Brian Koberger accepted a plea deal just days after his sister, Amanda Koberger, was added to the witness list, leading to a swift end to the case before it went to trial, according to recent court documents.
The newly released filings reveal that Amanda Koberger appeared on both the state’s updated witness list and the defense’s list of mitigating witnesses, prepared by lead attorney Ann Taylor.
In fact, documents indicate that Amanda was set to be a witness for both sides in the weeks leading up to Koberger’s plea. Quite notably, soon after naming his sister as a prosecution witness on June 25, he chose to accept a plea deal that bypassed a trial.
Prosecutors’ witness list, filed the same day, included 180 names, covering a wide range from investigators to victim’s family members, with Amanda being a significant inclusion.
Interestingly, Koberger’s father, Michael, had reported to police that his son allegedly took his sister Melissa’s iPhone, as noted in a police report from 2014. Authorities, while confirming the case had been erased, declined to go into further detail.
In stark contrast, the defense’s mitigation list submitted on June 6 included 56 potential witnesses aimed at the sentencing phase, ranging from psychologists to Koberger’s close family members.
The case garnered national attention when, on November 13, 2022, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Zana Kernodle, and Kaylee Goncalves were all found murdered in an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho.
Koberger, a former Ph.D. criminology student at Washington State University, was arrested in December 2022.
As part of his plea, Koberger, now 30, has pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony robbery.
