Bryan Kohberger, convicted of killing four university students in Idaho and sentenced to four life terms in prison, has filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea. In his filing last week, Kohberger argued ineffective assistance of counsel and sought post-conviction relief. This move could lead to a retrial and potentially reinstate the death penalty.
Digital forensic expert Sy Ray, retained by Kohberger's lawyers, made striking claims on a podcast. A former homicide detective, Ray argued that Kohberger's smartphone data was far more incriminating than previously disclosed.
Expert's Contradictory Statements
Ray said, 'Bring back the death penalty. I am fully behind it.' Stating he was confident Kohberger would be convicted, Ray claimed he had found evidence that the defendant had previously entered the victims' house. According to Ray, Kohberger's phone location data shows it was inside the house before the murders. 'The latitude-longitude data directly corresponds to the living room of the house,' Ray said, while acknowledging that these measurements could place the phone anywhere within the house with a margin of error of 25 meters.
However, Ray's claims directly contradict his own expert report prepared for the defense in January 2025. The report states: 'The geolocation data provided to me offers no evidence of any connection between Kohberger and the deceased.' In the same report, Ray also wrote that he found no data showing Kohberger's phone was in the same area as the victims' phones between June and November 2022. On the podcast, however, he claimed that Madison Mogen was the intended target and that the two phones 'collided' repeatedly at the same locations.
Statements from Officials
At a press conference following Kohberger's guilty plea, the lead investigators in the case said they did not know who the target of the attack was. Brett Payne, then with the Moscow Police Department, said, 'There is evidence to suggest there was a reason this house was chosen, but we don't know who the target was.'
On the podcast, Ray claimed that investigators completely overlooked stalking evidence. 'They didn't even look at it. It's unbelievable,' Ray said, adding that he offered to show his evidence to the FBI after Kohberger's guilty plea but received no response.
The family of victim Kaylee Goncalves, who participated in the podcast, said that reopening the case has renewed their pain. Kohberger's attorney Anne Taylor is alleged to have made this filing as a strategic move, despite her client having waived his appeal rights. Ray claimed that if released, Kohberger would kill again, and argued that the investigation was 'utterly unacceptable,' calling for the case to be retried from scratch.
