Bryan Kohberger Sentenced to Life for University of Idaho Murders

Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students in November 2022. 

Kohberger accepted the plea deal earlier this month, copping to four counts of first-degree murder and an additional count of burglary. As part of the deal, Kohberger avoided the death penalty. A letter previously sent to the families of the four victims regarding the deal stated that Kohberger would be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences and would waive all right to appeal. 

“The time has now come to end Mr. Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame,” Judge Steven Hippler said before handing down the sentence Wednesday that would “forever remove [Kohberger] from civilized society.”

The hearing Wednesday also featured emotional testimony from the families of the victims: Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. One by one, members from all four families scolded, berated, and lashed out at Kohberger, who sat motionless and unemotional through the parade of testimony. “The scariest part about you is how average you turned out to be,” a sister of one of the victims told Kohberger.

Goncalves’ mother told the “pathetic” Kohberger, “I never imagined having to speak to someone so devoid of emotion.” She continued, “Your fellow inmates are anxiously awaiting your arrival… you’ll get the human touch you so desperately desired… You may have gotten A’s in high school and college, but you’re gonna be getting big D’s in prison.”

Bethany Funke, a roommate who was in the house during the murders but was not attacked by Kohberger, provided her first statement about “the worst day of my life,” as read by her friend Emily. “I was scared the person who did this would come for me next,” Funke’s statement said, adding she had “not slept through a single night since this happened… The fear never really leaves.”

After the impact statements, prosecutor Bill Thompson explained the state’s logic behind reaching a plea deal with Kohberger, and asked the judge to give Kohberger a “fixed life” sentence for each of the four murders, to be served consecutively, “back-to-back,” Thompson explained.

Kohberger, in his lone moment of addressing the court, “respectfully declined” to make a statement on his own behalf.

Kohberger stabbed Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle, and Chapin to death in their off-campus apartment on Nov. 13, 2022. After a lengthy manhunt, Kohberger was finally arrested on Dec. 30, with the suspect linked to the crime through DNA evidence found on a knife sheath. 

In May 2023, Kohberger was indicted by a grand jury on murder charges. At the time, the judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger’s behalf after he chose to “stand silent” rather than enter a plea.

Over the next several years, the biggest developments in the case were largely procedural. Kohberger’s efforts to get the case dismissed were rebuffed in October 2023. In 2024, the judge agreed to move the trial out of Latah County, where the University of Idaho is located, to Boise, as part of an effort to diminish the possibility of a prejudicial jury.

Earlier this year, Kohberger’s lawyers turned their attention to getting the death penalty off the table. Prosecutors had signaled their intent to seek capital punishment early on, and Kohberger’s defense tried to argue that a recent autism diagnosis would make the death penalty constitute cruel and unusual punishment. A judge, however, rejected that argument in late April. Kohberger accepted his plea deal just a few months later.