Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty to Idaho student murders under death penalty threat

Several family members seated in the gallery were crying as the hearing went on.

Kristi Goncalves silently sobbed as the judge read Kaylee’s name. An aunt of Kaylee’s had her head down, holding her forehead and was also weeping. The aunt also sobbed when prosecutors spoke about blood on the murder weapon.

Madison Mogen’s father, Ben, looked agitated and was breathing heavily, rubbing his eyes with a handkerchief. He did not look at Kohberger while he answered the judge’s questions.

Kohberger will be sentenced on July 23 at 9 a.m. local time with an additional day if needed.

Since he no longer has the presumption of innocence, Kohberger must appear in jail attire, Hippler says.

Kohberger will continue to be held in jail pending sentencing, he adds.

Hippler asks Kohberger how he pleads on all charges and Kohberger responds “guilty.”

The judge says he is accepting the plea and he will allow the families of victims to speak at an upcoming sentencing.

Thompson says there are “numerous victims and those who share unique perspectives to this” who’d like to speak.

Thompson is going over the prosecution’s evidence in the case, including how Kohberger’s phone connected to the tower near the crime scene at 1122 King Road about 23 times leading up to the killings.

“We do not have evidence that he had direct contact with 1122, but we can put his phone in that area at those times,” Thompson says.

He also described how the state believes Kohberger went to the home in the early morning of the murders and entered through a sliding door in the kitchen. He believes Mogen and Goncalves were killed first on the third floor, where a Ka-bar knife sheath was left.

He said “that sheath was tested and single-source DNA was found on the snap of the sheath.”

He also said the defendant’s car was “seen on a surveillance camera for 1122 King Road leaving the area at a high rate of speed.”

Hippler says the state would have needed to prove that Kohberger entered the residence at 1122 King Road in Moscow with the intent to commit felony murder and killed Mogen, Chapin, Goncalves and Kernodle.

“Yes,” Kohberger said when asked if he’s admitting those actions are true and that he murdered the victims “willfully, unlawfully, deliberately with premeditation and malice of forethought.”

Bryan Kohberger repeatedly answered “yes” when asked if he stabbed four University of Idaho students “deliberately with premeditation and malice of forethought” by the judge overseeing his case.

Kohberger, under oath, says he understands the plea agreement and the nature of the charges. He says that no one is forcing him to plead guilty or that he has been promised anything to plead guilty.

“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Hippler asks.

“Yes,” Kohberger says.

Hippler says Kohberger could face a fine of up to $50,000 and a period of incarceration of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years on each of the counts.

He also faces a fine of up to $5,000 to each victim of the crime in the form of a civil judgment in addition to any restitution to the victims.

Hippler, however, says that he’s not bound by the plea agreement.

The agreement says Kohberger would plead guilty to burglary felony and first-degree murder of four counts, Hippler says.

He would be sentenced to 10 years for the burglary charge and a fixed life sentence on the four counts of homicide, according to the agreement.

All five would run consecutive to one another and Kohberger would waive his right to appeal the sentence or to seek leniency of the sentence, Hippler adds.

Hippler says that he has been getting calls from the public who are trying to influence his decision-making and it has been disruptive to his staff.

He adds that he has not listened to any of the messages and that it’s “inappropriate” to contact the office.

“My role is to ensure the defendant’s plea is given voluntarily,” Hippler says.

He adds that he only learned of the plea agreement Monday afternoon and was “under the belief this case was heading to trial.”

He also says that his office was in the process of making preparations to have 10,000 citizens of Ada County report to jury duty in mid-July.

While prosecutors pushed for the death penalty if Kohberger were found guilty at trial — and the defense was steadfastly opposed — its use remains exceedingly rare in Idaho.

The state has not carried out an execution since 2012. An attempt to execute an inmate by lethal injection in February 2024 was called off after prison staff failed to properly attach IV lines.

Idaho only has nine people on death row, relatively small compared to other states. Like other states, Idaho has struggled to procure the necessary lethal injection drugs as pharmaceutical companies have made them difficult to obtain.

Without any drugs, executions in Idaho are on pause. However, they could resume once the states finishes building its firing squad chamber. State corrections officials plan to make death by firing squad the primary form of execution by next summer.

Kohberger and his defense team are in the courtroom, including his lawyers Anne Taylor, Elisa Massoth and Bicka Barlow.

The prosecution includes Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson, state prosecutor Jeff Nye and special prosecutor Josh Hurwit.

Family of the victims are also in attendance. Kaylee Goncalves’ mother, Kristi, is wearing all black and holding hands with a woman seated next to her.

Also observing are members of Madison Mogen’s family, including her mother, Karen Laramie.

In a rare statement, Kohberger’s family asked for “privacy, respect, and responsible judgment during this time.”

“We will continue to allow the legal process to unfold with respect to all parties, and will not release any comments or take any questions,” it added. “We ask that you respect our wishes during a difficult time for all those affected.”

The family had previously said, days after Kohberger’s arrest in December 2022, that it was cooperating with law enforcement to “promote his presumption of innocence.” It pledged to “let the legal process unfold and as a family we will love and support our son and brother.”

For a case that has drawn rampant online speculation, the much-anticipated trial was expected to shed light on key details of the brutal killings.

A sweeping gag order issued in the wake of the students’ deaths prevented many involved in the case —including lawyers and law enforcement — from speaking publicly.

But with an apparent resolution now in sight, some figures may choose to break their silence. Kohberger who has appeared at each hearing has not spoken or released any statements.

“Kohberger does take a plea deal, will there just be many questions potentially left unanswered?” Idaho defense lawyer Edwina Elcox said. “There could be.”

“We may never learn where the knife is,” Elcox said, referring to the murder weapon.

The Goncalves family said in a Facebook post that it wants to hear from Kohberger to gain insight into several unanswered questions, including his motive, the whereabouts of the knife and what transpired on the night the four victims were killed.

“We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was,” the post said.

Steve Goncalves, the father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, said in an interview on NBC’s “TODAY” show that he feels “failed” by the apparent plea deal, which his family told state prosecutors it was vehemently against.

“How can you say it’s just when you haven’t even talked to us to see what justice looks like for us?” Goncalves said.

He plans to attend today’s hearing, but he will remain outside the courtroom, he said.

A representative for the family members of victim Ethan Chapin says they support a plea bargain and also plan to attend the hearing, underscoring how such a deal is being received differently by the families most affected by the yearslong saga.

The hearing at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise is slated to begin at 11 a.m. local time and will be open to the public.

Kohberger, his defense lawyers and prosecutors with Latah County and the state attorney general’s office are required to attend.

District Court Judge Steven Hippler, who has been handling the case since preparations for the trial were moved to Ada County from Latah County, will preside.

The decision to accept a plea deal must be made with the defendant’s consent, NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos said.

“The attorneys may have along the way warned him that if you go to trial, this is a lot of evidence, and you could be convicted and the death penalty may result,” Cevallos said on NBC’s “TODAY” show. “But ultimately, it was Kohberger’s decision.”

While prosecutors often work with victims and their families when considering a potential plea deal, those personally affected don’t have the final say, Cevallos added.

“In the last decade or so, many states have enacted laws, and Idaho has both a constitutional amendment and a separate act of the Legislature, a law, that requires victims to be heard — but being heard is not the same as being obeyed,” Cevallos said.

“So victims may have the opportunity to be heard on an issue, but ultimately, it is the state, it is the prosecutors who make this final decision,” he added, “and it is very common for victims and their families to be very upset with the decision that the prosecutors make.”