Latest news with #VictimsFamilies
Fox News
6 days ago
- Fox News
Fox News True Crime Newsletter: Bryan Kohberger sentenced for Idaho student murders
This is a special edition of the Fox News True Crime Newsletter. JUDGMENT DAY: Bryan Kohberger sentenced for Idaho student murders DEATH STARE: See the most emotional courtroom moments as victims' families confront Kohberger KILLER'S RESPONSE: Kohberger says three words when given chance to speak SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER PRISON TIME: Kohberger arrives at state facility as doc drop reveals he spied on cops before murders LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? FIND MORE ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Kohberger live updates: Idaho killer sentenced to life, motive may never be known
Families of the four University of Idaho murder victims spoke directly to their children's admitted killer, Bryan Kohberger, at his sentencing on Wednesday. Judge Steven Hippler acknowledged Kohberger's motive may never be known as he sentenced him to four consecutive life sentences on the four first-degree murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count. The students -- roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, and Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin -- were stabbed to death at the girls' off-campus house on Nov. 13, 2022. On July 2, weeks before the trial was set to start, Kohberger pleaded guilty to all counts. As a part of the plea deal, the death penalty was taken off the table. Latest DevelopmentsJul 23, 1:33 PMJudge: Focusing on motive gives Kohberger relevance he seeks Judge Steven Hippler called Bryan Kohberger a 'coward' who 'slithered through the sliding glass door at 1122 King Road' and 'now stands unmasked.'This 'unfathomable and senseless act of evil has caused immeasurable pain and loss,' Hippler said. 'No parent should ever have to bury their child. This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person.''We are now certain who committed these unspeakable acts of evil, but what we don't know, and what we may never know, is why,' he said he wants to know the motive, but that 'by continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr. Kohberger relevance,' and the 'spotlight, attention and power he appears to crave.'Hipper said he cannot legally force Kohberger to speak, and said even if he did speak, there's no way to know if he would tell the truth."Even in pleading guilty, he's giving nothing hinting of remorse or redemption," Hippler said, and said he will not speak of him further beyond sentencing him. Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four consecutive life sentences and 10 years for burglary. Jul 23, 1:26 PMKohberger declines to address court After listening to statements from victims' families, Bryan Kohberger said in court, 'I respectfully decline' to speak. Jul 23, 1:22 PMProsecutor shows victims' photos as families weep Prosecutor Bill Thompson said in court that the discussion about the plea deal had to stay secret to avoid tampering potential jurors if the trial went forward. He said he respected the fact that some of the victims' relatives did not agree with the plea the families wept, Thompson displayed a photo of each victim in the courtroom. He listed each count and read the names of the victims: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin."From today forward, our memories should be focused on these innocent victims whose lives were taken," he victims not only had their own families, and not just their friends and sororities and fraternities, "but this family," Thompson said, as he displayed the photo of the four victims and the two surviving roommates that was taken on Nov. 12, 2022, the day before the murders.'You can see all six of these dynamic, vibrant, loving, special, innocent faces, taken together just across the street from their residence. And barely 12 hours before four of them would be brutally murdered in their sleep,' Thompson said Kohberger will stand from his seat in belly chains and leg irons and will be taken into custody, where "the door will close behind him forever -- that is the closure that we seek.' Jul 23, 1:06 PMXana Kernodle's stepfather: 'Go to hell' Randy Davis, Xana Kernodle's stepfather, addressed the other victims' families, saying this was likely the last time they'd all be in the same room.'I love you all and I feel your pain,' he Bryan Kohberger, he said while shaking, 'You're gonna go to hell … you're evil ... you took our children … you are gonna suffer, man.''Go to hell,' he concluded, as everyone clapped. Jul 23, 1:02 PMXana Kernodle's aunt says to Kohberger, 'I've forgiven you' Xana Kernodle's aunt, Kim Kernodle, said in court, 'This is probably gonna bother everybody, but Bryan, I'm here today to tell you I've forgiven you, because I could no longer live with that hate.''Any time you want to talk and tell me what happened … I'm here, no judgment,' she said to her niece's killer. Xana Kernodle's dad, Jeff Kernodle, said in court that the thing he misses most is the weekend calls from his said he was staying just a few miles away from the victims' house on the night of the murders and wishes he would have gone over to their house that night.'They would've had a chance,' he said. Jul 23, 12:48 PMXana Kernodle's sister says her story lives on Xana Kernodle's sister, Jazzmin Kernodle, said in court she was unsure if she'd speak today. "In the end, I realized this moment isn't about you -- it's about justice for Xana, Ethan, Kaylee and Maddie," she said. She called her sister "a gift to each person she was able to make an impact on."Xana Kernodle was the younger sister, but Jazzmin Kernodle said she often found herself looking up to her."Xana was someone I turned to when I needed direction or advice," she said. "She truly did live every day to the fullest. Yet her story was cut short by an act of evil," she said. "She won't be the maid of honor at my wedding, the cool aunt to my future children. ... But I will carry her with me for the rest of my life. I will live in her honor, fight to be the best kind of woman, someone she's proud of.""Xana's story doesn't end with what was taken from her. It lives through the love she gave the people she touched and the legacy her family will protect," she said. Jul 23, 12:25 PMKaylee Goncalves' mom: 'Hell will be waiting' Kaylee's mom, Kristi Goncalves, said to Bryan Kohberger that 'hell will be waiting.' 'You are nothing. May you continue to live your life in misery. You are officially the property of the state of Idaho, where your fellow inmates are anxiously awaiting your arrival,' she said. Jul 23, 12:18 PMKaylee Goncalves' sister: They 'were not yours to take' Kaylee's sister, Alivea Goncalves, said to Bryan Kohberger, 'My sister Kaylee and her best friend Maddie were not yours to take. They were not yours to study, to stalk or to silence.''They're everything you could never be: loved, accepted, vibrant, accomplished, brave and powerful,' she said. "They would've been kind to you. If you had approached them in their everyday lives, they would've given you directions, thanked you for the compliment. ... In a world that rejected you, they would've shown mercy," she said she "won't stand here and give you want you want": tears and called him a "sociopath, psychopath, murderer," before asking him a series of questions included, "Where is the murder weapon, the clothes you wore that night? What did you bring into the house with you? ... What were Kaylee's last words?" "You didn't win. ... You're a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser who thought you were so much smarter than everybody else," she said."You aren't special or deep, not mysterious or exceptional. Don't ever get it twisted again. No one is scared of you today. No one is intimidated by you, no one is impressed by you, no one thinks you are important," she concluded her statement by saying to Kohberger, if he hadn't attacked them in their sleep, 'Kaylee would've kicked your f------ ass."Onlookers in the courtroom clapped when Goncalves stepped down. Jul 23, 12:04 PMKaylee Goncalves' dad: 'From this moment, we will forget you' Steve Goncalves, dad of Kaylee Goncalves, said in court to Bryan Kohberger, "Today we are here to finish what you started. Today you've lost control.' 'Your actions have united everyone in their disgust for you,' he slammed Kohberger as "foolish and stupid" for leaving his DNA behind at the crime scene. "Master's degree? You're a joke, a complete joke," he said."Nobody cares about you. ... From this moment, we will forget you. ... You picked the wrong family and we're laughing at you on your trip" to prison, he said. Jul 23, 11:58 AMMaddie Mogen's dad reads her last Father's Day card Maddie Mogen's dad, Ben Mogen, was choked up in court as he said, 'Maddie was my only child. … I thought we would have the rest of our lives together to be together and know each other, and I really took her for granted.''Karen and Scottie did such a great job raising her after Karen and I split up, and I'm so thankful for Scottie and the role he played in her life when I wasn't able to,' he said, recalling his battle with addiction. 'But we got to spend a lot of great times together, Maddie and I. She was my favorite person to go to a concert with.' Mogen read in court the last thing Maddie wrote to him -- a Father's Day card: 'I hope you have the best day, I can't wait 'til we can hang out again soon. … I love the birthday card you sent me, by the way. … I hope you're doing well. I'm proud of how far you've come. Thank you for always encouraging me to do my best. Love you lots and lots.''I'm so glad I still have it,' he said of the card. Click here to read the rest of the blog.
New York Times
6 days ago
- New York Times
Bryan Kohberger to Be Sentenced in Killing of 4 Idaho Students
Bryan Kohberger, a former Ph.D. student in criminology who pleaded guilty in the fatal stabbing of four University of Idaho students, will hear from the victims' families in court for the first time on Wednesday as a judge considers his sentence for the crimes. Mr. Kohberger, 30, has already agreed to accept four consecutive life sentences as part of a plea deal that allows him to avoid the death penalty. But many questions remain unanswered, including one that has vexed investigators and families for years: What was the motive? Prosecutors have said Mr. Kohberger had no known relationship to the victims, and even President Trump urged the judge in the case to press for answers before sentencing. 'I hope the Judge makes Kohberger, at a minimum, explain why he did these horrible murders,' Mr. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday. 'There are no explanations, there is no NOTHING.' Family members of the students will have a chance to address the court, an emotional conclusion to a case that created fear across the small college town where the murders occurred and elicited sympathy nationwide for the students whose lives were cut short. Some family members have expressed outrage that prosecutors agreed to drop their bid for the death penalty in exchange for the guilty plea. Mr. Kohberger was a student at nearby Washington State University when the murders occurred sometime around 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022. The victims — Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 — had spent a typical Saturday night out near their campus before returning to the three-story house that several of the students shared. Two roommates survived the night. Text messages show that they discussed a masked person one of them had briefly seen inside the home, but neither seemed aware that something so horrific has happened. A 911 call was made more than seven hours later after several additional friends gathered at the home. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Independent
02-07-2025
- The Independent
Idaho murder victim families frustrated at not being consulted in Kohberger plea deal
Steve Gonvalves, father of Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves, spoke to the press outside of the Idaho courthouse after a plea deal was offered and accepted by Bryan Kohberger on Monday. Gonvalves, along with the other four families, was enraged that they were not consulted on the terms of the plea deal that would sentence Kohberger to a lifetime in prison. He claimed that the prosecuting attorney did not give "the common courtesy to negotiate with [the families]". Bryan Kohberger appeared in court on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025, to plead guilty to killing four Idaho college students in December 2022. Speaking to the press outside the courthouse, Mr. Gonvalves said, "We didn't agree to this. We didn't agree on any of it."
Al Arabiya
01-07-2025
- Al Arabiya
Suspect in murders of four Idaho college students to plead guilty
Former criminology graduate student Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty to killing four Idaho college students in 2022, a move that would spare him the death penalty under a deal with prosecutors, according to the family of one of the victims. Kohberger, 30, was pursuing a doctoral degree in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, about 8 miles (13 km) across the border from Moscow, Idaho, where the four victims attended the University of Idaho. In a case that drew national attention, Kohberger previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges. The three young women, who had been roommates, and a young man, who was the boyfriend of one of the women, were fatally stabbed in an off-campus house where the women lived on November 13, 2022. The victims — Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho — all suffered multiple stab wounds. Two other women in the house at the time survived. The Goncalves family, in a statement shared by their attorney, said they had received a letter from prosecutors about Kohberger agreeing to plead guilty, confirming an ABC News report from earlier on Monday. The attorney declined to share the letter, but according to the ABC News report, Kohberger has agreed to four consecutive life sentences and has waived his right to appeal. Citing the letter, ABC reported that prosecutors expect Kohberger to be sentenced in late July if he enters the guilty plea as planned at a hearing on Wednesday. The Goncalves family accused the prosecutors of mishandling the plea deal. '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 Goncalves family said. 'Adding insult to injury, they're rushing the plea, giving families just one day to coordinate and appear at the courthouse for a plea on July 2.' Kohberger's trial was expected to start on August 18. His attorney and the Idaho attorney general's office did not immediately comment. A court administrator had no information to release. The crime stunned the small college town of Moscow. Kohberger was arrested weeks later in Pennsylvania, where he was visiting his family, and flown to Idaho to face charges.
