Prosecutors say Bryan Kohberger has not cleared the high bar to remove the judge who sentenced him to life for murdering four Idaho students and branded him a "faceless coward."
Fox News reported that Latah County prosecutors filed opposition to the convicted killer’s Aug. 27 motion seeking to oust Judge Steven Hippler from post-conviction proceedings in Ada County.
Kohberger, 31, pleaded guilty July 2, 2025, to four counts of first-degree murder and a burglary charge in the November 2022 stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. On July 23, Hippler sentenced him in Boise to four consecutive life terms without parole, plus 10 years, under a plea deal that took the death penalty off the table.
Now the man who admitted the crimes wants the sentencing judge gone and is fighting to undo the plea itself.
At sentencing, Hippler did not soften his assessment of the defendant who had just admitted guilt. The judge called Kohberger a “faceless coward,” said he could find nothing “good or intrinsically human” about him, described him as having “slithered” into the victims’ home on King Road in Moscow, and labeled him “the worst of the worst.”
Hippler also addressed the absence of any requirement that Kohberger explain himself as part of the deal. He was seen wiping tears after victim impact statements.
The judge put the problem of forced speech in plain terms.
"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?"
He went further on whether any “reason” would ever help the families.
"Do we really believe, after all of this, he is capable of speaking the truth, or of 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 even further the power he seeks to hold."
Kohberger’s new legal team treated those remarks as evidence of bias. The Aug. 27 motion seeking Hippler’s removal argued the judge made biased statements during sentencing and had rushed the case toward trial when the former defense team was not ready. The change of plea came days after Hippler refused to grant that prior team more time for discovery ahead of trial.
Outgoing Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Keith Scholl signed the opposition filing. They argued the standard for removing a judge is not a matter of bruised feelings over tough language from the bench.
Prosecutors wrote that for a judge to be removed, the motion must show that “the judge is biased,” with emphasis on the present tense. Their filing stated the petitioner’s claims fall short.
"None of petitioner's allegations against this Court, taken alone or together, have [met] that 'extremely high' bar,"
They also rejected the idea that sentencing commentary disqualifies Hippler from handling later claims.
"In our case, the sentencing remarks are not enough to show bias, and the required showing of perceived bias cannot be tied to this Court's capacity to fairly adjudicate any [post-conviction relief] claims alleged in this case but rather puts this Court in the best position to adjudicate them as the legislature and the Idaho Supreme Court's rules intend,"
Thompson announced his retirement around the time of the filing. Scholl had previously asked the court for transcripts from the change-of-plea and sentencing hearings.
The judge-removal fight sits beside a broader effort to unwind the guilty plea. In a July handwritten petition, Kohberger claimed ineffective counsel. He asserted the plea was “not knowingly or voluntarily entered because it was induced by unkept promises” and “not voluntarily entered because of threats asserted by [his] legal counsel.”
He waived appeal rights as part of the deal but is pursuing post-conviction relief. The court appointed Moscow attorney Greg Rauch to take over the case. Hippler gave Rauch until Nov. 13 to file an amended petition, four years to the day after the murders. Kohberger’s family also retained private New York lawyer Jason Goldman.
A virtual hearing on the removal motion is set for Oct. 15.
The four students killed at the off-campus King Road house were Mogen and Goncalves, both 21, and Kernodle and Chapin, both 20. Goncalves’s final Instagram post, shared the day before the attack, showed the housemates together.
Kohberger admitted the murders in open court, accepted a deal that spared him a capital trial, and received consecutive life terms. Weeks later he moved to cast the sentencing judge as too biased to stay on the case and claimed his own plea was not knowing or voluntary.
Prosecutors answered with the legal standard Idaho actually uses: an extremely high bar that requires a showing the judge is biased, not that the defendant disliked being called what the record of his crimes already showed.
Families who buried four college students have waited through investigation, arrest, plea, and sentencing. Court rules exist so one defendant’s buyer’s remorse does not endlessly reopen the same case before a new referee.
When a killer who already confessed tries to fire the judge and walk back the plea, the answer from the state should stay simple: no.
