Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four college students in Idaho, appears ready to accept a deal to plead guilty in connection with the killings, one victim’s family and their attorney said Monday.
The family of Kaylee Goncalves said they learned of the apparent deal in a letter from prosecutors, according to a statement. The Latah County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office “vaguely mentioned” a possible plea deal on Friday, before presenting it to the family on Sunday “without seeking our input,” the statement says.
“We weren’t even called about the plea; we received an email with a letter attached,” the family said.
According to the Idaho Statesman, the letter said the plea deal will ensure Kohberger’s conviction and secure life in prison for him.
“This agreement ensures that the defendant will be convicted, will spend the rest of his life in prison, and will not be able to put you and the other families through the uncertainty of decades of post-conviction appeals,” read the letter, signed by Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson, according to the Idaho Statesman.
Kohberger, 30, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in the 2022 killings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Goncalves at an off-campus home in Moscow.
“Appears there is a plea deal that has been offered and accepted,” said Shanon Gray, an attorney for the Goncalves family.
Additional details were not immediately available. The Latah County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and an attorney for Kohberger declined to comment.
“We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho,” the Goncalves family said in a Facebook post about the apparent agreement. “They have failed us.”
Kohberger’s trial was scheduled to begin Aug. 11 in Boise.
Attorneys for Kohberger, a doctoral student in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, have said he was out driving alone when the students were killed.
They attended the University of Idaho, just across the state line from Pullman.
The bodies of Chapin, 20; Kernodle, 20; Mogen, 21; and Goncalves, 21, were found Nov. 13, 2022. Authorities linked Kohberger to the killing through cellphone data, security camera video and DNA on a knife sheath discovered at the scene.
Kohberger was arrested Dec. 30 at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania.
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