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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Bryan Kohberger admits to Idaho student murders, as victims’ families
remain torn over the outcome
By Jean Casarez, Elizabeth Wolfe, Rebekah Riess, CNN
Updated:
10:27 PM EDT, Wed July 2, 2025
Source: CNN
For 30 months, Bryan Kohberger and his defense attorneys insisted on
his innocence in the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho
students in their off-campus home.
But in a matter of minutes Wednesday, in a packed courtroom roughly 300
miles from the horrific scene of the crime, everything changed.
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” the judge asked.
“Yes,” Kohberger said.
“Did you on November 13, 2022, enter the residence at 1122 King Road
in Moscow, Idaho, with the intent to commit the felony crime of
murder?” the judge asked.
“Yes,” Kohberger said, again.
It was the first time the public had heard directly from the lone
suspect in a gruesome crime that shocked the nation.
And it was to say what prosecutors had alleged all along: He did it.
The remarkable cements a deal that allows Kohberger to avoid the and
his highly-anticipated murder trial by admitting guilt to charges of
burglary and first-degree murder in the gruesome late-night killings of
Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen.
The deal ends a that included a for the suspect and a pre-trial legal
battle that involved several attempts by the defense to have the
charges dismissed or the death penalty taken off the table. The
announcement of the deal comes after several judge’s rulings that
would have narrowed the defense’s strategy options at trial.
As Kohberger, a 30-year-old former PhD student of criminology,
confirmed his guilt to state district Judge Steven Hippler, one of the
victims’ family members silently wept as other loved ones listened
intently.
After the plea, prosecutor Bill Thompson delivered a lengthy outline of
the evidence that would have been presented against Kohberger at ,
including phone records that placed him near the victims’ home and an
account of how he moved through the home on the night of the killings.
He also revealed that prosecutors still do not know whether Kohberger
entered the home with the intent of killing all four students.
“We will not represent that he intended to commit all of the murders
that he did that night, but we know that that is what resulted, and
that he then killed ‘intentionally, willfully, deliberately, with
premeditation and with malice aforethought’ Madison Mogen, Kaylee
Goncalves, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle,” Thompson said, appearing
to choke up as he read their names.
Thompson also nodded to Kohberger’s deep fascination with criminal
cases as a criminology student, saying, “The defendant has studied
crime. In fact, he did a detailed paper on crime scene processing …
and he had that knowledge and skill.”
Several key questions were left unaddressed, including what drove
Kohberger to carry out the killings, why he targeted the students and
why two other roommates were spared.
The families of the four victims – who have desperately awaited
answers they believed would be revealed at trial – remain torn over
the outcome of the deal. Mogen’s parents have expressed their
support. Her father, Ben Mogen, he viewed the deal as an opportunity to
avoid the pain and spectacle of a trial and focus on healing.
At least one parent, Steve Goncalves, told CNN he felt blindsided by
the announcement, which came just days after he and other loved ones
had urged prosecutors to pursue the death penalty. The Goncalves family
members, in a statement Wednesday, said they had expected more answers
from Wednesday’s hearing.
“Today was the day, the day for answers, the day to find out what
happened, to find out really anything about what the Defendant did that
night and why he took the lives of 4 beautiful people. At least
that’s what we hoped for but hope is really all we had today,” the
Goncalves family statement read.
On the burglary charge, Kohberger will face a sentence of 10 years. He
will face a life sentence for each of the four counts of first-degree
homicide. The five counts will run consecutively. Kohberger waived his
right to appeal the plea and sentence, and to seek leniency and
reconsideration of the sentence later.
Kohberger’s sentencing hearing has been set for July 23 at 9 a.m. and
he will remain in jail until then. Kohberger will no longer be allowed
to appear in the civilian shirt and tie he usually wears for hearings,
Hippler said. The next time he sets foot in the courtroom, he will be
dressed in prison garb.
New evidence emerges as questions linger
A pile of questions over the killer’s method and motive have haunted
the case since the four students were discovered stabbed to death in
their home near Moscow with no signs of forced entry. Though
prosecutors have previously shared some evidence to support their
charges against Kohberger, a sweeping gag order has prevented both
parties from sharing insight into a case that has scarred the small
college town.
But Thompson on Wednesday laid out a timeline of evidence that would
have been presented at trial, which included small revelations about
Kohberger’s path through the home and the searches of his home and
meticulously cleaned car.
Early on the morning of the murders, prosecutors said, Kohberger parked
his car behind the students’ home and slipped inside through a
sliding glass door to the kitchen at the back.
Once inside, he headed to the third floor and fatally stabbed Mogen and
Goncalves, Thompson said. In a crucial mistake, Kohberger left behind a
knife sheath, on which investigators found DNA they would later
identify as Kohberger’s, the prosecutor added.
Investigators homed in on Kohberger as a suspect by pulling DNA from
his parents’ trash. His father’s discarded Q-Tip contained DNA that
lab tests determined likely belonged to the father of the person whose
DNA was left on the knife, Thompson revealed.
Kernodle, whose room was on the second floor, was still awake as
Kohberger began the killings, Thompson said. She had recently made a
food delivery order after returning home from a late night out.
“As the defendant was either coming down the stairs or leaving, he
encountered Xana, and he ended up killing her, also with a large knife.
Ethan Chapin, Xana’s boyfriend was asleep in her bedroom, and the
defendant killed him as well,” Thompson told the court.
One of the two surviving roommates woke as Kohberger was leaving the
house and looked out of her bedroom to see Kohberger – dressed in
black clothing and a balaclava – leaving the home, the prosecutor
said.
As Kohberger fled on rural back roads, surveillance cameras captured
his car speeding through the area. Thompson said, “The car almost
loses control as it makes (a) corner.”
A harrowing weekslong hunt for the suspect ensued, concluding when
Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ Pennsylvania home. He had
driven across the country in the white Hyundai Elantra seen at the
crime scene, but when investigators searched the vehicle, they found it
had been cleaned and “disassembled internally.”
The murder weapon, which investigators say is a fixed-blade knife, has
never been found, and it is still unclear why Kohberger carried out the
killings. He was not required to make a detailed confession in court
Wednesday.
Families divided on case’s abrupt conclusion
After the victims’ families were informed of the plea deal over the
weekend, fathers Jeff Kernodle and Steve Goncalves harshly criticized
prosecutors for not consulting the victims’ families before agreeing
to conditions of the deal.
Kernodle said he was disappointed the deal did not require Kohberger to
confess to unexplained details of the crime.
“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,” Kernodle said in a statement Tuesday.
Goncalves, who said he believes Kohberger deserves the death penalty,
told CNN he believes Kohberger should have been barred from reaping
financial gain from selling his story from prison.
In contrast, Mogen’s parents said they are accepting the plea deal as
an opportunity to move on from what would have been a torturous trial.
“We support the plea agreement 100%. While we know there are some
who do not support it, we ask that they respect our belief that this is
the best outcome possible for victims, their families and the state of
Idaho,” said Leander James, who represents Mogen’s mother and
stepfather, Karen and Scott Laramie.
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