Idaho stabbings suspect to plead guilty, avoid death penalty

Bryan Kohberger on Monday accepted a plea agreement that would see him spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole or the right to appeal, according to a letter sent to the victim’s families. The now 30-year-old was charged with the 2022 homicides of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves. The plea deal would see Kohberger avoid the death penalty in exchange for pleading guilty to the murders and a burglary charge. A hearing was scheduled to take place Wednesday and he will likely be sentenced later this summer, weeks before his trial was set to begin.

The four University of Idaho students were killed at an off-campus house in November 2022 and authorities arrested Kohberger at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania more than one month later. At the time of the murders, he was a graduate student in criminal justice at Washington State University near the University of Idaho.

What led to this point? Kohberger in May 2023 refused to enter a plea during his arraignment in a Latah County, Idaho court, and a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. A grand jury earlier that month indicted him on four counts of murder and one count of first degree murder. Prosecutors in the case planned to seek the death penalty, while the defense planned to argue that another person committed the crimes. The Idaho Supreme Court in 2024 moved the trial from the town where the students were murdered to Boise over concerns that media coverage of the case could prevent Kohberger from receiving a fair trial. A judge last week refused to delay the trial.

Have the victim’s families responded? The family of Kaylee Gonclaves made several statements on social media criticizing the move to offer Kohberger a plea deal. In one, Gonclaves’ younger sister called the move shocking and cruel, saying the families did not have time to process the outcome. In another statement, the family said the plea was a hurried end to a more than two-year-long legal battle and that they had explicitly told prosecutors they did not want a plea deal to be offered. The families of the other three victims had not made public statements as of Tuesday morning, and Kohberger’s family had not commented on the plea.

Dig deeper: Listen to Lauren Dunn’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how the killings affected students and community members.