The family of one of Bryan Kohberger’s victims has been left furious after it emerged he was challenging his conviction for four murders of students in the US state of Idaho.

Kohberger was sentenced last year to four consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty to murder charges in the November 2022 slayings.

In recent days, Kohberger told the New York Times, external he was withdrawing his plea, which he had made to avoid the death penalty. He said it had been based on “false promises and blatant misinformation”.

The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the slain students, said Kohberger was a “narcissist” who appeared to have changed positions.

“He chose not to leave his fate – or the facts of the case – in the hands of a jury,” the Gonçalves family statement said.

“He never made a bad judgment, he never claimed that he was uninformed or pressured, and he never suggested that there were problems with the discovery materials that he and his attorney had reviewed for two years that should have been questioned.”

The Gonçalves family went on to say that “the real tragedy” was the amount of attention Kohberger was now receiving at the victims’ expense.

Kohberger was convicted of stabbing to death his housemates Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen, who attended the University of Idaho, at their off-campus home on November 13, 2022.

The case shocked the small student town of Moscow and made national headlines for nearly two months before Kohberger was arrested.

Kohberger was a doctoral student in criminology at a different institution, Washington State University.

He never shared a motive with the court and it is unclear why he would have driven to another campus to brutally stab four students.

Investigators were unable to link him to the victims, although they presented compelling evidence placing him at the crime scene.

In his statement to the New York Times, declaring his new intention to plead not guilty, Kohberger protested his innocence and said he was offering prosecutors another chance to seek the death penalty if they so desired.

Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador paid tribute to the victims’ families, saying they had “already endured an unimaginable loss and must now confront today’s deeply painful news.”

Labrador’s statement added: “My office stands ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure that justice is fully served.”