Bryan Kohberger to be sentenced: Idaho’s only maximum security institution
The 30-year-old faced the death penalty for the gruesome murders of four students, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in their home in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022.
The plea deal spares him his life – but the abrupt ending leaves relatives of the victims with conflicted feelings and many questions unanswered.
Kohberger’s sentencing is set for Wednesday in the city of Boise.
The state made a “deal with the devil”, Kaylee Goncalves’s father Steve told reporters. Like others, he had lingering questions about the mysteries surrounding the case, including a motive.
Kohberger may speak during Wednesday’s sentencing – or may not – and families of the victims will have the opportunity to describe the impact of his crimes.
For Ben Mogen, Madison’s father, the deal marks a moment of closure for a family that had dreaded a gruelling trial after years of being thrust into the national spotlight.
It was a typical Saturday night out for four young college students near the tree-lined University of Idaho campus, weeks before the Thanksgiving break.
Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, went to a party at his fraternity. Meanwhile, best friends, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, went to a bar and ended the night with a food truck visit, before they all returned to their home just down the road from campus around 02:00 local time.
Hours later, in the early morning of 13 November 2022, a masked attacker would park his car behind their home on King Road and enter through a sliding glass door.
He would climb the stairs to the third floor, roaming from bedroom to bedroom, stabbing the four young students, while leaving two others in the house unharmed.
