Crime Bryan Kohberger to plead guilty to killing 4 University of Idaho students in deal to avoid execution - Trial was only 5 weeks away

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Bryan Kohberger to plead guilty to killing 4 University of Idaho students in deal to avoid execution
Oregon Public Braodcasting
By REBECCA BOONE (Associated Press)
June 30, 2025 8:41 p.m.

Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students as part of a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty, an attorney for one victim’s family said Monday.

Shanon Gray, an attorney representing the family of Kaylee Goncalves, confirmed that prosecutors informed the families of the deal by email and letter earlier in the day, and that his clients were upset about it.

“We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho,” Goncalves’ family wrote in a Facebook post. ”They have failed us. Please give us some time. This was very unexpected.”

A change of plea hearing was set for Wednesday, but the families have asked prosecutors to delay it to give them more time to travel to Boise, Gray said. Kohberger’s trial was set for August.

Kohberger, 30, is accused in the stabbing deaths of Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. Autopsies showed the four were all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times.

FILE - Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, is escorted into court for a hearing in Latah County District Court, Sept. 13, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho.

FILE - Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, is escorted into court for a hearing in Latah County District Court, Sept. 13, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Ted S. Warren / AP

Kohberger, then a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania weeks after the killings. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.

In a court filing, his lawyers said Kohberger was on a long drive by himself around the time the four were killed.

The killings shook the small farming community of about 25,000 people, which hadn’t had a homicide in about five years. The trial was moved from rural northern Idaho to Boise after the defense expressed concerns that Kohberger couldn’t get a fair trial in the county where the killings occurred.

In the letter to families, obtained by ABC News, prosecutors said Kohberger’s lawyers approached them seeking to reach a plea deal. The prosecutors said they met with available family members last week before deciding to make Kohberger an offer.

“This resolution is our sincere attempt to seek justice for your family,” the letter said. “This agreement ensures that the defendant will be convicted, will spend the rest of his life in prison, and will not be able to put you and the other families through the uncertainty of decades of post-conviction, appeals. Your viewpoints weighed heavily in our decision-making process, and we hope that you may come to appreciate why we believe this resolution is in the best interest of justice.”

In Idaho, judges may reject plea agreements, though such moves are rare. If a judge rejects a plea agreement, the defendant is allowed to withdraw the guilty plea.

Earlier Monday, a Pennsylvania judge had ordered that three people whose testimony was requested by defense attorneys would have to travel to Idaho to appear at Kohberger’s trial.

The defense subpoenas were granted regarding a boxing trainer who knew Kohberger as a teenager, a childhood acquaintance of Kohberger’s and a third man whose significance was not explained.

A gag order has largely kept attorneys, investigators and others from speaking publicly about the investigation or trial.

___

Associated Press reporter Mark Scolforo contributed from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06...of-idaho-students-in-deal-to-avoid-execution/
 
If you're going to do this as the prosecution, maybe just shut the fuck up and don't act like you're doing a favor for the families involved, especially when you know they disagree.

Excuse me? Life in prison with no appeals is failure? You'd rather risk a trial and acquittal? Just for the sake of execution?
Blood for blood. If this guy had any chance to get acquitted he wouldn't take this plea. This is the states attorney not wanting to blow the time or money on the trial and the death penalty appeals. But at least if you're the family you would know he would either be set to fry or released out into the wild where you can deliver justice yourself.
 
Excuse me? Life in prison with no appeals is failure? You'd rather risk a trial and acquittal? Just for the sake of execution?
TBF it’s not like they’re in NYC, New Jersey, or California where the risk of acquittal is considerable. Idaho probably had him dead to rights and the guy was salivating at seeing his kid’s murderer get gassed out of existence.
 
If you're going to do this as the prosecution, maybe just shut the fuck up and don't act like you're doing a favor for the families involved, especially when you know they disagree.


Blood for blood. If this guy had any chance to get acquitted he wouldn't take this plea. This is the states attorney not wanting to blow the time or money on the trial and the death penalty appeals. But at least if you're the family you would know he would either be set to fry or released out into the wild where you can deliver justice yourself.
The alternative isn’t really better. House the guy and feed him until he dies on the taxpayer’s dime, which will also include the family’s tax money. The only thing that sucks is even if he gets sentenced to death, he’ll still rot in a cell for a long time, because states are horribly slow with executing people.

Wasn’t there a running conspiracy about this guy not being the murderer?
 
The alternative isn’t really better. House the guy and feed him until he dies on the taxpayer’s dime, which will also include the family’s tax money. The only thing that sucks is even if he gets sentenced to death, he’ll still rot in a cell for a long time, because states are horribly slow with executing people.

Wasn’t there a running conspiracy about this guy not being the murderer?
The death penalty is something I'm really torn on due to the incompetence of the state. But slam dunk guilty guys like this or slam dunkers with pedophile shit should be swift executions.
 
House the guy and feed him until he dies on the taxpayer’s dime
This argument stinks. "Well it's gonna be expensive to punish him so lol guess we shouldn't."

Compared to the giant chunks of our collective tax dollars that get chewed up by gibs and national defense, this is a drop in the bucket I'm happy to see get spent protecting us from demonstrated threats.

Come to think of it ... I wonder how much we'd collectively save just in gibs reductions if we spent as many tax dollars as needed on more/bigger prisons and personnel until judges stopped using "muh overfull prisons" as an excuse.
 
Could the state have opted to take him to trial to get the execution? If they have a slam dunk why wouldnt they? Just saving tax dollars on an expensive trial that will end with him off the street and not hurting people any more anyway?
 
While am in favor of this guy frying, death penalty cases are like 200x more expensive than housing a prisoner in jail for life. It's basically because the lawyers suck as much money out of the system as they can on appeals.
Touché. Thanks for giving me yet another reason to absolutely loathe lawyers.
 
But slam dunk guilty guys like this
No prosecutor on the planet offers this deal if a death penalty case is 'slam dunk', but clearly you were a secret witness and saw him do it.
Railroading the first guy accused through the justice system to execute them and satisfy the family that's a) in the early stages of grieving, and b) wants anyone punished for the crime against their kin, is fucking stupid. Execution is the one act a government can never un-do or make proper restitution for. And the US government has already executed dozens of men later proven not guilty. But no, let's deny the defendant the full recourse of the legal system because the victim's sister is super sure he's the one who did it.
 
While am in favor of this guy frying, death penalty cases are like 200x more expensive than housing a prisoner in jail for life. It's basically because the lawyers suck as much money out of the system as they can on appeals.
But who fucking cares how expensive it is, the government can afford it and it’s necessary and important. they certainly can afford all the stupid shit they do like very expensive and damaging nigger and spic riots they let happen multiple times a year.
 
No prosecutor on the planet offers this deal if a death penalty case is 'slam dunk', but clearly you were a secret witness and saw him do it.
Railroading the first guy accused through the justice system to execute them and satisfy the family that's a) in the early stages of grieving, and b) wants anyone punished for the crime against their kin, is fucking stupid. Execution is the one act a government can never un-do or make proper restitution for. And the US government has already executed dozens of men later proven not guilty. But no, let's deny the defendant the full recourse of the legal system because the victim's sister is super sure he's the one who did it.
The defense team took a plea of life in prison with no parole or appeal. If you don't think that's a tacit admission that they had no chance at trial I don't know what to tell you.
Also nice of you to edit out my mentioning of the incompetence of the government in regards to the death penalty just so you could sperg out.
 
Wasn’t there a running conspiracy about this guy not being the murderer?
Yes, many lawtube and other channels etc and other ppl in the true crime sphere started theorizing that the boys + some of the food truck associates they knew that night staged it all or at least had connections to get drugs in and out of the house or something and it went awry. Or they were owed something. The night it happened all the house members were apparently very drunk and the food truck people were sus or something. And the reactions of the teens during and after being weird af. But that's all the gist I've got. The main hangup seems to be why the hell the kids knew shit was going down, why they didn't call 911 but instead called each other and friends while they hid away in the other rooms. One of the girls even found one of the dead bodies but proceeded to not call 911 at all "because she thought she passed out on the floor". And went to hide...Tbf, from what I've heard and read - I think Bryan is guilty but these kids were retarded and never taught what's normal in a dire situation either
 
Imagine looking up to any serial killer, let alone fucking BTK. Even if you've got a squeaky clean record, idolizing BTK is like a whole fucking communist parade of red flags, guy was Satan's asshole incarnate and it's wild how he slipped through for so long given how much of a prick he was in his regular day to day cover life/job that he abused to find victims.

Also last I heard about this case it was still a mystery, glad they collard this freak.
 
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No prosecutor on the planet offers this deal if a death penalty case is 'slam dunk', but clearly you were a secret witness and saw him do it.
This trial would cost millions of dollars to prosecute and it ties up the court for years. A plea with life no parole takes five minutes and costs maybe $10K with the extra security for media presence. With a trial you are talking dozens of witnesses, expert testimony, forensic records, character witnesses, crime scene evidence with videos and photos, and hundreds of hours in court arguing over it. When this guy is pathetically and shamefully obviously guilty.
But who fucking cares how expensive it is, the government can afford it and it’s necessary and important. they certainly can afford all the stupid shit they do like very expensive and damaging nigger and spic riots they let happen multiple times a year.
It's not about money it's about time. A trial like this monopolizes a courtroom for potentially years. It's a huge waste.
 
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