What Time is Bryan Kohberger's Plea Hearing? What To Know, How To Watch
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Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students, is expected in court on Wednesday morning to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty.
Why It Matters
Kohberger, 30, is expected to plead guilty to charges that he murdered Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, in Moscow, Idaho, early on November 13, 2022.
He agreed to the plea deal in the past few days, just weeks before his trial was set to begin, after his attorneys tried but failed to stop prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. The deal has divided the victims' families, with some furious that it will allow Kohberger to avoid capital punishment and others supporting it.
What Time Is the Hearing?
Kohberger is due to appear before Idaho Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler for a change of plea hearing at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise at 11 a.m. MDT (1 p.m. ET), according to a notice filed on Monday.
Bryan Kohberger listens to arguments during a hearing to overturn his grand jury indictment in Moscow, Idaho, on October 26, 2023.
Bryan Kohberger listens to arguments during a hearing to overturn his grand jury indictment in Moscow, Idaho, on October 26, 2023.
Kai Eiselein/Pool-Getty Images
How To Watch the Hearing
The proceedings will be live-streamed on YouTube by the court.
Hippler on Tuesday denied requests by media outlets to record Wednesday's hearing.
"A live-steam of the proceedings will be provided by the Court on its media streaming account," he wrote in an order. "Therefore, the various requests by media outlets to independently video record the proceedings are denied."
Photographs From the Hearing
The judge said he would permit The Associated Press to capture still photographs from the hearing.
"The permission to provide such coverage is contingent on the AP agreeing to act as a pooled resource for such photographs for all media entities," he wrote.
Hippler said the photographer may only capture images from the location within the courtroom assigned to them by court personnel.
He added that photographs may not be taken of the family members of the victims inside the courthouse.
What To Know
The four University of Idaho students were found fatally stabbed at a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow in the early hours of November 13, 2022.
The slayings sparked a massive hunt for the perpetrator, including an effort to track down a white sedan seen on surveillance cameras repeatedly driving by the rental home, the use of genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect and cellphone data to pinpoint his movements on the night of the killings.
Kohberger, who was a graduate student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington, at the time, was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania weeks after the murders. Investigators said they had matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. He stood silent when asked to enter pleas in 2023, prompting a judge to enter not-guilty pleas on his behalf.
His attorneys have since tried in vain to take the death penalty off the table. But with Kohberger's murder trial now just weeks away, they turned to a plea deal to avoid the possibility of execution.
Prosecutors said in a letter to the families of the victims that Kohberger's defense attorneys had approached them seeking a plea deal last week, ABC News reported.
"This resolution is our sincere attempt to seek justice for your family," they wrote in the letter. "This agreement ensures that the defendant will be convicted, will spend the rest of his life in prison, and will not be able to put you and the other families through the uncertainty of decades of post-conviction appeals."
The Goncalves family is furious about the plea deal, and have said they will seek to stop it. But they have also said that any deal should "at a bare minimum" require Kohberger to make a full confession, provide the location of the murder weapon and detail the facts of what happened on the night of the killings.
No motive has emerged for the killings, and it is also not clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were also in the home at the time of the killings.
What People Are Saying
The Goncalves family said in a Facebook post on Tuesday: "We stand strong that it is not over until a plea is accepted. We will not stop fighting for the life that was stolen unjustly."
They added: "While we are cognizant that some may have wanted the plea, the prosecution relayed to us it was NOT a majority vote that was the deciding factor in offering this plea. At a bare minimum, please - require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, & the true facts of what happened that night. We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was."
Chapin's mother Stacy Chapin told KTVB on Tuesday: "The Chapins will be in Boise tomorrow, July 2, in support of the plea bargain."
Mogen's father Ben Mogen, who is supportive of the deal, told CBS News: "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.
"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 the rest of the kids."
Martin Souto Diaz, an attorney for the Kohberger family, said in a statement on behalf of the family: "In light of recent developments, the Kohbergers are asking members of the media for privacy, respect, and responsible judgement 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. We ask that you respect our wishes during a difficult time for all those affected."
What's Next
Hippler must approve the plea deal.
If Kohberger pleads guilty as expected at the change of plea hearing on Wednesday, prosectors expect sentencing to take place in late July.
He will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences on the murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count, ABC News reported, citing the agreement.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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