Former students of Bryan Kohberger are speaking out about a confrontation they had with him weeks before he allegedly murdered four people, Inside Edition reports.
One of the students told “The King Road Killings” podcast that after a midterm exam, students debated Kohberger about whether he was grading them too harshly.
The confrontation happened in late September or early October, when Kohberger was in his first semester as a Ph.D. student at Washington State University. As part of his funding package, he served as a teaching assistant in the school’s criminology program.
“We had a midterm exam that a lot of people thought was graded unfairly. So we as a class had like a day where we went in and we were all essentially allowed to just like debate him about our grades and try and like earn points back,” Hayden Stinchfield told the podcast. “But, you know, it was a thing where he argued back.”
She added: “And so we were sort of in this weird like debate for the whole class, 50 of us against one of him, and he was having to field all these questions. But Brian didn’t seem super comfortable, and honestly, none of us were like, super comfortable. It was a weird vibe.”
Kohberger, 28, is accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in the early morning hours of Sunday, November 13, in nearby Moscow, Idaho. The victims – Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – were found stabbed to death in an off-campus home on King Road.
Following the killings, Stinchfield said Kohberger appeared different.
“Later in the semester, like the last time he came was probably a couple weeks before the class ended physically, I remember he looked a little bit more disheveled. He had like some stubble coming on and his hair was a little, you know, messed up or whatever. Nothing like crazy,” Stinchfield told the podcast. “But enough that I remember seeing him and thinking like, oh man, you know, finals must be really getting to him or something like that.”
Stinchfield added that Kohberger seemed to have changed his grading practices and was giving students good grades but without any notes.
University officials fired Kohberger later that semester, citing confrontations with a professor, according to Newsweek.
Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in connection with the slayings. A judge in late May entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.
A trial is scheduled to begin in October.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast. Listen to the latest episode:
[Feature Photo: Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom during a hearing Tuesday, June 27, 2023, at the Latah County Courthouse in Moscow, Idaho. Defense attorneys for Kohberger who is charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students asked a judge Tuesday to order prosecutors to turn over more records, laying the groundwork for challenges to the case. Kohberger, 28, was indicted in May on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in connection with the Nov. 13, 2022, slayings of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at a rental home near the University of Idaho campus. (August Frank/Lewiston Tribune via AP, Pool)]
