(NewsNation) —The families of four Idaho college students fatally stabbed by Bryan Kohberger will get their chance to face him in court as he’s set to be sentenced for the brutal killings on Wednesday.
The former criminology student took a plea deal, agreeing to serve four life sentences for the 2022 murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. He confessed to killing them in court, avoiding a trial where prosecutors intended to seek the death penalty.
The guilty plea marked an unexpected halt to a yearslong legal process for the victims’ families, who now have their only opportunity to make impact statements at the sentencing hearing.
Without a trial, they may never get an answer to the question of why Kohberger committed the crime.
Thus far, the four families have been divided on the plea. One criticized it, calling it hurried and secretive. Another said it gives them “closure” to move on with their lives.
The brutal killings sent shockwaves through the tight-knit community of Moscow, Idaho, later commanding the attention of the nation.
The 2022 murders of four Idaho college students
On the night of Nov. 13, 2022, four students were attacked at a rental home near the campus of the University of Idaho.
Investigators believe the students, thought to be sleeping at the time, were fatally stabbed between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
Just before noon, two surviving roommates woke up and found one of the victims on the second floor unresponsive. At 11:58 a.m., 911 was called on one of the surviving roommates’ phones about an “unconscious individual.”
Responding officers discovered a bloody scene and the four students dead. According to the coroner, there was no sign of sexual assault, but some victims had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times.
The killings shook the small community of about 25,000 people, which hadn’t had a homicide in about five years.
Weeks later, Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania and extradited to Idaho.
Investigators were able to match his DNA to genetic material recovered from the sheath of a knife found at the rental home.
At the time of the killings, he was a graduate student at nearby Washington State University, where he was working toward a Ph.D. in criminology.
Bryan Kohberger’s long legal road
Kohberger was charged in May 2023 with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in connection to the brutal killings.
When asked to enter a plea, Kohberger stood silent, prompting the judge to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty against Kohberger.
Mounting media attention and speculation surrounding the brutal murders led an Idaho court to issue a gag order barring anyone involved from speaking publicly about the case.
Over the next two years, the case became a sprawling back-and-forth between prosecutors and defense attorneys over a number of issues, including where the trial should take place, how lawyers can describe Kohberger and who should be allowed to testify.
Defense attorneys focused much of their attack on the method investigators used to arrest Kohberger, called Investigative Genetic Genealogy.
They argued that police never sought warrants to analyze the DNA found at the crime scene, nor did they get warrants to analyze the DNA of potential relatives that had been submitted to genealogy databases.
The trial was moved from rural northern Idaho to Boise after the defense expressed concerns that Kohberger couldn’t get a fair trial in the county where the killings occurred.
The off-campus home where the killings took place was demolished in 2023, leaving behind an empty lot with dry grass and leftover mementos from a makeshift memorial.
Bryan Kohberger’s shocking guilty plea
Weeks before the trial was set to take place in August, Kohberger made a shocking admission of guilt by accepting a plea deal.
Prosecutors dropped the death penalty in exchange for him pleading guilty to premeditated murder and accepting a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole. The deal also entailed him waiving his right to an appeal.
During the July plea hearing, Kohberger answered the judge with one-word answers and did not give any indication of what led to the murders.
The families of victims were divided on the plea. The Goncalves family has criticized the deal, calling it hurried and secretive.
“The state is showing BK (Bryan Kohberger) mercy by removing the death penalty. BK did not show Kaylee ANY mercy,” the Goncalves family wrote in a statement. “His life on DEATH ROW while serving his time would have been much worse than serving his time as life in prison. He doesn’t deserve life in prison. He deserved life on death row.”
Goncalves’ father, Steve Goncalves, said the family feels they were “used” by government attorneys as prosecutors compiled a mountain of evidence. Goncalves also added that he would have preferred the option of a trial and a potential death sentence for Kohberger.
Jim and Stacy Chapin, the parents of Ethan Chapin, said they finally have “closure” with the plea deal, in an interview with the Today Show.
“If I could physically do a handstand at that time, I would probably do one, because I am so ready for it to be done,” Jim Chapin said of the moment he found out about the plea deal.
His wife, Stacy said, “There were so many kids, including our own, that had been subpoenaed that no longer have this hanging over their heads. I mean, we just all get to go live our life.”
The Associated Press and NewsNation’s Steph Whiteside contributed to this story.
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Author: Safia Samee Ali
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