Bryan Kohberger took plea deal days after prosecutors listed his sister as potential witness

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Just days after prosecutors added his sister, Amanda Kohberger, to their witness list, Bryan Kohberger agreed to a plea deal, abruptly ending the case before it could go to trial, new court filings reveal.

Newly unsealed court documents show that Amanda Kohberger appeared on the state’s amended witness list and was also named on the defense’s mitigation witness list by lead attorney Anne Taylor.

The overlapping filings show that Amanda was positioned as a potential witness for both sides in the weeks before Kohberger’s plea. Within days of the June 25 filing that listed his sister as a prosecution witness, he accepted a plea deal that spared the case from going to trial.

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The filings highlight the contrasting strategies at play. Prosecutors’ June 25 witness list spans 180 names, from investigators and forensic experts to victims’ relatives, and notably includes Kohberger’s sister, Amanda.

According to an ABC News report citing copies of 2014 police records, Michael Kohberger, Bryan’s father, once told officers that his son had stolen his sister Melissa’s iPhone. Police declined to comment but confirmed the case had been expunged and the record “no longer exists.”

By contrast, the defense’s mitigation list, filed June 6, named 56 witnesses intended for the sentencing phase, including psychologists, corrections experts and nearly every member of Kohberger’s immediate family.

Bryan Kohberger adjusts his seat at the Ada County Courthouse, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit over a white T-shirt

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The case has drawn national attention since the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, when four students — Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves — were found stabbed to death in an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho.

Kohberger, a former Ph.D. criminology student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested in December 2022 after a cross-country investigation.