Bryan Kohberger, the 30-year-old former criminology student accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students—21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, 21-year-old Madison Mogen, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin—to death in the early hours of November 13, 2022, pled guilty Wednesday to four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge. The trial, which had been planned for August and the subject of public fascination, will not proceed, and the deal will allow Kohberger to avoid facing the death penalty for his crimes.
At his arraignment in May 2023, Kohberger declined to enter a plea, and the judge entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf, as is standard procedure.
The deal brokered by Kohberger’s legal team means that he will serve four consecutive life sentences, plus another 10 years for the burglary, and will not be allowed to appeal his case, and it is unclear whether he will be eligible for parole at any point.
Vanity Fair published longform reports on the case, which made international headlines, in a 2-part series by Kathleen Hale. The first story examined the life of the victims, and the second detailed the ways the true-crime cottage industry and legacy media approached coverage, and included a detailed interview with Brian Entin of NewsNation.
The families of the victims were informed of the plea deal on Monday, with two families sharing their approval, while the other two had hoped Kohberger would stand trial.
Ben Mogen and Stacy and Jim Chapin supported the deal, with Mogen releasing a statement saying the sentence “punishes the perpetrator of this horrific crime, protects the public from further harm and allows all of us who knew and loved these four young people the time to grieve without the anxiety of the long and gruesome trial, years of appeals and potential mistrials along the way.”
Jeff Kernodle and the Goncalves family, however, felt differently.
Goncalves’ parents, Steve and Kristi Goncalves, said in January 2023 that they supported the death penalty for Kohberger.
“He has to pay for what he’s done,” Steve said of Kohberger in an interview. “Justice is when you leave the planet … and the whole world is able to rejoice and be glad that you are not there. That’s justice, and we will forgive him.”
The Kohberger family Wednesday released a statement asking for privacy and assuring that “We will continue to allow the legal process to unfold with respect to all parties, and will not release any comments or take any questions.”
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From the Archive: The Idaho Murders
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