Kohberger faces four consecutive life sentences for the four murders and a 10-year sentence for burglary.
Bryan Kohberger, the former criminal justice doctoral student charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in 2022, on Wednesday entered a guilty plea deal that would spare him the death penalty.
Kohberger, 30, had been scheduled to stand trial starting on Aug. 18. Instead, he accepted a plea agreement from prosecutors, agreeing to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murders, in addition to 10 years for a burglary charge. He also waived his right to appeal.
As part of the deal, Kohberger admitted to killing Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Madison Mogen, 21, at an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. He was arrested six weeks later at his parents’ home in eastern Pennsylvania.
The hearing at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise began shortly after 11:15 a.m. local time. Judge Steven Hippler noted that the court is not legally bound to accept the sentencing terms of the plea agreement, but also clarified that Kohberger may not ask for a different sentence.
When asked by the judge whether he was pleading guilty because he was guilty, Kohberger replied, “Yes.” He then answered “Yes” again as the judge read the names of each of the four victims and asked whether Kohberger had murdered them.
Family members of the victims could be seen crying in the courtroom during the proceedings.
Kohberger is due to be sentenced on July 23.
Families React to Plea Deal
Reactions from the victims’ families were mixed. A video posted on X showed that Steve Goncalves, father of Kaylee Goncalves, apparently left the courthouse in frustration before Kohberger arrived.
The Gonclaves family is calling on Hippler to impose a death sentence regardless. The family had also expressed strong disappointment at the prosecutors’ offer of a plea deal, saying in a Facebook post that they were “beyond furious at the State of Idaho.”
By Bill Pan
