A former criminology student will spend the remainder of his life in prison after admitting to the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho undergraduates. Bryan Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole following a guilty plea to four counts of murder and one count of burglary.
The plea agreement spared Kohberger a potential death penalty trial. He confessed to entering an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022 and fatally stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
During the sentencing hearing, Kohberger displayed no visible emotion. When offered the opportunity to address the court, he declined, stating, “I respectfully decline.”
In imposing the sentence, the presiding judge condemned the crimes as an “unspeakable evil” that shattered the lives of the victims’ families. The judge described the attacker as a “faceless coward” who breached the students’ home and highlighted the combined role of investigative work and the killer’s own mistakes in leading to an arrest.
The court directly addressed the profound grief of the families, noting the unimaginable tragedy of parents who “took their children to college in a truck filled with moving boxes [and] had to bring them home in hearses lined with coffins.”
A motive for the attacks remains publicly unknown. From the bench, the judge cautioned against fixating on discovering Kohberger’s reasons, arguing that doing so would grant him undue attention and power. The judge expressed skepticism that any explanation from the defendant could be truthful or provide genuine solace to the grieving families.
Kohberger is expected to be transferred to the state’s maximum-security prison facility to serve his sentence.
