Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty to killing 4 University of Idaho students

A man who stabbed four University of Idaho students in 2022 pleaded guilty to the killings on Wednesday, having struck a deal with prosecutors that will allow him to avoid the death penalty. 

Bryan Kohberger, a former criminal justice graduate student at nearby Washington State University, admitted to the slayings before entering the formal pleas in a Boise, Idaho, courtroom.

He will be sentenced on July 23.

Kohberger killed Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen at a rental home near campus in the middle of the night on Nov. 13, 2022. Autopsies showed each of the four victims was stabbed multiple times and some had defensive wounds.

At the hearing on Wednesday, Latah County prosecuting attorney Bill Thompson said Kohberger killed Mogen and Goncalves together and then ran into Kernodle, who was still awake. He then stabbed Kernodle and her boyfriend, Chapin, who was still asleep, Thompson said.

Family members became increasingly emotional as Idaho Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler explained each charge to Kohberger, naming each victim individually. Some cried into tissues, while other wiped tears with their hands. 

Kohberger, 30, remained impassive as he confirmed to the judge that he stabbed the four victims. As he pleaded guilty, some in the family section looked down and others craned to see him.

Kohberger told the judge he understood the terms of the plea deal, which stipulates he will serve four life sentences and won't be able to appeal.

Hippler said as the hearing began that he would not take public opinion into account when deciding whether to accept the agreement.

"This court cannot require the prosecutor to seek the death penalty, nor would it be appropriate for this court to do that," he said. "This court … cannot force the state to seek the death penalty."

Idaho killings seized nation's attention

The killings grabbed headlines around the world and set off a nationwide hunt, including an elaborate effort to track down a white sedan spotted on surveillance cameras repeatedly driving by the rental home.

At the time, Kohberger had just completed his first semester at Washington State University and was a teaching assistant in the criminology program.

Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.

Online shopping records showed that Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife months earlier — as well as a sheath like the one found at the scene.

No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were in the home. There also was no indication he had a relationship with any of the victims, who all were friends and members of the university's Greek system.

Authorities have said cellphone data and surveillance video show that Kohberger visited the victims' neighbourhood at least a dozen times before the killings, and that he travelled in the same area that night.

Kohberger's lawyers said he was simply on a long drive by himself around the time the four were killed.

The case was moved to Boise because of pretrial publicity in northern Idaho. Hippler must approve the plea deal. If Kohberger pleads guilty as expected, he would likely be sentenced in July.

Families split on plea deal

Although the Goncalves family opposed the agreement and said they would seek to stop it, they also argued that any such deal should require Kohberger to make a full confession, detail the facts of what happened and provide the location of the murder weapon.

"We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was," they wrote in a Facebook post.

The family of Chapin — one of three triplets who attended the university together — supports the deal, their spokesperson, Christina Teves, said Tuesday.

Attorney Leander James, who represents Mogen's mother and stepfather, declined to give their views but said he would deliver a statement on their behalf after Wednesday's hearing. Mogen's father, Ben Mogen, told CBS News he was relieved by the agreement.

"We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don't want to have to be at, that we shouldn't have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person," he said. "We get to just think about the rest of lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids."