Judge Steven Hippler filed a document on Aug. 4 relating to sealing or unsealing specific records in the Bryan Kohberger case related to the quadruple murders of University of Idaho students nearly three years ago.
In July, Kohberger was sentenced to four life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole following his guilty plea in the stabbing deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
After Kohberger’s guilty plea, a judge ruled to lift the gag order that had been in place since the 30-year-old was arrested nearly three years ago.
More than 240 orders sealing documents have been issued in the case since it began in 2022.
These documents include evidence and testimony, among other things.
Hippler said he would go through the documents carefully to determine which ones could be made public and that they all wouldn’t be unsealed at once.
On Aug. 4, Judge Hippler filed the first order to start the process of unsealing the documents.
In his order, he said the court will require the defense and prosecution to indicate “whether they have an objection to unsealing any specific document and if they believe [a] document should remain sealed, they must identify why redacting of materials is not an acceptable arrangement and with detail and specificity why the document should be sealed, from both legal and factual standpoint.”
Hippler ruled that citing a court rule without more of an explanation is not a sufficient response.
The response must identify each document by date, name and number of each document identified in the order for review.
The court will review the documents from newest to oldest.
Some of the first set of documents that need to be reviewed by the defense and prosecution are:
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State’s Exhibits S1-5-7/23/2025 Sentencing Hearing, which include photographs of each of the deceased victims and photograph of the six victims together (five (5) exhibits
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SEALED Order on Defendant’s Offer of Proof RE: Alternate Perpetrators (unredacted)
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Defendant’s Objection to Release of Privileged and Confidential Work Product
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Witness List – Defendant’s 2nd Amended Phase Two Mitigation Witness List
You can see the full list of documents in the first batch here.
Both sides must file their response within 14 days of the court’s order.
