Bryan Kohberger has admitted to hacking four University of Idaho students to death as they slept — acknowledging in court Wednesday he committed to four premeditated murders as part of a controversial plea deal that will spare him from death by firing squad.
Kohberger, wearing a tie and slacks, stood as he spoke in court, telling the judge a curt “Yes” and “No” when asked if he understood the implications of his guilty plea and whether he was under the influence of any substance that could impair his judgment.
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” the judge asked.
“Yes,” Kohberger replied without emotion.
The judge then asked: “Did you kill and murder Madison Mogen, a human being?”
“Yes,” Kohberger said,
He then repeated that cold reply for the murders of the other victims – Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
The 30-year-old entered the plea in a Boise, Idaho, courtroom just two days after news of the deal broke. He will serve four consecutive life sentences in exchange for no death penalty. He will never be allowed to appeal his conviction, and will never be eligible for parole.
The agreement with prosecutors starkly divided the families of the four victims, with the loved ones of Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle slamming the prosecuting attorney’s office, and lamenting that Kohberger will never have to explain why he targeted the roommates.
The families of Ethan Chapin and Madison Mogen said they support the deal and wanted to avoid a painful bombshell trial, which would have generated weeks of wall-to-wall national coverage.
Despite the chance that they’ll never hear why Kohberger killed their kids, the victims’ families will at least be able to pursue restitution for the incomprehensible destruction he caused, according to an explanation of the plea deal obtained by the Idaho Statesman.
Kohberger — a PhD criminology student — had insisted he was completely innocent of the bloody quadruple homicide since he was arrested in December 2022. And as recently as May, his defense attempted to argue an “alternative perpetrator” committed the cold-blooded stabbings.
But now he’s finally owned up to the killing, which saw students Kernodle, 20; Chapin, 20; Mogen, 21, and Goncalves, 21, hacked to death in their beds by a military-style Ka-Bar knife on a dark Moscow night in November 2022.
No motive has ever been revealed. Kohberger was studying at the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology just 10 miles away at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, at the time of the murders.
The stunning turnaround comes as Kohberger’s trial was due to begin in August, and his defense became increasingly desperate — with a judge rejecting repeated motions to have mountains of damning evidence thrown out. The most recent rulings denied defense requests to delay the trial and present other possible suspects.
Though Kohberger’s plea was likely to spell out how he carried out the killing — corroborating facts like times, dates, and locations — it remains unclear whether he will ever explain why he did it.
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That’s left his victims’ families divided — with some of them outraged and fuming that prosecutors “failed” them.
“Idaho has failed. They failed me. They failed my whole family,” Goncalves’ father, Steve Goncalves, told NBC’s “Today” show after the deal became public, with the family later saying in a statement that they’d given a “HARD NO” when prosecutors recently asked about offering a deal.
“It’s not really about us, it’s about their process,” Goncalves added, saying prosecutors moved forward with the deal just days after the family voiced its objection.
Despite Kohberger having little apparent connection to his victims, the evidence against him was increasingly staggering, which may have motivated him to finally take a deal and avoid the same fate he gave his innocent victims.
Chief among the evidence was a sheath found near Mogen’s bloodied body that had Kohberger’s DNA on it, while prosecutors found evidence that he’d purchased a matching Ka-Bar knife on Amazon just months before the murders.
Eerie surveillance footage also captured a white Hyundai matching Kohberger’s vehicle circling the students’ home on the night of the murders, and then speeding away around 4 a.m. just after investigators say the students were killed.
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And while he coldly butchered most of the home’s occupants, two housemates survived — including one who got a look at the killer lurking through the dark halls, and described him as somebody with “bushy eyebrows” exactly like Kohberger’s.
Cell tower records also indicated Kohberger had been lurking around the victims’ home in the days before the killings, only for his phone to mysteriously drop off the grid during the exact moments of the attack — and then reconnect after everyone was dead around 4:30 a.m., just minutes from the house.
Kohberger was also found with a gun, knife, and a black surgical mask when he was arrested, along with an ID card he’d hidden that authorities said was connected to the murders.
His defense spent the last months filing a deluge of motions to have evidence thrown out, but was largely rebuffed by the court.
But it all ended Monday after news broke that prosecutors had sent the victims’ families a letter explaining a deal had been struck.
Wednesday’s plea brings the three-year saga to a close, but leaves many questions unanswered.
