Bryan Kohberger’s newly-released handwritten guilty plea document has revealed his refusal to share any details about his crimes as well as his claims he was diagnosed with four mental health disorders.
The mass killer’s guilty plea advisory was made public as part of a batch of documents unsealed by Ada County Judge Steven Hippler after Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison for the November 2022 murders of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Ethan Chapin.
In the nine-page document, the 30-year-old criminology PhD student’s scrawling handwriting shows his answers to multiple questions about his ability to enter a plea, his awareness of his legal rights, and the details of the plea deal struck with prosecutors.
Many of Kohberger’s answers were simply yes, no or N/A responses.
But, when asked if he had ever been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, Kohberger wrote that he had four disorders: ‘Autism (level 1); OCD; ADHD; ARFID’.
All four diagnoses were made in February 2025, he wrote – six months before his trial was set to begin.
In the lead-up to Kohberger’s capital murder trial start date, his attorneys enlisted expert witnesses to assess the 30-year-old killer. It was during this process that the defense witnesses diagnosed Kohberger with level 1 autism, the highest-functioning level, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and a developmental coordination disorder.
Kohberger’s legal team then argued unsuccessfully for the death penalty to be taken off the table because of his autism diagnosis.
Bryan Kohberger ’s newly-released handwritten guilty plea document has revealed his refusal to share any details about his crimes as well as his claims he was diagnosed with four mental health disorders
Bryan Kohberger signed the guilty plea advisory on June 29 – days before his formal change of plea hearing
The defense had also argued that his diagnoses offered explanations for his incriminating behaviors around the time of the murders.
In legal filings, Kohberger claimed his OCD meant he compulsively washed his hands and wore gloves to avoid germs – offering an alternate explanation for why he was seen wearing gloves and placing trash into baggies before his arrest.
The defense also claimed the alibi Kohberger once put forward to the court – that he was driving around late at night looking at the moon and stars at the time of the murders – was down to his OCD causing him to sleep poorly.
Kohberger later admitted that this alibi was a lie as he pleaded guilty to the murders.
The defense also mentioned Kohberger suffered from an eating disorder in previously-released court documents.
ARFID (avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder) is an eating disorder where an individual has an aversion to certain foods or eating in general.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, Kohberger was an overweight teen before he underwent a drastic weight loss between his sophomore and senior high school years.
Childhood friends and acquaintances have previously said he developed a severe eating disorder and became a strict vegan.
But it was also around this time that he developed a heroin addiction.
Kohberger’s guilty plea advisory document has now been released by Ada County Court
In the document, he claimed he had been diagnosed with four mental health disorders
The plea document shows that Kohberger was not taking any medication for any of the four health disorders listed.
The only prescribed medication Kohberger wrote he was taking was levothyroxine, a commonly-used 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 used to treat hypothyroidism – a condition where the thyroid gland does not produce enough of the hormone.
Kohberger also confirmed in the document that he was not ‘mentally incapable of understanding these proceedings or what it means to plead guilty to the crime’.
He confirmed he understood the plea agreement and that he knew he would be sentenced to four life sentences for each first-degree murder charge plus 10 years for burglary.
But when asked if there was ‘anything else you want to tell the court about why you are pleading guilty’, Kohberger checked ‘X’ in the no box.
Despite pleading guilty, Kohberger has still refused to reveal his motive for the murders or how and why he chose his victims.
Investigators have found no connection between him or any of the four slain students or their two surviving roommates.
During his sentencing – where he was confronted by the families of his victims – the killer was given the opportunity to address the court.
‘I respectfully decline,’ he responded blankly.
When asked if there was ‘anything else you want to tell the court about why you are pleading guilty’, Kohberger checked ‘X’ in the no box
Best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (left) and young couple Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle (right) were killed by Bryan Kohberger
Prosecutor Bill Thompson’s office has come under fire from some of the victims’ families for not making it a requirement of the plea deal that Kohberger give answers about his horrific crime.
In a recent interview, Thompson said that – even if Kohberger did speak – no one would ever truly know why he did what he did.
FBI behavioral experts ‘told us early on that, just looking at the nature of the crimes and the fact that there is no direct connection anybody could find between the murderer and the victims, they said in our experience you likely will never know why this happened,’ he told Idaho News 6.
‘And even if the murderer would try to say something, it wouldn’t make sense to anybody but the murderer and that’s the reality.’
The plea advisory document reveals that Kohberger had no intention of giving any answers to the victims’ families.
At the end of the document, dated June 29, Kohberger added his scribbly signature.
The document was completed just days before he formally changed his plea to guilty in a hearing in Ada County Court in Boise on July 2.
The home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, where Bryan Kohberger carried out his attack
The 30-year-old criminology PhD student broke into an off-campus student home in Moscow, Idaho, in the early hours of November 13, 2022, with the intent to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁.
Inside, he stabbed to death 21-year-old best friends Goncalves and Mogen, and 20-year-old couple Kernodle and Chapin.
Kohberger was tied to the murders after leaving behind a knife sheath containing his DNA at the scene.
He was arrested around six weeks later at his parents’ home in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania where he had returned for the holidays.
On July 23, Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
He has waived all right to appeal.
Kohberger is now serving his sentence inside Idaho’s maximum security prison where he has already filed multiple complaints about his fellow inmates.
