My daughter was brutally murdered along with three college friends - I wanted her killer dead but he got away with an 'adult daycare' plea deal
Kohberger, 30, last week admitted to the world that he did murder Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, as well as Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, on November 13, 2022.
His plea deal was a shock to the victims' families, some of whom are furious that it was ever offered to him.
He took the deal to avoid the death penalty - accepting instead a life without parole sentence - after years of delays and stalling.
Following the news, Steve Goncalves, the father of Kaylee, appeared on ITV 's This Morning on Monday, hitting out at the decision.
He joined hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard via video link to discuss the case as he remembered his young daughter.
Steve told them: 'I feel like we worked our tails off for two-and-a-half years for a certain moment and time in court and anything less than our peers being able to judge what happened was let down.
'We're trying to wrap our head around how one individual was able to determine what this justice was, call us naive but we grew up in a school system that told us that our juries, our peers would be the ones to decide what was guilty and what was innocent and that's not how it works.'
Reacting to the fact his daughter's killer won't face the death penalty, Steve said: 'It's pathetic, cause in America, prison is daycare. It's daycare for adults and my daughter deserves everything that I can give her, every bit of rage and power. Everything I could do to fight for her I was doing.'
He added: I didn't want to be this guy, I didn't want to fight, I didn't want to do all this stuff, but I have no choice. I am who I am.
'I said "if you don't give my daughter the most respect, the most justice then I can't support that" and that's all I've done.'
Steve said the plea deal was 'out of left field' as the families were not aware of it prior to it being made public and claimed 'there's something going on about silencing'.
He went on: 'Everything was sealed. I mean, the gag order - why are we doing a gag order? He pleaded guilty, we're still doing a gag order?
'It's worse than closure, people. What is going on is, without him saying he is the sole person responsible for this, he can portray this victimisation of himself, he can make a book.'
Steve also claimed that Kohberger is working on a book with the help of his sister, though This Morning's crime expert David Wilson later clarified under American law he wouldn't be able to benefit from the sale of the book.
'We're just living this nightmare over and over and some of the families that get it, they were just trying to get out of this nightmare which I want to be done with it as well, but there's a right way and a wrong way.
'We've been sold in America and for me to pretend this is justice is beyond me, I can't do that.
'I can't wake up in the morning and be the same person I am and not say that this right or this is wrong, I'm going to stand up and thank God for media and thank God for you guys who can say "hey, not everyone's on board let's talk about it, let's hash this out let's get to some kind of agreement".
'They tried everything to keep me talking from the media, and that's one reason why they were upset with me, it was just because I was going to talk to the media and I said "I'm going to talk to the media because they've been more fair to me than you guys have," so here I am.
'We're at the end, but thank God to your audience and thank God to other people that they're interested because without that, we absolutely have no chance of justice.'
There's still no hint of a motive for the shocking crime and Kohberger may never reveal why he did it.
Judge Steven Hippler accepted Kohberger's plea and said he will be sentenced at Ada County Court on July 23 at 9am local time (11am EST).
'The trial will be vacated and the jury commissioner will get words to those who were summoned that they won't be required to attend,' Hippler added.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX.
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