The inmates making quadruple murderer Bryan Kohberger’s time in prison a living hell knew he was coming to the high-security Idaho lockup and planned how they could carry out a campaign of harassment against him, according to a report.
Kohberger was transferred from jail to the only high-security prison in the state after he received four life sentences last month for the gruesome slayings of four University of Idaho students in 2022.
And the prisoners at Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna “were aware he was coming,” former homicide detective Chris McDonough told NewsNation Tuesday.
“The inmates were apparently waiting for him,” said McDonough, who now works for the Cold Case Foundation. “And when he got there, they are now making his life absolutely miserable.”
“They got together and said, ‘OK, well, you know, how do we harass this guy?’” the former cop said. “And apparently, they set this up long before he got there … the guards were unaware of it until it started happening.”
Kohberger is being held in solitary confinement in a restrictive unit called J block that only has 32 other prisoners, who are “the worst of the worst outside of death row,” McDonough said.
The unwelcoming neighbors decided to carry out a relentless taunting campaign against Kohberger by taking turns yelling through the vents into his cell around the clock.
“They’re utilizing the vent system. They’re kicking the doors. They’re taunting him,” McDonough said. “And they’re basically, you know, torturing him through, you know, using psychology. And my goodness, he’s complaining.”
The 30-year-old former criminology PhD student has been whining to the guards that he’s been unable to sleep at night because of the crusade against him.
“He’s extremely annoyed and frustrated,” McDonough told the Daily Mail.
McDonough said Kohberger will likely eventually be placed in the general prison population. But in the meantime, he’ll have to put up with the hazing.
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“The inmates have come up with a creative idea in harassing him to the point where it’s basically driving him crazy,” McDonough said.
The ex-detective said since Kohberger isn’t at risk of being physically harmed by the prisoners, guards likely won’t do much to curb the harassment.
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“The most they can do is write it down and, or, you know, tell him, ‘Hey, there’s nothing we can do. You’re not in physical harm,’” McDonough said of the guards.
In solitary, Kohberger is kept in his cell for 23 hours a day and only allowed out of it for one hour a day for outdoor recreation while he’s in restraints. And Kohberger — whose lawyers have previously said he suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder — can only take a shower once every other day.
When he goes outside, his entire unit — or “pod” — “will light up with heckling, with taunting. I mean, they’ll start kicking the doors,” McDonough said.
Kohberger last month unexpectedly copped to the Nov. 13, 2022, murders of Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin at their off-campus house in Moscow.
The controversial deal he struck with prosecutors allowed him to avoid the death penalty and dodge a trial where victims’ loved ones might have gotten a look into the motivation for the heinous stabbings — the lack of which drew ire from some victims’ families.
