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Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students, faced the victims' families during his sentencing hearing on Wednesday (July 23) in Boise, Idaho. Kohberger, 30, is expected to receive four consecutive life sentences without parole for the 2022 killings of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. The victims were found stabbed to death in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.
Kohberger, a former criminology graduate student, was linked to the crime through DNA evidence, cellphone records, and surveillance footage. His arrest in Pennsylvania, where he was living with his parents, came six weeks after the murders. The trial was moved to Boise due to concerns about finding an unbiased jury in Moscow. His guilty plea earlier this month was part of a deal to avoid the death penalty. The plea agreement does not require Kohberger to explain his actions, leaving many questions unanswered for the victims' families. President Donald Trump commented on the case, urging the judge to require Kohberger to explain his motives.
During the hearing, the families of the victims were given the opportunity to deliver victim impact statements, expressing their grief and anger. The families of Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle expressed dissatisfaction with the plea deal, hoping for answers about the motive behind the killings.
The courtroom was emotional as the families addressed the court and Kohberger directly. At one point, even the judge wiped away tears from his eyes.
"First, we felt disbelief, disorientation, and then we felt grief overcome us," Maddie Mogen’s stepfather, Scott Laramie said. "After Maddie’s loss, Karen felt like she was spinning out emotionally, collapsing in anxiety into an anxiety and depression."
"As for the defendant, we will not waste the words, nor will we, nor will we fall into hatred and bitterness. Evil has many faces, and we now know this, but evil does not deserve our time and attention," Laramie, said speaking directly to Kohberger.
When Maddie Mogen's father, Ben Mogen read from a Father's Day card his daughter gave him, Bryan Kohberger’s mother broke down in tears.
"I’ll never be able to replace her. I wrote a bunch of stuff. I don’t, I just don’t know what to say right now. I just missed her so much," Mr. Mogen said.
When Steve Goncalves delivered his statement, he the lectern to face Kohberger so he could look directly at the man who murdered his daughter.
"Today, we are here to finish what you started," he said. "We are here to prove to the world that you picked the wrong families, wrong state, the wrong police officers, the wrong community."
"Nobody cares about you. You’re not worth the time, the effort to be remembered in time, you will be nothing but two initials, forgotten to the wind, no visitors, nothing more than initials on an otherwise unmarked tombstone," he added.
Kaylee's sister, Alivea Goncalves received some applause during her impact statement, when she used vulgar language, saying her sibling would have “kicked your f****** ass" if they were there the night he murdered the four college students.
"You didn’t win," Alivea Goncalves added. "You just exposed yourself as the coward you are. You’re a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser who thought you were so much smarter than everybody else."
Xana Kerndole's mother was the last to address the court, saying that she was praying for Kohberger.
"I pray that you come to the end of your pray that before this life is over, that you ask our Lord and Savior in your heart and to forgive you. I do pray for that, but after today, I wash my hands of you and you are no longer a thing," she said.
After the impact statements were finished, Kohberger declined to address the court to offer an apology or explain his actions. Before handing down the sentence, District Court Judge Steven Hippler called Kohberger a "faceless coward."
“The loss this killer inflicted was not just the death of these people’s children, siblings, grandchildren, as we’ve heard today, it has ripped a hole in their soul, destroying a special part of their very essence,” Hippler said. “There is no reason for these crimes that could approach anything resembling rationality."
“In my view, the time has now come to end for Mr. Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame,” he continued. “It’s time that he be consigned to the ignominy and isolation of perpetual incarceration.”
Hippler then formally sentenced Kohberger to four life sentences to be served consecutively for each first-degree murder count in the deaths of Chapin, Goncalves, Kernodle and Mogen, plus an additional ten years on one count of burglary.
After the sentencing, Kohberger was transferred to the Idaho Department of Corrections to serve his sentence.