A criminology student who crept into a shared house and murdered four young people in their beds as they slept was told Wednesday he would die in prison, in a case that has gripped and baffled the United States.
Bryan Kohberger has never explained his motive for carrying out the murders and sat passively in an Idaho court as he heard heart-wrenching statements from families of the four students he stabbed to death in 2022 in the small town of Moscow.
But in a deal that took the death penalty off the table earlier this month, he agreed to plead guilty to the horrific killings of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
At an emotional sentencing hearing in Boise, Kohberger again refused to offer any justification when offered the chance to speak, telling Judge Steven Hippler: “I respectfully decline.”
Handing down four life sentences without the possibility of parole, Hippler said the heartbroken families may never know why Kohberger killed their loved ones.
“The need to know what is inherently not understandable makes us dependent upon the defendant to provide us with a reason, and that gives him the spotlight, the attention and the power he appears to crave,” he said.
“In my view, the time has now come to end Mr Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame.
“It’s time that he been consigned to the ignominy and isolation of perpetual incarceration.
Kohberger was studying for a doctorate degree in criminology at Washington State University in 2022 when he drove to the small town of Moscow in the neighboring northwestern US state of Idaho.
There, he broke into a shared student house and went from room to room stabbing four of the six occupants to death.
The investigation that followed was a national and international sensation, attracting lurid speculation from all corners of the internet, fuelled by a police policy of refusing to release details on the probe.
Then, on December 30, Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania thousands of miles (kilometers) away, after DNA found on a knife sheath was traced to him.
He continued to deny the charges, despite mounting evidence, and appeared set to go to trial until this month when a shock plea deal was announced.
Not all families were happy with the agreement, with the Goncalves family saying it was “shocking and cruel” that he would not face a firing squad.
“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 family wrote in a statement when the deal was announced.
“Bryan Kohberger facing life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world. Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever,” they said.
Friends and family of the victims attending the sentencing on Wednesday paid tribute to their loved ones, while many dismissed Kohberger as a “failure” or said they hoped fellow prisoners would mete out justice.
Others said they had faith that God would punish him.
“Man, you’re going to go to hell,” Kernodle’s stepfather Randy Davis told Kohberger, shaking with rage.
“You’re evil. There’s no place for you in heaven. You took our children. You are going to suffer, man.”
