IDAHO murder suspect Bryan Kohberger has reportedly accepted a plea deal in order to avoid the death penalty for the murder of four students in 2022.
Victim Kaylee Goncalves’ family confirmed the deal offer on Monday night, saying they were “beyond furious.”
ReutersBryan Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students[/caption]
Instagram/kayleegoncalvesKaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death in 2022[/caption]
APA selfie Kohberger allegedly took on November 13, 2022, hours after the murders[/caption]
A letter had been sent to the four victims’ families about the deal on Monday, ABC reported.
“It’s true!” Goncalves’ family said in a Facebook post.
“We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho. They have failed us.
“Please give us some time. This was very unexpected. We appreciate all your love and support.”
The family of Xana Kernodle is also livid, reports TMZ, and have pleaded with prosecutors not to go through with the deal.
Kim Kernodle, Xana’s aunt, said she was told by prosecutors that the defense approached them with the offer of a plea deal, and they accepted it in order to “spare the families”.
But Kim insists that at least two of the families — hers and the Goncalves family — wanted Kohberger to face a jury.
She said: “We know the graphics. They were not trying to spare us.”
The bereaved aunt also revealed that prosecutors called her family a few days ago about a deal, but never mentioned taking the death penalty off the table and said there was enough evidence to secure a guilty verdict.
Kohberger is now expected to plead guilty to the brutal killing of the students in their own home in exchange for live in prison, NewsNation first reported.
The four consecutive life sentence comes with no possibility of parole and he must reportedly waive his right to appeal, according to ABC.
A court hearing over the bombshell u-turn is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, where a judge will decide whether to accept it.
Kohberger, 30, was due to go to trial in August for the fatal stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.
He was was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, at the time.
Weeks after the killings, Kohberger was arrested at his parent’s home in Pennsylvania.
Cops had linked him to the crime scene using DNA recovered from a knife sheath, according to a probable cause affidavit.
His cell phone location data and surveillance footage of a car the same make and model as his own also helped investigators to allegedly place him at the scene.
Kristi and Steve Goncalves, the parents of victim Kaylee Goncalves, outside the Ada County CourthouseAP
Facebook/The Goncalves Family PageA Facebook post from the Goncalves family reacting the news of an agreed plea deal[/caption]
APKohberger is no longer expected to face trial after reaching a plea deal with just weeks to go[/caption]
Just last Thursday, Judge Steven Hippler denied the defense’s motion asking to delay the trial – although he delay the start date by one week.
This week, several potential defense witnesses from Kohberger’s home state of Pennsylvania were expected to appear for hearings on whether they must testify.
Kohberger had been expected to plead not guilty to all the charges, and the list of witnesses to be called against him was growing.
Two brand new witnesses were named last week and revealed to be Kohberger’s former prison guard and potential classmate.
Court documents filed in Pennsylvania summoned witnesses William Searfoss and Anthony Somma to take the stand.
Searfoss works as a correction officer at the Monroe County Correctional Facility, where Kohberger was held for five days after he was arrested.
Meanwhile, Somma appears to have graduated from a school that Kohberger was kicked out of, according to his Facebook profile.
University of Idaho murders timeline
On November 13, 2022, a brutal home invasion claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in their Moscow, Idaho, off-campus home.
A six-week manhunt ensued as cops searched for a suspect.
On December 30, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, 30, was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania – 2,500 miles away from the crime scene.
He was taken into custody and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, has been linked to the crime scene through phone records, his car’s location, and DNA evidence found at the home where the murders took place.
The house was demolished in December 2023 despite backlash from the victims’ families.
Kohberger is being held at Latah County Jail while he awaits trial.
On September 9, 2024, an Idaho judge ruled to move the upcoming murder trial out of Moscow after Kohberger’s lawyer argued that the town was prejudiced against him.
The state Supreme Court will decide the new venue and judge for the trial, which is expected to start in August 2025.
HAUNTING HISTORY
Throughout his time at school, Kohberger noticeably struggled keeping up with classwork and effectively teaching his students, according to those in the program.
At one point, he got called into a dean’s office when he snapped at someone in his cohort.
Outside of school, the accused killer appeared to become secretly obsessed with the young women attending the two universities.
His browing history shows dozens of pictures of female students wearing nothing but bathing suits, and many of of the girls followed the three female victims, according to Dateline.
GPS data indicated that Kohberger took nearly a dozen trips to Moscow in July, and his cell phone connected to a tower providing coverage within 100 meters of the house of horrors where the students were killed.
Search records from September show that Kohberger researched “sociopathic traits in college student” and later looked up pornography with the words “drugged” and “sleeping.”
The day of the killing, Kohberger’s phone connected to that same tower, according to the data, but it was turned off before 3 am, when the murder is thought to have taken place.
At 4:48 am, it connected to another cell tower south of Moscow.
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