Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty to murdering 4 University of Idaho students in 2022

CBS News

10 hours ago

Bryan Kohberger, the former criminal justice doctoral student charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022, admitted to the crimes in court Wednesday before formally entering a guilty plea in a deal that spares him from the death penalty.
As part of the plea deal, Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the stabbings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, who were killed at a home in Moscow, Idaho, during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. He was also charged with one count of burglary. Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania six weeks later.
The hearing began just before 11:15 a.m. local time. Judge Steven Hippler asked that those in the courtroom avoid "outbursts or demonstrations" during the hearing. Hippler apologized for the short notice for the hearing, and said he did not know about a plea agreement before Monday.
Kohberger faces up to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, one for each murder charge, and a 10-year sentence for the burglary charge. Hippler said that the court is not bound by the plea agreement as far as sentencing, and could impose a different sentence, but Kohberger is unable to ask the court to do so. He would also waive his right to appeal, Hippler said. The plea deal would spare him the death penalty, which prosecutors had sought.
Kohberger told Hippler he agreed with the plea agreement and understood the nature of the charges against him. He said he had not been coerced into taking the plea agreement.
"Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?" Hippler asked.
"Yes," Kohberger said.
Brian Kohberger, charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students, appears at the Ada County Courthouse, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Boise, Idaho.
Kyle Green / AP
Hippler then asked Kohberger if he had murdered Mogen, Goncalves, Kernodle and Chapin. Kohberger said "Yes" to each question. Family members of the victims could be seen crying in the courtroom as Hippler read the charges against Kohberger.
The plea deal was first revealed in a letter sent to the victims' families by the Latah County Prosecutor's Office. Mogen's father, Ben Mogen, shared portions of the letter with "CBS Mornings," in which the prosecutor's office said that attorneys for Kohberger, 30, requested the deal and Kohberger accepted it.
Prosecutors then outlined the evidence they would have brought against Kohberger if the case had gone to trial. Their evidence would have included DNA evidence that linked him to a knife sheath found at the crime scene. Kohberger had bought the same type of a knife with the same type of sheath on Amazon, prosecutors said. The DNA came from a single male source, prosecutors said, and was later matched to Kohberger. The weapon itself has not been recovered, prosecutors said. They also planned to present surveillance video of Kohberger's car and cellphone data that they said showed him in the vicinity of the killings.
Finally, Hippler asked Kohberger how he pled to each charge. To each count, Kohberger pleaded guilty.
Kohberger's sentencing was set for July 23. The sentencing is expected to take one day, and victim impact statements will be read then.
Kohberger's trial was expected to begin in August, following several delays.
Kohberger's defense team had a motion to remove the death penalty as a possible sentence if he was convicted denied in November 2024. The case was meant to be tried in Latah County, but was moved to Boise out of concerns that media coverage and statements from local officials would make it impossible for Kohberger to receive a fair trial.
Most recently, Ada County Judge Steven Hippler denied a motion by Kohberger's lawyers, who were seeking to argue that four "alternate perpetrators" could have committed the slayings. The judge called the argument "rank speculation" and said nothing linked the parties to the murders.
Martin Souto Diaz, an attorney for the Kohberger family, said in a statement provided to CBS News Tuesday evening on behalf of the family that, "In light of recent developments, the Kohbergers are asking members of the media for privacy, respect, and responsible judgment during this time. We will continue to allow the legal process to unfold with respect to all parties, and will not release any comments or take any questions."
Legal experts weigh in on Kohberger plea deal
Gretchen Engel, the executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation who has spent 33 years representing death row prisoners, said that in her experience it's "pretty common for a plea deal to come together at the last minute."
However, she said she is "a bit mystified" prosecutors in this case agreed to a deal just a month before trial. One reason could be that there's a weakness in the case, she said.
CBS News legal contributor Caroline Polisi said the state of Idaho will benefit from the plea deal, especially since Kohberger will not be able to appeal. That may also offer relief to the families, she said.
"They're getting a conviction right away, they're getting the absolute guarantee of life behind bars without the possibility of parole," Polisi said on "CBS Mornings" Tuesday. "It costs way more money to have a capital case to impose the death penalty than it does to have somebody serve life behind bars, and so, part of the rationale that the state of Idaho or prosecutors said was we're saving these families decades potentially of the anguish of going through this appeals process. This would not be a quick process."
The plea deal also allows the state to save "judicial resources," Polisi said, and avoids the uncertainty of a trial and sentencing.
"This is a slam-dunk case by all accounts … the DNA evidence on the knife sheath in particular, I mean, there's so much evidence here," she said. "But trials, there's always a wildcard, right? There's always a chance that there wouldn't be a conviction, and then the death penalty isn't necessarily a sure thing either."
However, the lack of a trial means that some questions may remain unanswered, Polisi said.
"We may never know the motive or the exact way that this crime took place, which I think is frustrating for the families as well," she said.
Families of victims react
The families of the victims have been split on the plea deal. The Goncalves family said in a statement shared on Facebook that they are "beyond furious at the State of Idaho," and said officials had "failed" them.
"This was very unexpected," the family wrote. In another statement, they asked that the plea deal "require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, & the true facts of what happened that night."
Ben Mogen said he was relieved to get the letter, and said the plea deal will spare him and his family from more time in court.
"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 Mornings." "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."
contributed to this report.