Following victim impact statements on Wednesday morning, Ada County, Idaho, Judge Steven Hippler handed Bryan Kohberger life in prison without parole for the murders of four University of Idaho students.
Kohberger, a 30-year-old former Ph.D. criminology student, admitted guilt earlier this month to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in the 2022 murders of four Idaho college students, Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
“This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person,“ Hippler said with emotion in his voice. “Parents who took their children to college, in a truck filled with moving boxes, had to bring them home in hearses lined with coffins.”
“We are now certain who committed these unspeakable acts of evil,” he added, but the public may never know why. Kohberger declined to speak before he was sentenced.
Friends and families share their grief
Family members and close friends of the victims delivered impact statements at the Boise, Idaho, courthouse, with Kohberger present and listening to their remarks, showing little to no emotion to the harsh comments made about him.
The first remarks were a statement prepared by Bethany Funke, one of the two roommates who were in the home and survived the night Kohberger carried out the crime. A friend of hers read the statement.
“Never in a million years would I have thought that something like this would have happened to my closest friends,” her statement said, recounting what had been her “worst nightmare.”
“Why me? Why did I get to live and not them?” Funke asked.
During the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022, the four victims were killed at their college home in Moscow, Idaho. Six weeks later, Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania at his parents’ home.
Kohberger entered a plea deal, preventing him from possible capital punishment if found guilty, but detectives said they would have “used DNA evidence that linked Kohberger to the crime scene, his online purchase history, surveillance video of Kohberger’s car, and cellphone data that showed him in the vicinity of the killings,” if the case had gone to trial, per CBS News.
No evidence has been given of Kohberger having any prior relationship with the victims.
As different family members of the victims spoke on Wednesday, their feelings toward the prosecution allowing Kohberger to avoid the death penalty were mixed; even President Donald Trump shared his opinions on the decision.
“Bryan Kohberger, who was responsible, in Idaho, for the deaths of four wonderful young souls, has made a plea bargain deal in order to avoid the Death Penalty. These were vicious murders, with so many questions left unanswered,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “While Life Imprisonment is tough, it’s certainly better than receiving the Death Penalty but, before Sentencing, I hope the Judge makes Kohberger, at a minimum, explain why he did these horrible murders. There are no explanations, there is no NOTHING. People were shocked that he was able to plea bargain, but the Judge should make him explain what happened.”
White House press secretary Karolin Leavitt also opened her weekly press briefing Wednesday afternoon with a message to the families of the Idaho victims.
“We are so sorry for the grief and the pain you have experienced at the hands of such a vicious and evil killer,” she said. “Our nation grieves with you, and we will never forget the precious souls who were lost in this horrific act of evil.”
Leavitt added that if the decision fell upon Trump, he would make Kohberger explain himself.
