Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – A 30-year-old man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering four students in the US state of Idaho in an agreement with prosecutors that allowed him to avoid the death penalty — and enraged some relatives of the victims. Bryan Kohberger, a former criminology student, was facing trial in August for the November 2022 stabbing deaths that rocked the small town of Moscow and made national headlines.
University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were attacked around 4:00 am while they slept in their off-campus group house and stabbed to death. Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder at a hearing on Wednesday in the city of Boise.
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Judge Steven Hippler asked. “Yes,” Kohberger replied. The judge also acknowledged that some relatives were upset with the plea agreement reached between prosecutors and defense lawyers that took the death penalty off the table. “This court cannot require the prosecutor to seek the death penalty, nor would it be appropriate for this court to attempt to do that,” Hippler said.
Sentencing was set for July 23. Kohberger faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Goncalves family, in a statement shared by their lawyer, expressed outrage over the plea agreement. “After more than two years, this is how it concludes with a secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims’ families on the plea’s details,” the family wrote.
The Goncalves family had demanded the death penalty and successfully advocated for the passage of a new law in Idaho which allows death row inmates to be executed by firing squad. On a Facebook page, the Goncalves family called the plea deal “shocking and cruel.” “Bryan Kohberger facing life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world. Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever,” they said.
Kohberger was arrested and charged after investigators found his DNA on a knife sheath recovered at the crime scene. A video showed a car similar to Kohberger’s driving in the victims’ neighborhood around the time of the murders. No motive for the murders was ever established. At the time of the murders, Kohberger was studying for his PhD in criminology at Washington State University, about nine miles (15 kilometers) away from Moscow, across the state border.
© 2024 AFP
