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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
What we know about Bryan Kohberger’s plea deal and whether a judge
will approve it
By Elizabeth Wolfe, Taylor Romine, Julia Vargas Jones, Veronica
Miracle, CNN
Updated:
11:03 PM EDT, Tue July 1, 2025
Source: CNN
Steve Goncalves was stunned over the weekend when he heard that
prosecutors in Moscow, Idaho, had reached a with Bryan Kohberger, the
man charged in the 2022 stabbing deaths of his daughter, Kaylee, and
three other University of Idaho students.
Just days earlier, Goncalves said he and a few of the victims’ loved
ones told prosecutors they did not support a plea deal. Instead, they
urged prosecutors to continue pursuing the death penalty in
Kohberger’s upcoming quadruple murder trial, which Goncalves hoped
would bring much-needed closure to their families.
“We don’t want to deal. We’re not interested in that. We didn’t
wait two and a half years for this,” the father said he told
prosecutors on a Friday afternoon call.
Goncalves said he walked away from the conversation with the impression
that a plea deal was not a serious option in the case, leaving him
blindsided when he received an email just two days later notifying him
a deal had been reached.
Ultimately, it was Kohberger’s attorneys who broached the possibility
of a plea deal as they endured a series of legal blows to their defense
strategy, Goncalves told CNN’s Jim Sciutto, citing conversations with
prosecutors last week.
The agreement would avoid a trial by allowing Kohberger to plead guilty
to all four counts of murder in exchange for the government dropping
the death penalty in the killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin,
Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen, a person familiar with the matter told
CNN.
Goncalves and his family have slammed the deal as “hurried” and
“secretive,” saying prosecutors should have sought input from
victims’ loved ones on the conditions of the deal. Jeff Kernodle,
Xana’s father, also expressed disappointment in the prosecutor’s
decision.
Kernodle mourned the deal as a “missed opportunity to set a stronger
precedent in how accountability should be handled in cases like
this,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
“It could have sent a message to others that these kinds of horrific
crimes carry real consequences. Instead, four beautiful lives were
taken, and the person responsible won’t be used as an example to help
prevent something like this from happening again,” Kernodle added.
In contrast, families of the other two victims say they support the
plea deal.
Ben Mogen, father of Madison, told the he was choosing acceptance,
adding the plea agreement would let his family avoid a trial and allow
its wounds to keep healing. Ethan’s mother, Stacy Chapin, told her
family would be in court Wednesday “in support of the plea
bargain.”
But the deal is not set in stone, and the judge could require Kohberger
to confess to details of the crime, a legal expert said.
State District Judge Steven Hippler must approve the deal and will
oversee a hearing in the case at 11 a.m. Wednesday, during which the
plea agreement will be addressed, a letter from the prosecutor to a
victim’s family says, according to an report.
Closed-door plea negotiations shrouded in mystery
Plea deal negotiations are often protected by a halo of privacy, so
details of the closed-door conversations between prosecutors and
Kohberger’s attorneys are unlikely to come out unless one side steps
forward, according to University of Idaho associate law professor
Samuel Newton.
Commonly discussed in the legal process, plea deals involve prosecutors
offering a defendant incentives, such as a less severe sentence, if
they accept a guilty plea, Newton said.
The costs and time commitment of a death penalty case may have also
played a role in both sides wanting to reach an early conclusion,
Newton said. Death penalty convictions often lead to decades of
painstaking appeal efforts, which he said some victims’ families
describe as “torture.”
“The family is looking at … decades of legal proceedings in a death
penalty case, versus if he takes life without parole, it’s done and
the family gets that degree of closure,” Newton said.
Kohberger’s legal defense team has also suffered a in recent weeks
which have narrowed their strategy options, including rulings barring
the defense from submitting an official alibi – as no one could
confirm Kohberger’s whereabouts at the time of the killings – and
rejecting their attempt to present an “alternate perpetrator”
theory.
During Wednesday’s hearing, the judge is likely to question Kohberger
thoroughly to make sure he understands that he would be forfeiting his
right to a trial and sentencing appeals if he accepts the deal, Newton
said.
Families push for details of the killings
Both Goncalves and Kernodle have criticized prosecutors for not
including provisions in the plea deal that would require Kohberger to
confess to specific details of the crime. Those details could have been
revealed at trial, which still leaves questions over motive and how the
stabbings were carried out.
Goncalves hopes Judge Hippler will require Kohberger to make statements
in court that would shed light on the remaining mysteries of the case.
He also believes such statements would provide the suspect’s
supporters – many of whom maintain his innocence – less ground to
stand on.
“We’re all going to live with the repercussion for the rest of our
lives … unless Hippler steps in and says, ‘You’re not going to
just say you’re guilty. You’re going to communicate some of the
details so these families can actually move on and not have to be
dragged through this true crime nightmare over and over and over
again.”
Kernodle agreed, saying in his statement, “It’s incredibly hard to
accept that a trial won’t be happening. I had hoped the agreement
would include conditions that required the defendant to explain his
actions and provide answers to the many questions that still remain,
especially where evidence is missing or unclear.”
Goncalves also believes the plea deal should have barred Kohberger from
reaping financial gain from selling the details of his story in the
future.
Could Kohberger maintain his innocence?
There is a slim chance Kohberger could maintain his innocence while
accepting the plea deal by entering an Alford plea, an option that
stems from a 1970 Supreme Court case.
“The benefit of the Alford plea is for a defendant who feels that
they’re innocent but wants to take the deal,” Newton said, noting
there are no substantial differences between a regular guilty plea and
an Alford plea. “It has the same result as a guilty plea. It’s just
the defendant themselves is not going to say that they did it.”
If the defense went this route, the state may present a factual basis
for Kohberger’s guilty plea, including details of how the crime was
carried out, and would require him to say “guilty” after the facts
were read, Newton said. Like a regular guilty plea, Kohberger would
likely be waiving his right to appeal as well, he added.
Newton said it seems unlikely prosecutors would have agreed to a plea
deal if they didn’t have assurances Kohberger would take
responsibility for the killings, making the chances of an Alford plea
questionable.
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