{"id":5599,"date":"2026-07-28T21:07:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T21:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5599"},"modified":"2026-07-28T21:07:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T21:07:42","slug":"bryan-kohbergers-bid-to-reverse-guilty-plea-hangs-on-a-clump-of-hair-found-in-victims-hand-heres-why-its-grasping-at-straws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5599","title":{"rendered":"Bryan Kohberger\u2019s bid to reverse guilty plea hangs on a \u2018clump of hair\u2019 found in victim\u2019s hand \u2014 here\u2019s why it\u2019s \u2018grasping at straws\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Bryan Kohberger\u2019s long-shot bid to reverse his guilty plea for the murder of four Idaho college students rests on \u201cclumps of unknown hair\u201d found in the hands of one of his victim.<\/p>\n

Read more Exclusive | NY GOP governor candidate Bruce Blakeman trails Hochul by just 4 points in shocking new poll<\/a><\/p>\n

But experts say he\u2019s likely grasping at straws after taxpayers spent $5.5 million on his legal defense.<\/p>\n

Kohberger revealed on Monday that is seeking to reverse his bombshell confession from last year. <\/p>\n

In a hand-written affidavit first reported by the New York Times he claimed he was \u201cconvinced to falsely confess \u2026 by coercion, disinformation, false promises, and withholding exculpatory discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, Kohberger raised \u201cclumps of unknown hair found in Ethan Chapin\u2019s hands; as well as failure of further inquiry,\u201d by his legal team.<\/p>\n

A former FBI agent Chris Whitcomb \u2014 who was not connected to the case \u2014 highlighted the issue of the hairs found in the hand of the 20-year-old victim in his book about the Kohberger case, claiming it was just one of many puzzling things about the evidence surrounding the Moscow, Idaho slayings.<\/p>\n

The hair didn\u2019t appear to match Kohberger\u2019s since it was \u201cabout six inches in length\u201d and was \u201cdark blonde, light brown with reddish tint,\u201d Whitcomb said in an interview with The Post\u2019s Miranda Devine about the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cBryan Kohberger\u2019s hair doesn\u2019t fit any of those characteristics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More hair was found in blood on the frame of the bed left behind from Chapin\u2019s hand, Whitcomb said. And the hair was never DNA tested, Whitcomb claimed.<\/p>\n

The implication from Kohberger\u2019s claim is that he believes the hairs could belong to the \u201creal killer.\u201d <\/p>\n

Other observers, however, have suggested that there are many more likely explanations for the hair \u2014 for example that it could be from one of the other victims, and it was displaced in the violence of the killings.<\/p>\n

The issue of the hair may be one of the only shots that Kohberger has to claim his constitutional rights were violated because his lawyers did not have it tested for DNA \u2014 but it\u2019s still a long shot, legal experts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs to allege enough to try and prove that there\u2019s some merit to this claim. And so, my guess is that that\u2019s him grasping at straws and trying to find something, some sort of way of getting just enough factual basis in this to try and get an attorney involved,\u201d said Idaho based lawyer Ryan Black.<\/p>\n

Black explained that the judge will likely hold a hearing to determine if Kohberger should be granted representation by a lawyer to fight his new request. <\/p>\n

If granted, both sides would need to file legal arguments and potentially argue the issue in court as well.<\/p>\n

Read more Gavin Newsom\u2019s ex-lover exposes wife\u2019s shocking hypocrisy in affair scandal comments<\/a><\/p>\n

But ultimately Kohberger\u2019s request has \u201calmost zero\u201d chance of succeeding, Black said.<\/p>\n

Kohberger\u2019s prior defense lawyer, Anne Taylor, is one of a select group of Idaho lawyers who has enough experience to be qualified to work on death penalty cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the defense team that worked on this case. I\u2019ve worked with a lot of those attorneys before. Candidly, if there were exculpatory evidence in this case, I would expect that that would have come to light some time ago,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a defense team like he did here, they were on top of things. They were very, very efficient. They were filing a lot of motions. They did a lot of really good work on his case,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Two other legal experts agreed that Kohberger\u2019s request to take back his guilty admission isn\u2019t likely to pan out for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this petition will lose, it will not be granted,\u201d former prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The Post. <\/p>\n

Still, Kohberger raising the issue of the hairs found in Chapin\u2019s hand, is \u201cthe only possible, narrow path there would be for him to actually withdraw his guilty plea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kohberger either has to convince a judge his lawyers did a bad job or that favorable evidence was held back by the prosecution and that those things caused him to make a guilty plea he wouldn\u2019t have otherwise made, New York Law School Professor Anna Cominsky explained.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

As for the issue of the hair, \u201cwe don\u2019t know that there\u2019s any merit to anything that he\u2019s saying,\u201d Cominsky said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the whole process will be for a judge to make a determination about whether there is any merit to any of the allegations he\u2019s making and then, ultimately, whether or not that would have affected him pleading guilty,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kohberger, a former criminology PhD student, allegedly stabbed Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin as they were sleeping in their off-campus house in Moscow on Nov. 13, 2022.<\/p>\n

Kohberger, who was facing the potential of death by firing squad if convicted at trial, took a surprise plea deal five weeks before the high-profile trial had been slated to start. Prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table in exchange for Kohberger copping to the murders.<\/p>\n

Read more Steamy moment aide\u2019s affair with Gavin Newsom began \u2014 in cringeworthy detail<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bryan Kohberger’s long-shot bid to reverse his guilty plea back for the murder of four Idaho college students rests on “clumps of unknown hair” found in the hands of one of his victim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBryan Kohberger\u2019s bid to reverse guilty plea hangs on a \u2018clump of hair\u2019 found in victim\u2019s hand \u2014 here\u2019s why it\u2019s \u2018grasping at straws\u2019 - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5599\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bryan Kohberger\u2019s bid to reverse guilty plea hangs on a \u2018clump of hair\u2019 found in victim\u2019s hand \u2014 here\u2019s why it\u2019s \u2018grasping at straws\u2019 - 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