Bryan Kohberger's luxury prison perks revealed as Idaho murderer is ordered to spend the rest of his life behind bars
Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after taking a controversial plea deal last month to avoid the death penalty, a move that angered some of his victims' families.
As he languishes in Idaho's Maximum Security Prison, where he is expected to be sent, Kohberger will be afforded a number of amenities, including being able to watch movies to pass his sentence.
The killer will also have access to emails, potentially affording him the opportunity to communicate with morbid fans.
The details of Kohberger's prison life were revealed by NewsNation's Brian Entin, who said that the 30-year-old is likely to face a harsh reality despite the perks inside.
'It's the most severe facility in Idaho where the most dangerous prisoners go,' Entin said, adding that due to Kohberger's infamy, he 'could be a target' to other cons.
The potential threat to Kohberger's life could see him locked up in an ultra-protective unit in the prison where inmates are confined to their cells for 23 hours a day, with only one hour outside in a cage.
When Entin visited the facility, he said he observed inmates communicating through a method called 'fishing', where cons use strings from blankets or T-shirts to send notes through their doors.
The tablets Kohberger will have access to are primarily only for visitations, where inmates will be able to sit at tables outside their cells but will be cuffed to the floor.
To keep a tablet in his cell, Kohberger will have to pay $100, according to NewsNation, which will be able to play music, movies and email.
This is the same price as getting a TV in his cell, which would come only with cable.
Kevin Corson, owner of Idaho Bonding Company, told the outlet that Kohberger's infamy will mean he will be forced into extra security measures.
'He's going to have to be segregated; as you may know, people in prison don't like people who hurt women or children, and he's hurt women,' Carson said.
'And that's not something that the inmates there take lightly. It's something that is definitely going to put a target on his back.'
At his sentencing on Wednesday, Kohberger was offered the chance to speak about the murders, but declined to do so.
He sat emotionless throughout the hearing as friends and relatives of his victims read heartbreaking impact statements.
According to body language expert Judi James, Kohberger's casual demeanor was an attempt at trying not to let the harrowing testimony get to him.
'The raw grief and distress displayed by the relatives of the victims was an impossible watch for almost everyone in the courtroom, apart from, emphatically and remarkably, Kohberger,' James told Daily Mail.
'Sitting looking relaxed in his chair with his elbows splayed out on the arm of the chair in a gesture of confidence and desired visibility, the opposite body language ritual of a desire to hide, which would include crossed arms, self-diminishing behaviors and eye cut-offs, he appeared to listen with what looked like a detached but forensic interest.
'Kohberger's eyes watched the relatives like a fascinated hawk. His eyes appeared to soak up every sob and every signal of distress.'
It comes as the surviving roommates from Kohberger's rampage that killed four of their friends issued gut-wrenching statements during his sentencing hearing.
Dylan Mortensen sobbed as she addressed the 30-year-old killer, and described him as 'less than human.'
The sister of victim Kaylee Goncalves, Alivea, then delivered a searing statement, demanding he explain himself and tearing him down as a 'loser.'
She demanded Kohberger 'sit up straight' while she spoke and called him a 'delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac.'
'The truth about Kaylee and Maddie is that they would have been kind to you…. In a world that rejected you, they would have shown mercy,' Kaylee Goncalves' sister Alivea began as she spoke to Bryan Kohberger directly.
Kohberger watched Alivea intently, showing no emotion or flicker of expression.
Body language expert James added of this moment: 'Her comment 'sit up straight when I talk to you' brought no change of pose or movement from Kohberger but it did point up his rather relaxed pose to the courtroom and hinted at the effect it was having on the relatives.'
'I wont stand her and give you what you want, I won't give you tears… instead I will call you what you are: sociopath, psychopath, murderer,' she declared.
She then hit him with the very same questions that Kohberger posed in a survey on Reddit as part of his criminology degree at DeSales University.
She went on to blast Kohberger's past and all his failings, saying: 'You thought you were so much better than everyone else.'
'The truth is you're basic,' she continued. 'You're a textbook case as insecurity disguised as control. You spent months preparing and still all it took was my sister and a sheath.'
'You're as dumb as they come. Stupid, dumb… weak, dirty.'
In a damning conclusion, she told Kohberger: 'If you hadn't attacked them in your sleep like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your f****** a**.'
The courtroom erupted in clapping at the end of Alivea's statement.
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The Guardian
24 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘I shouldn't have to fight for answers': David Amess's daughter on the MP's murder and her fury at his friends and colleagues
The last time Katie Amess saw her dad, the Conservative MP Sir David Amess, he was dropping her at Heathrow for her flight home to Los Angeles. Usually, she would cry when they said goodbye, but this time neither were sad – they were both excited. In six weeks, Katie would be back for her wedding. 'It was going to be in the House of Commons and my dad could not wait to walk me down the aisle,' she says. 'He'd been practising, taking my arm, walking me around. We joked about it – we were calling it the 'royal wedding'. At the airport, we hugged goodbye and he kissed me on both cheeks. I skipped off thinking the next time I saw him would be the best day of my life.' Instead, just four weeks later, her father was murdered at his surgery, stabbed 21 times by an Islamic State sympathiser. He was buried in the suit he was going to wear to the wedding. The music planned for walking Katie down the aisle – Pachelbel's Canon – was instead played as his coffin was carried into the church. The murder of David Amess in October 2021, while serving his constituency in a church hall in Leigh-on-Sea, sent shock waves across the country – and the details that have since emerged should have deepened the outrage and furthered the questions. Amess's killer, Ali Harbi Ali, was a once bright, motivated teenager planning to study medicine who had self-radicalised during Syria's civil war. The teachers at his Croydon school had noticed – one described it as a light going out and that his 'eyes were dead'. Ali's attendance fell, his grades plummeted and attempts to talk to him only raised more concerns, leading the school to contact Prevent, the government-led counter-terrorism strategy designed to identify and deradicalise extremists. One home visit was made, followed by one brief meeting between Ali and an 'intervention provider' in a McDonald's. Conversation was limited to two subjects: whether western music and student loans were unlawful in Islam. Ali was deemed a 'pleasant and informed young man'. (He later said: 'I just knew to nod my head and say yes and they would leave me alone afterwards and they did.') There was no follow-up, no further consultations or contact with his referring teachers. There was no monitoring. Despite the atrocity Ali went on to commit, Katie believes there has been little scrutiny of any of the above, no accountability or consequences for the anonymous officials involved and no requirement to give a public account of their actions and lessons learned. For almost four years, Katie, on behalf of the Amess family, has pushed for an inquiry. Partly as a result of this pressure, the Home Office commissioned Lord Anderson, the interim Prevent commissioner, to produce a rapid review of the case in order to identify whether questions remain unanswered. It was published last week and concluded: 'Though the information available on [Ali's] case is not complete and likely never will be,' the 'unhappy story' of his engagement with Prevent had been 'squeezed almost dry'. Katie doesn't agree. 'I'm not going to give up,' she says. 'All we want is for someone to say: 'We're sorry. This is what happened, these are the mistakes made and this is what we're doing to make sure it never happens again.' I shouldn't have to fight for answers.' Born in Basildon to an electrician father and a dressmaker mother, David Amess was a working-class, Catholic Conservative and had been an Essex MP for 38 years when he was murdered. He was approaching his 70th birthday – on that last airport trip with Katie, she had broached the subject of retirement. 'He didn't want to retire any time soon,' she says. 'He felt he had so much left to do.' Having an MP father was all Katie had ever known, but Amess was not an absent figure, away at Westminster. He was committed to his constituency with no ambitions for higher office. 'When I was young, I used to ask: 'Do you think you could be prime minister?' He'd say: 'Absolutely not!'' For Katie, the second of five children, all born within seven years, he was present and fun and always loomed large in her life. 'My dad was absolutely hilarious and completely inappropriate,' she says. 'He'd do the craziest things and sometimes they were a bit dangerous.' He would booby trap the house at Halloween. He would take all five children to water parks even though he couldn't swim and would have been unable to rescue any of them. At toll booths, on family road trips, all five children were instructed to blow raspberries while he paid the operator. 'He was obsessed with animals, so we had dogs, cats, chickens, bunny rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, a goat called Tinkerbell,' says Katie. 'He wanted a small pony at one point, but Mum vetoed that. He had fish and birds in his office even though no animals were allowed, but he didn't listen to rules. At Halloween, he'd go to Westminster in full goblin outfit. At Christmas, he'd put a tree on his balcony at Westminster, which was definitely not allowed, and his whole office was lit up with flashing lights.' From the age of four, Katie accompanied him to constituency events. 'My elder brother was out playing football and my mum had my three younger sisters to look after, so I was all dressed up and dragged to garden parties and village fetes.' Later, when she moved to London for drama school – she is now an actor – she stayed in her dad's London flat. 'I'm so glad I spent all that time with him so I could just be around him and soak up what he was about,' she says. 'I never knew I wouldn't be with him for another 30 years.' Amess was very well known in his Southend West and Leigh constituency. 'He spent so much time there,' says Katie. 'Everybody knew his name and face. I've received so many messages since he died saying: 'We didn't agree with him politically, but he helped my elderly parents'; 'He got support for my disabled child'; 'He visited my sick grandma in hospital.'' In some ways, his profile and accessibility made him vulnerable. He was the face of government and easy to locate. In fact, it later emerged that Ali had worked through a list of possible victims, including Michael Gove and Keir Starmer, both of who were deemed too complicated to find. Amess – targeted because he had voted in favour of airstrikes against Islamic State – was holding a surgery. (The pinned tweet on Amess's account gave the date, place and details of how to book.) 'I always worried about Dad's safety, but I thought if anything was going to happen, it would be a punch-up from a local yob,' says Katie. 'Never in your wildest dreams would you imagine that a terrorist would go through a list and then come and murder your dad. It's just so shocking. 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Two home secretaries – Priti Patel and Suella Braverman – assured the family that they were working on it, but their successor James Cleverly refused to meet them. Instead, there has been only a Prevent learning review, completed in February 2022. This gives a glimpse of Prevent's failures in the case – the strange decision‑making (why focus on student loans and western music only?), the lack of record-keeping, the absence of communication, returned emails or follow-up. 'I was absolutely gobsmacked when I read it,' says Katie. 'I could run Prevent better with my friends. If these are the people entrusted to save us from terrorism, we've got a huge problem.' Equally striking is the sparsity of the review. No one involved is identified or even interviewed. It's a review of secondhand accounts and the records kept (and not kept). 'The main conclusion it seems to draw is that so much has changed with Prevent, it's all been fixed, so we don't need to look any harder,' says Katie. 'If that was true, why were three little girls murdered in Southport last year?' Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, was referred to and rejected by Prevent three times. One of the questions to be asked in the Southport inquiry is whether Prevent needs a complete overhaul. 'They could have asked that question years earlier after my dad was killed and perhaps Southport wouldn't have happened,' says Katie. Campaigning hasn't been easy. Katie is based in the US and her mother, Julia, is not well – she had a stroke shortly after Ali's trial, which the family attributes to trauma and grief. The change of government briefly gave them hope. Katie and Julia had a video meeting with Yvette Cooper, the new home secretary, who told them that Amess was a great friend, their Westminster offices were next door and they used to walk to the Commons chamber together. 'We thought: 'Perfect. Now we're getting somewhere,'' says Katie. Instead, months passed. Finally, in March, in another video call, Cooper admitted there wouldn't be an inquiry. 'My mum said: 'Look me in the eyes and tell me as his friend that you think you're doing the right thing.' Yvette Cooper could not answer.' In a formal letter, Cooper explained that it was 'hard to see' how an inquiry could go beyond what had already been established in the trial, the Prevent learning review and the coroner's report, as well as the forthcoming rapid review by Lord Anderson. 'When an elected official is killed in a church hall in broad daylight by somebody the government is monitoring, there should be an inquiry – it shouldn't even be a question,' says Amess. 'This isn't a witch-hunt, but there should be some accountability. The mistakes made cost me my father, my mother's husband, a grandfather, a brother, a son. 'I don't think we'll ever recover,' she continues. 'It's my 40th birthday this month and I know I'd have flown back to England like I did every summer and my dad would have thrown me a huge party. There'd have been 40 balloons and he'd have made my friends give me 40 bumps! I want to have children, but I think: 'What sort of mother would I be now when I'm in so much trauma and heartache?' I used to think he'd be such a funny grandpa. All that has been robbed from me.' For Katie, the lack of support from Westminster after her father's decades of service is deeply painful and nonsensical, too. 'I just cannot believe the way we've been treated by his friends and colleagues,' she says. 'It's in all their interests. They are meeting the public day in, day out, so why don't they want to investigate properly and establish what would make them safer? Dad's legacy needs to be that through what happened to him, he saves other people. Please, just show some human decency. Do the right thing.' Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Guardian
24 minutes ago
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UK jail escape trial reignites debate over indefinite sentences
The trial of an alleged escapee who spent hours on the roof of a high-security prison in his underpants is set to be the first time the stress caused by indeterminate sentences can be used as a legal defence. Joe Outlaw is due to stand trial on Monday for climbing on to the roof of HMP Frankland in Durham in June 2023 in protest at the imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence he and others are serving. The 38-year-old has been in jail for 13 years, much of that in isolation, after receiving an IPP sentence for robbing a takeaway at gunpoint in 2011. He says he does not remember the crime because he was drunk and high on drugs. Two months before his Durham protest, Outlaw staged a 12-hour sit-in on the roof of Strangeways, HMP Manchester, where he wrote 'FREE IPPZ' in paint. He is due to be tried later for 'escape from lawful custody' in allegedly damaging the roof of Strangeways and for starting a fire in his cell as part of a suicide attempt. The case raises once again the issue of IPPs, which 2,544 prisoners were still serving in March despite the sentences being abolished in 2012. The legislation that ended what campaigners describe as a cruel system was not retrospective. A spokesperson for Reform and Rebuild, a prison advocacy group which is set to give evidence in the trial, said it was 'well overdue' for courts to take into account the stress caused by IPPs. 'This sentence has led to a lot of destructive behaviour among prisoners,' the organisation said. Cherrie Nichol, a campaigner whose brother is serving an IPP, said that under the previous Conservative government many prisoners grew 'absolutely desperate' when they were told they would not be able to be resentenced. 'There were a few of the IPP prisoners who then took their lives because they decided that they were never going to get out,' she said. 'Nobody's been resentenced yet, but we are looking at human rights. That's another battle but we will get it. We'll definitely get it because it's cruel and inhumane. I think if we don't keep fighting and jumping up and down, then it'll just be forgotten.' Campaigners have made some progress over the years, for example in shortening the licences of those released from IPPs from 10 years to three years. Nichol said this 'meant some people could go on holiday with their families and have a life again, because 10 years is a long time after you've suffered'. But she added: 'The government won't admit they're wrong. So we have to go around, trample around things delicately.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
I was deeply shocked by my tenant's bizarre act after she moved out - yet she's calling ME dramatic
A landlord was gobsmacked after discovering his tenant had taken his big-ticket items when she moved out - despite them being part of the furnished rental. Renter Katie was living in the apartment, which included essential appliances such as a fridge, washing machine and dishwasher. But when she moved out, she took the bulky gadgets, worth more than $2,000, with her, mistakenly believing they were hers to keep - leaving the landlord baffled, as they were his property. 'Hi, just wanted to say I've left the keys on the counter. Thanks for everything,' Katie said in her goodbye text message to the landlord. Baffled, he replied: 'Hi Katie. Just been to the property. Where is the fridge?' Appearing unfazed, she casually replied: 'Oh, I took it. Same with the washer and the dishwasher.' Taken aback by her response, the landlord said: 'Sorry? Those weren't yours to take. They were part of the tenancy.' Katie tried to justify taking the appliances, saying: 'Yeah but I used them every day. I assumed they were mine?' A landlord was gobsmacked after discovering his tenant had taken his big-ticket items when she moved out - despite them being part of the furnished rental As the products came with the rental property, he explained: 'They're listed on the inventory. You signed it. Can you return them please?' 'That's a bit awkward now. They're already in my new place,' Katie replied. He demanded she bring the gadgets back because 'they don't belong to you'. 'I genuinely thought they did. Like, I used them. They felt like mine,' Katie insisted. Furious with her response, he replied: 'Katie. You've taken items worth over a grand. This isn't a grey area.' Trying to find a way out of the situation, she suggested: 'Can't you just claim it on insurance or something? I'm not trying to cause drama.' However, the landlord gave her an ultimatum as he accused her of stealing. 'If I don't have them back by Friday, I'll have to treat it as theft. This is serious,' he said. Katie ended the conversation with: 'Wow. Over a few appliances? Bit extreme, don't you think?' It's unclear what happened between Katie and the landlord - but British property strategist Jack Rooke re-shared the pair's text exchange. 'She took over £1,000 ($A2040) worth of appliances… Then told the landlord he was being dramatic. And people still say landlords are the bad guys,' Jack said. 'That's a bit extreme. She's just robbed him.' His video has been viewed more than 770,000 times, with many divided over the situation. 'She's been paying the guy's mortgage for years, the least he can do is let her have a few white goods,' one suggested. 'To be fair, she's used them. Every day the new tenants won't want secondhand appliances - she's saved the landlord a job by removing them,' another shared. 'Dammit Katie you're making me agree with a landlord here,' one said. 'I never rent anything out furnished, literally they steal something every time. Over 10 years there was nothing left - no sofa, fridge, dryer, bed, table and chairs. Every single item stolen,' a tenant revealed. 'My last tenant left with my fridge. Exactly the same conversation,' one added.
