Sean ‘Diddy' Combs
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News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
US man pleads guilty to murdering four university students, prosecutor shares chilling evidence
A US man has pleaded guilty to murdering four university students as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, with prosecutors in court laying out chilling evidence of the gruesome attack nearly three years after it made headlines around the world. Bryan Kohberger, a former criminology student, pleaded guilty on Wednesday (US time) to four counts of first-degree murder in the 2022 stabbings of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20. The plea was part of a deal that spared the 30-year-old from the death penalty – a decision which divided the victims' families. Kohberger also waived his right to appeal or seek leniency as part of the agreement. The four university students were attacked and stabbed to death around 4am on November 13, 2022, while they were sleeping in their group house near the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho. Two other housemates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, were left unharmed. 'Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?' Judge Steven Hippler asked Kohberger at the hearing on Wednesday. 'Yes,' he replied. Kohberger was arrested for the murders in December 2022. His trial was set to begin next month with jury selection slated for August 4 and opening arguments for August 18. He now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, with his sentencing set for later this month. 'Cruel': Families split over deal Ms Goncalves' family, who had demanded the death penalty, 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 in a statement shared by their lawyer. The family further called the plea deal 'shocking and cruel' in a statement on Facebook. '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 wrote. However, Ms Mogen's father expressed relief over the agreement. 'We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don't want to have to be at, that we shouldn't have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person,' he told CBS News. 'We get to just think about the rest of our lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and without the rest of the kids.' Prosecutor reveals chilling evidence During the hearing, Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson laid out the evidence he would have revealed if the case had gone to trial. 'He killed — intentionally, wilfully, deliberately, with premeditation, and with malice and forethought — Maddy Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle,' prosecutor Thompson told the courtroom before Kohberger formally submitted his guilty plea. It all started in March 2022, when Kohberger was living at his parents' Pennsylvania home and logged onto to buy a military-grade Ka Bar knife and sheath — the same blade he would go on to hack his victims to death with eight months later, according to the New York Post. He then moved to Pullman, Washington – located minutes from the Moscow, Idaho, murder site – in June to pursue a PhD in criminology at Washington State University. By early July, six months before the murders, Kohberger's phone began pinging off the cell tower that served the house — but only during odd hours of the night. Between July and the night of the November murders, Kohberger's phone pinged off that tower 23 times between the hours of 10pm and 4am, prosecutors said, adding that there was no evidence he ever had any direct contact with his victims during that time. But on the day of the killing Kohberger's phone was powered off in Pullman around 2am before being turned back in the Moscow area just before 5am — disappearing from the cellular grid at the exact time of the attack. During that blackout window he drove his White Hyundai from his Pullman apartment and parked it behind the victims' Moscow house, prosecutors said. Evidence like security footage clearly showed the vehicle. Wearing a dark face mask he slipped into the home using the kitchen's sliding door around 4am. He then climbed to the home's third floor where he used his seven-inch Ka Bar blade to butcher Mogen and Goncalves, both 21-year-old college seniors, as they slept alongside each other. There he left the knife's sheath. Kohberger then stole out of the room when he encountered 20-year-old Kernodle on the stairs. She had been awake after picking up a food delivery, and he cut her down and left her dying where she stood. 'Her room was not on the third floor, it was on the second floor,' Mr Thompson said, his voice shaking. 'He encountered Xana, and he ended up killing her, also with a large knife.' Kohberger then moved into her bedroom where her boyfriend – 20-year-old Mr Chapin – was sleeping, and attacked him. 'We will not represent that he intended to commit all of the murders that he did that night, but we know that that is what resulted,' Mr Thompson said. As Kohberger was leaving the house one of the two housemates who were left alive and untouched peered into a hallway and saw a man with 'bushy eyebrows' exiting the home. From there a neighbour's security footage showed Kohberger's car peeling out of the neighbourhood, and cell records indicate he was back home in Pullman around 5.30am. He then drove back to his victims' home around 9am, phone records show, but by 9.30am he was back home and taking a bizarre photo of himself flashing a thumbs up in his apartment bathroom. From there, he began desperately trying to cover his tracks. Over the next days, he took a trip to Lewiston, Idaho — a town prosecutors noted was filled with rivers and fast-moving water. They believe that's where he dumped the murder weapon, which was never found. He also began searching online for another knife and sheath, and tried in vain to delete his purchase history on Amazon. He also changed his car's registration from Pennsylvania to Idaho in an apparent attempt to throw investigators off his trail, Thompson said. Then he carried on with his life. 'Mr Kohberger proceeded to finish his semester of studies at Washington State University and return to Pennsylvanian for the holidays,' Mr Thompson said. But in the weeks following, investigators began to identify him as a suspect. After searching his parents' trash, were able to pull DNA off a Q-Tip that tests proved was related to the DNA was found on the sheath left by Mogen's bloodied body. Kohberger was arrested soon after, and the full scope of his attempts to hide his crimes became apparent as they began to search his home and belongings. 'I think we can all look to our own cars. Those compartments in the doors where you try to keep them clean where you put stuff? There's always some degree of crud in there – they were spotless,' Mr Thompson said. 'Defendant's car had been meticulously cleaned inside.' Prosecutors said evidence indicated Kohberger had even called on his criminology studies to cover up the crime, explaining he had recently written a paper on crime scene analysis. 'That was part of the defendant's plan in covering up this. The defendant has studied crime. In fact, he did a detailed paper on crime scene processing when he was working on his pre-doctorate degree,' Mr Thompson said. 'He had that knowledge and skill,' he added. The motives behind the murders has never been established. Kohberger's sentencing is set for July 23.
ABC News
5 hours ago
- ABC News
Celebrities call for accountability in Combs case as supporters douse themselves in baby oil
The world had been waiting with bated breath to hear the fate of disgraced hip-hop mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs. Across three days, a 12-member New York jury spent 13 hours deliberating before returning a verdict. The jury, which consisted of eight men and four women, found Combs guilty of prostitution-related crimes, but acquitted him of the most serious charges that could have placed him behind bars for life. Celebrities, singers and rappers have responded to the verdict, calling it a failure to deliver justice and sympathising with Cassie Ventura, while others praised the verdict, calling it a "a great day in hip-hop". Outside the courtroom, supporters of Combs even went as far as to douse themselves with baby oil in celebration — a reference to evidence presented in court of Combs's excessive use of the product. Diddy's former protégée Aubrey O'Day, who rose to fame on Combs' Making the Band series in the mid-2000s, said the cultural weight of the decision was "immeasurable" and argued the courtroom failed to deliver justice. "The pattern of behaviour Sean Combs has shown us over the decades is not a mystery. It is a warning," she wrote. "And now, that pattern risks being reframed — and has now been legitimised by the system," she said. "Women, nor men, nor any artists are the property of those with the most wealth, fame and power." Talk show host and comedian Rosie O'Donnell called the decision "a f***ing joke" and said the decision "got her angry". "I guess a jury just never wants to believe that a woman stays because of power and coercion … they just think women stay because what? Money — fame — 'they love the abuse' — what a f***ing joke," she wrote on Instagram. Grammy-nominated singer Kesha, who in 2023 settled a long-standing legal battle with producer Dr Luke over rape and defamation claims, voiced her support for the prosecution's star witness. "Your strength is a beacon for every survivor," she wrote towards Combs's former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, also known as Cassie. Ms Ventura's lawyer Doug Wigdor told CNN the verdict "wasn't exactly" the outcome they wanted. "But we are grateful to the jury for finding a verdict on those two federal crimes," he said, adding that Ms Ventura held the same view. He said that Cassie could have accepted the settlement or filed a lawsuit to shine a light on Combs's behaviour. "She showed great courage, great bravery to choose the latter of those two options," he said. Outside the courtroom, supporters of the rap mogul were seen dousing each other in baby oil in a crazed celebration in the wake of his acquittal charge. Footage posted on social media shows a crowd gathering around a woman who had baby oil poured on her before dancing around, according to an X post by NBC reporter Matt Lavietes. "I want the baby oil," she repeatedly chanted as the crowd filming her, clapped and cheered. Another man also joined in, pouring baby oil on himself, while other people held up signs that read "Free Puff" and "Free Diddy". A family friend of Combs held up a T-shirt outside the courtroom that had "a freako is not a r.i.c.o" written on it. Baby oil played a major role in the case — police found 1,000 bottles when Combs's homes were raided in March 2024. Rapper 50 cent, who has had a long-time feud with Combs, put up a cryptic Instagram post with an AI-generated image of himself. "Diddy beat the R.i.c.o, (racketeer influenced and corrupt organisations act) that boy a bad man! He like the Gay John Gotti," 50 Cent said, referencing a late New York mafia figure. Diddy's son Christian 'King' Combs thanked supporters and told US broadcaster ABC he was "happy and thankful". "I'm so happy my pops coming home, God bless and God bless the whole world," he said. The 27-year-old was accused of sexual assault in May in a lawsuit that named both him and his famous father for aiding and abetting.
7NEWS
7 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Driver appeals sentence over deadly wedding bus crash
A wedding bus driver impaired by an opioid during a horror crash that killed 10 people has appealed against his 32-year jail sentence. Brett Andrew Button, 60, had been driving too fast and engaged in risk-taking behaviour before the deadly crash, which also injured 25 people, in the NSW Hunter Valley region in June 2023. He was sentenced in September to a maximum jail term of 32 years with a non-parole period of 24 years. At the time, NSW District Court Judge Roy Ellis said he was unaware of any other case that had such a devastating impact on so many people. Button has filed a challenge to his sentence which was briefly heard in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Thursday. A hearing has been scheduled for October 3. Prosecutors expect voluminous evidence to be tendered, including victim impact statements from the families of those who died or were injured in the crash. The court will consider a psychological report for Button and several references attesting to his good character. The bus driver will not be appealing against his conviction. He pleaded guilty in the District Court to 10 charges of dangerous driving causing death, nine counts of driving causing grievous bodily harm and 16 counts of causing bodily harm by wanton driving. Button was told in 2022 that he was dependent on the opioid Tramadol. He admitted taking more than the prescribed amount prior to the crash. The vehicle entered a roundabout on Wine Country Drive on the way to Singleton after a wine estate wedding at an estimated 52km/h. It then accelerated to about 56km/h when on the roundabout, the District Court was earlier told. The speed required to tip the bus over was only 31km/h. A class action has been filed by those injured and family members of the deceased against the NSW government alleging failings in the design of the roundabout. The speed limit through the interchange was also allegedly too high.
