Bryan Kohberger tells a judge he is guilty of killing 4 University of Idaho students
By Gene Johnson and Jesse Bedayn
Bryan Kohberger admitted to a judge Wednesday that he was responsible for the vicious stabbing killings of four University of Idaho students in 2022, which shocked and alarmed the university and sparked a global search that concluded weeks later when he was apprehended in Pennsylvania.
As a graduate student studying criminal justice at neighboring Washington State University, Kohberger confessed to the killings before formally pleading guilty in a plea agreement with prosecutors that spared him from execution. The trial was scheduled for August.
Judge Steven Hippler of the Idaho Fourth Judicial District declared at the start of the hearing on Wednesday that he would not consider public opinion when determining whether to accept the accord.
He stated that it would not be acceptable for this court to order the prosecutor to pursue the death penalty. The state cannot be forced to pursue the death penalty by this court.
On November 13, 2022, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen were discovered dead at a rental house close to campus in Moscow, a small rural hamlet in the northern Idaho panhandle that had not experienced a homicide in almost five years. According to autopsies, the four victims were most likely asleep at the time of the assault. Each was stabbed several times, and some suffered defensive wounds.
Reporters were setting up cameras outside the Boise courtroom and waiting in line with those hoping to get a seat for the hearing long before dawn on Wednesday.
The murders garnered international attention and sparked a worldwide search, which included a complex attempt to locate a white automobile that was seen driving by the rental house on security footage. Police claimed to have located Kohberger’s movements the night of the murders by using cellphone data and genetic genealogy to identify him as a potential candidate.
Kohberger had recently finished his first semester as a teaching assistant in the criminology department at neighboring Washington State University, where he was a graduate student studying criminal justice at the time.
Weeks later, Kohberger was taken into custody in his parents’ home state of Pennsylvania. His DNA, according to investigators, was linked to genetic material taken from a knife sheath that was discovered at the scene of the crime.
Records of Kohberger’s online purchases revealed that he had bought a military-style knife and a sheath similar to the one discovered at the site months prior.
It is unclear why the assailant spared two housemates who were present in the house, and no motive has been found for the murders. Additionally, there was no proof that he was related to any of the victims, who were all acquaintances and part of the Greek community at the university.
According to authorities, security footage and cellular data demonstrate that Kohberger traveled through the victims’ neighborhood that night and had been there at least a dozen times prior to the killings.
Kohberger’s attorneys claimed that at the time the four were killed, he was only alone on a lengthy trip.
The pretrial publicity in northern Idaho led to the case being transferred to Boise. The plea agreement needs Hippler’s approval. Kohberger would probably be sentenced in July if he enters the anticipated guilty plea.
The Goncalves family contended that any such arrangement should force Kohberger to provide a complete confession, provide the location of the murder weapon, and detail the details of what happened, even if they opposed the agreement and said they would try to stop it.
In a Facebook post, they stated, “We deserve to know when the end was coming.”
According to their representative, Christina Teves, the family of Chapin, one of three triplets who attended the university together, supports the agreement.
Mogen’s mother and stepfather’s lawyer, Leander James, said he will make a statement on their behalf during Wednesday’s hearing, but he declined to share their opinions. Ben Mogen, Mogen’s father, expressed his relief at the arrangement to CBS News.
He remarked, “We can truly move on from this and avoid these future dates and events that we don’t want to be at, that we shouldn’t have to be at, that have to do with this awful person.” All we have to do is consider the remainder of our life and attempt to figure out how to live without Maddie and the other children.
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From Seattle, Johnson reported.
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