Bryan Kohberger to plead guilty to murder in Idaho student stabbings to
avoid death penalty
[July 01, 2025]
By REBECCA BOONE and GENE JOHNSON
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty to
murdering four University of Idaho students as part of a deal to avoid
the death penalty, an attorney for one victim's family said.
Shanon Gray, an attorney representing the family of Kaylee Goncalves,
confirmed Monday that prosecutors informed the families of the deal by
email and letter earlier in the day, and that his clients were upset
about it.
“We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho," Goncalves’ family wrote
in a Facebook post. "They have failed us. Please give us some time. This
was very unexpected.”
They spoke with the prosecution on Friday about the idea of a plea deal
and they explained they were firmly against it, the family wrote in
another post. By Sunday, they received an email that “sent us
scrambling,” and met with the prosecution again on Monday to explain
their views about pushing for the death penalty.
“Unfortunately all of our efforts did not matter. We DID OUR BEST! We
fought harder then anyone could EVER imagine,” the family wrote.
A change of plea hearing was set for Wednesday, but the family has asked
prosecutors to delay it to give them more time to travel to Boise, Gray
said. Kohberger's trial was set for August in Boise, where it was moved
following pretrial publicity in rural northern Idaho.
Kohberger, 30, is accused in the stabbing deaths of Goncalves, Ethan
Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen at a rental home near campus in
Moscow, Idaho, early on Nov. 13, 2022. Autopsies showed the four were
all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds and
each was stabbed multiple times.
At the time, Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate student at
Washington State University, about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) west of the
University of Idaho. He was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents
lived, weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic
material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why the attacker
spared two roommates who were in the home. Authorities have said
cellphone data and surveillance video shows that Kohberger visited the
victims’ neighborhood at least a dozen times before the killings.
The murders shocked the small farming community of about 25,000 people,
which hadn’t had a homicide in about five years, and prompted a massive
hunt for the perpetrator. That included an elaborate effort to track
down a white sedan that was seen on surveillance cameras repeatedly
driving by the rental home, to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect
through the use of genetic genealogy and to pinpoint his movements the
night of the killings through cellphone data.
In a court filing, Kohberger's lawyers said he was on a long drive by
himself around the time the four were killed.
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A private security officer sits in a vehicle on Jan. 3, 2023, in
front of the house in Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho
students were killed in November 2022. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren,
File)
In the letter to families, obtained by ABC News, prosecutors said
Kohberger’s lawyers approached them seeking to reach a plea deal.
The defense team had previously made unsuccessful efforts to have
the death penalty stricken as a possible punishment, including
arguing that Kohberger's autism diagnosis made him less culpable.
The prosecutors said they met with available family members last
week before deciding to make Kohberger an offer.
“This resolution is our sincere attempt to seek justice for your
family,” the letter said. “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. Your viewpoints
weighed heavily in our decision-making process, and we hope that you
may come to appreciate why we believe this resolution is in the best
interest of justice.”
In a Facebook post, the Goncalves family wrote that Kaylee's
18-year-old sister, Aubrie, had been unable to attend the meeting
with prosecutors. But she shared her concerns in a written
statement.
“Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to
speak, form relationships, and engage with the world,” Aubrie
Goncalves wrote. “Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced
forever. That reality stings more deeply when it feels like the
system is protecting his future more than honoring the victims’
pasts.”
In Idaho, judges may reject plea agreements, though such moves are
rare. If a judge rejects a plea agreement, the defendant is allowed
to withdraw the guilty plea.
Earlier Monday, a Pennsylvania judge had ordered that three people
whose testimony was requested by defense attorneys would have to
travel to Idaho to appear at Kohberger’s trial.
The defense subpoenas were granted regarding a boxing trainer who
knew Kohberger as a teenager, a childhood acquaintance of
Kohberger’s and a third man whose significance was not explained.
A gag order has largely kept attorneys, investigators and others
from speaking publicly about the investigation or trial.
___
Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press reporter Mark
Scolforo contributed from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
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