on "false promises and blatant disinformation".

The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the students killed, said Kohberger was a "narcissist" who appeared to have changed his position.

"He chose not to leave his fate - or the facts of the case - to a jury," the Goncalves family said.

"He never cried foul, never claimed he was uninformed or pressured, and never suggested there were problems with the discovery materials he and his counsel had reviewed for two years that should have been challenged."

The family added that "the real tragedy" was the amount of attention Kohberger was receiving at the expense of the victims.

Kohberger was convicted of stabbing to death housemates Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen, who all attended the University of Idaho, in their off-campus home on 13 November 2022.

The case shocked the small student town of Moscow and made national headlines for almost two months before Kohberger was arrested.

Kohberger was a criminology doctorate student at Washington State University.

He never shared a motive with the court, and it is not clear why he drove to another campus to stab four students.

Investigators were unable to link him to the victims, although they presented evidence that placed him at the scene of the crime.

In his statement to the New York Times, Kohberger said he was now intending to enter a not-guilty plea and was giving prosecutors another chance to seek the death penalty if they wanted to.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador paid tribute to the victims' families, saying they had "already endured unimaginable loss and now must face today's deeply painful news".

Labrador said his office stood ready to do whatever was necessary to ensure justice was fully carried out.

But experts say Kohberger’s attempt to reverse his plea is unlikely to succeed.

"He told the judge under oath at the plea hearing that he understood the deal, was acting voluntarily, and was pleading guilty because he was guilty," Sam Newton, associate professor at the University of Idaho College of Law, told the BBC.

"That's a real problem, since courts don't take kindly to walking a voluntary plea back without hard proof that something went seriously wrong behind the scenes."