A June date on the calendar, but no hearing yet for Bryan Kohberger’s effort to change guilty plea

He petitioned last month to take back his plea, saying his attorneys manipulated him into a deal by promising better prison conditions and scaring him about death row.

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho judge has set the timeline for Bryan Kohberger’s attempt to withdraw his guilty plea in the murders of four University of Idaho students, and he is warning attorneys on both sides that he will hold any new evidence in the case to a strict legal standard.

Fourth District Judge Steven Hippler, who sentenced Kohberger to life in prison without parole after Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders last year, set out the guidelines for how the case will proceed in a written order Wednesday morning.

The judge did not grant Kohberger a hearing on his claims that his guilty plea should be withdrawn. Instead, Hippler scheduled a date for next June in case he determines an evidentiary hearing is warranted.

Kohberger, 31, is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the Moscow, Idaho, campus in 2022. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

Kohberger filed a handwritten petition last month asking the court to let him take back his plea, saying his attorneys manipulated him into making the deal by promising him better prison conditions and scaring him about the quality of life on death row.