Bryan Kohberger's Confession Was Expected. This Courtroom Bombshell Wasn't
Bryan Kohberger confessed to killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022.
An Idaho prosecutor shared new details about the evidence against the former criminology student during Kohberger's plea hearing.
Kohberger will be sentenced in late July, but one punishment won't be considered.
Bryan Kohberger has now been convicted in the University of Idaho student murders. The one-time criminology Ph.D. student appeared in court Wednesday and pleaded guilty to killing Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in November 2022. He also admitted to one count of felony burglary.
The case ignited intense interest from the start, but in the years since, authorities and Kohberger have shared little about that night partially as a result of a judge-imposed gag order. His motive for the fatal stabbings remains unknown, but Wednesday's hearing did shed light on a few more details of the case.
Providing an overview of the state's evidence, Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson shared that Kohberger, now 30, had owned the apparent murder weapon for about eight months before the killings. In March 2022, he purchased a Ka-Bar knife and sheath from Amazon while living in Pennsylvania. That sheath was later found at the Moscow, Idaho, home where Kohberger killed Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle, and Chapin. DNA on the sheath matched Kohberger's.
An even bigger revelation followed when Thompson said the knife remains missing. Authorities didn't recover it while searching Kohberger's apartment in nearby Pullman, Washington, where he had moved in late June 2022, nor at his office. 'Spartan would be a kind characterization,' Thompson said in describing the places. 'There was virtually nothing there. Nothing of evidentiary value was found.' That search occurred several weeks after the murders.
The knife also wasn't in Kohberger's white Hyundai Elantra, which had been spotted on surveillance cameras near the crime scene on the morning of the murders. By the time authorities examined the car, it 'had been meticulously cleaned inside,' Thompson said.
'It was actually pretty much disassembled internally,' the prosecutor said. 'There was a bucket of cleaner right beside it. I think we can all look to our own cars, you know in those compartments in the doors you can try to keep 'em clean where you put stuff, there's always some degree of crud in there—they were spotless.'
Kohberger's trial in the death penalty case was set to begin next month. Then, suddenly, he changed course at the end of June and agreed to a plea deal. In exchange for admitting to the crimes, he will be spared the death penalty and is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin on July 23 at 9 a.m. local time.
During Wednesday's court appearance, Kohberger was seemingly calm as he answered the judge's yes-or-no questions and entered his plea. Time will tell if he decides to open up about why he committed the gruesome acts and what he did with the murder weapon.
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