Bryan Kohberger agreed to plead guilty to the murders of four people in a controversial plea deal that let him avoid the death penalty. Photo / Getty Images
Bryan Kohberger has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students, ending a chapter of a case that drew national attention.
Kohberger, 30, was also sentenced on Wednesday (local time) to 10 years on a burglary charge. He will not be eligible for parole and must pay restitution to the victims’ families.
At a hearing in Boise, before the sentence was announced, Kohberger listened to family members and friends of the victims talk about their enduring pain and loss. Kohberger declined to speak, leaving many questions – including motive – unanswered.
“What we don’t know, and what we may never know, is why,” Judge Steven Hippler said before sentencing him, adding: “By continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr Kohberger relevance. We give him agency. We give him power.”
Kohberger pleaded guilty this month to the murders in a deal that eliminated the possibility of the death penalty. The plea agreement divided the families of the victims and marked a turning point in the high-profile case, which thrust a small city into the national spotlight, inspired several books and movies, and became a subject of obsession and speculation by true-crime fans.
The November 13, 2022, murders upended life in the college town of Moscow, Idaho. Housemates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, were stabbed to death in an off-campus house, sparking a search for the killer that lasted more than six weeks.
Prosecutors eventually linked Kohberger, a former criminology PhD student, to the crimes through DNA found on a knife sheath next to a victim’s body. His cellphone also pinged cell towers near the house about 23 times in late-night or early-morning hours in the months before the killings, prosecutors said. Authorities arrested him at his parents’ home in northeastern Pennsylvania on December 30, 2022.
The murder weapon has never been found.
Roommates and family members of the four victims had the opportunity to read gut-wrenching impact statements in the courtroom Wednesday, describing the ways their fears endure and keeping the focus on their loved ones, not Kohberger, who sat largely emotionless.
“The vast emotional wound will never fully heal,” Mogen’s stepfather, Scott Laramie, said. “We will grow old without our only child.”
Kim Cheeley, Mogen’s paternal grandmother, encouraged “folks to do random acts of kindness in Maddie’s name”.
Some said Kohberger wasn’t worth their attention, or refused to say his name. Others spoke about him, or to him directly.
“Because of him, four beautiful, genuine, compassionate people were taken from this world for no reason,” said Dylan Mortensen, who lived with Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle. “He’s something less than human,” she said later. “Although I have to live with this pain, at least I get to live my life. He will stay here, empty, forgotten and powerless.”
“Sit up straight when I talk to you,” Olivia Goncalves, the older sister of Kaylee Goncalves, said as she looked toward Kohberger, who did not move. Goncalves rattled off questions: “Did you know them? Did you approach them before you killed them?”
She claimed that Kohberger had stalked the young women for months, something that has not been publicly substantiated by investigators and speaks to the unanswered question of motive in the case.
Olivia Goncalves called Kohberger unintelligent and sloppy. “If you were smart, would you really be here right now?” she said, adding that he took months preparing for the crime “and all it took was my sister and a sheath”.
Kohberger pleaded guilty on July 2 to four first-degree murder charges and a burglary charge. He showed little emotion as he responded with one-word answers to Judge Steven Hippler’s yes-or-no questions to determine whether he intended to admit guilt and was of sound mind to accept the deal.
The plea agreement removed the possibility that Kohberger would be sentenced to death if convicted at trial.
The families expressed differing opinions on the plea deal, which meant there would not be a trial that could have addressed unanswered questions about the killings.
Shanon Gray, an attorney for the Goncalves family, said the family felt that prosecutors had failed them by agreeing to the deal. In a Facebook post, the family criticised Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson by name.
“This ain’t justice, no judge presided, no jury weighed the truth,” the family wrote. “Thompson robbed us of our day in court. No negotiations, no jury of our peers, not even the pretence of co-operation and fairness.”
Kernodle’s mother, Cara Kernodle, expressed similar anger at the deal in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.
“I felt like it was too easy for him to just admit that he did it and not give an explanation or answer our questions,” she said of Kohberger, adding, “You feel kind of cheated.”
Leander James, an attorney representing Mogen’s mother and stepfather, read a statement outside the Ada County Courthouse after Kohberger pleaded guilty: “While we know there are some who do not support it, we ask that they respect our belief that this is the best outcome possible for the victims, their families and the state of Idaho”.
Chapin’s parents, Stacy and Jim Chapin, told NBC’s Today that they were pleased with the plea agreement. “For us, we always felt like this was a better deal,” Stacy Chapin said. “He gets put away.”
A county magistrate judge’s 2023 gag order sharply curtailed public information about the case. But after Kohberger pleaded guilty this month, a coalition of media organisations argued that the order had stopped being necessary because a trial was no longer planned.
Prosecutors did not oppose the motion. Kohberger’s defence team unsuccessfully tried to persuade the court to keep the gag order active, saying it protected his safety and right to privacy.
Hippler on Thursday agreed to lift the order.
“The rights of the public to information in this case is paramount given the fact that a plea has been entered in this case,” he said at the Thursday hearing. But, he added, “Nobody is required to speak to the media”.
Hippler said that after the sentencing he will review sealed documents in the case to consider making them public, working from the newest to the oldest records.
Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger told ABC News that his department plans to release a large amount of information about the case.