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Time of India
23-07-2025
- Time of India
Bryan Kohberger sentenced to life in prison for murdering 4 University of Idaho students
A judge sentenced Bryan Kohberger to serve life in prison for the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students nearly three years ago. No motive has been offered and Kohberger chose not to speak at the hearing. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Public Policy CXO Cybersecurity Project Management Management Data Science Healthcare Others Degree MCA MBA Digital Marketing healthcare Data Analytics Product Management Leadership others Data Science Artificial Intelligence Design Thinking Operations Management Technology Finance PGDM Skills you'll gain: Duration: 12 Months IIM Calcutta Executive Programme in Public Policy and Management Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Economics for Public Policy Making Quantitative Techniques Public & Project Finance Law, Health & Urban Development Policy Duration: 12 Months IIM Kozhikode Professional Certificate Programme in Public Policy Management Starts on Mar 3, 2024 Get Details The hearing gave the families of Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Kaylee Goncalves the opportunity to describe the anguish they've felt since their loved ones were killed in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. The victim impact statements lasted about two hours. Sentence was in line with the plea deal Kohberger agreed to earlier this month Judge Hippler sentenced Kohberger to 10 years for burglary and four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, along with $270,000 in fines and civil penalties. Judge Steven Hippler spoke next, reading from a statement and holding back tears Kohberger "senselessly slaughtered" the four victims, Hippler said. Live Events Hippler credited law enforcement and "the killer's incompetence" for the court's ability to prosecute him. "The world and this court unmasked this unfathomable and senseless act of evil has caused immeasurable pain and loss," Hippler said. Kohberger declined to make a statement at the sentencing hearing "I respectfully decline," he said. Wednesday's sentencing hearing will give the families of Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Kaylee Goncalves the opportunity to describe the anguish they've felt since their loved ones were killed in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania about six weeks after the killings. He initially stood silent when asked to enter a plea, so a judge entered a "not guilty" plea on his behalf. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson had sought death penalty. The court-defense team challenged the validity of the DNA evidence, unsuccessfully pushed to get theories about possible "alternate perpetrators" admitted in court, and repeatedly asked the judge to take the death penalty off of the table. But those efforts largely failed, and the evidence against Kohberger was strong. With an August trial looming, Kohberger reached a plea deal.
Chicago Tribune
17-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Judge lifts sweeping gag order in Idaho college murders case
BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho judge lifted a sweeping gag order Thursday in Bryan Kohberger's quadruple murder case. Bryan Kohberger avoided a potential death sentence by pleading guilty earlier this month to the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students at a rental home near campus in 2022. A coalition of news organizations including The Associated Press had asked the court to lift the gag order since a trial is no longer planned. During a hearing Thursday morning, 4th District Judge Steven Hippler agreed that lifting the gag order would protect the First Amendment rights of the public and press. 'The primary purpose of the non-dissemination order, which is to ensure that we can seat an impartial jury, is no longer at play,' Hippler said. He said he couldn't justify continuing the gag order because the public has the right to receive information about the case, and those rights are 'paramount.' Kohberger's defense team argued against lifting the gag order, saying it could lead to more media coverage and jeopardize the integrity of the sentencing process. 'The media frenzy, as it's been described, will continue regardless,' Hippler said. 'Lifting the non-dissemination order does not require the counsel or others previously bound by it to speak.' A different judge in Moscow, Idaho, originally issued the gag order early in the case, saying additional publicity could harm Kohberger's right to a fair trial. The media coalition also asked Hippler to immediately unseal hundreds of sealed documents in the case. He said he would go through the documents carefully to determine which ones could be made public, but said that process would not start until the sentencing is over. Though the gag order has been lifted, both the prosecutor's office and the defense team declined interview requests for now, as did former Moscow Police Chief James Fry. Kohberger admitted to breaking into the rental home through a sliding door and killing the four friends, who had no connection with him. Prosecutors said he spent months carefully planning the attack, and that his studies as a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University helped him take steps to cover up his tracks.
San Francisco Chronicle
17-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
An Idaho judge has lifted a sweeping gag order in Bryan Kohberger's quadruple murder case
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho judge lifted a sweeping gag order Thursday in Bryan Kohberger's quadruple murder case. Bryan Kohberger avoided a potential death sentence by pleading guilty earlier this month to the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students at a rental home near campus in 2022. During a hearing Thursday morning, 4th District Judge Steven Hippler agreed that lifting the gag order would protect the First Amendment rights of the public and press. 'The primary purpose of the non-dissemination order, which is to ensure that we can seat an impartial jury, is no longer at play,' Hippler said. He said he couldn't justify continuing the gag order because the public has the right to receive information about the case, and those rights are 'paramount.' Kohberger's defense team argued against lifting the gag order, saying it could lead to more media coverage and jeopardize the integrity of the sentencing process. 'The media frenzy, as it's been described, will continue regardless,' Hippler said. 'Lifting the non-dissemination order does not require the counsel or others previously bound by it to speak.' A different judge in Moscow, Idaho, originally issued the gag order early in the case, saying additional publicity could harm Kohberger's right to a fair trial. The media coalition also asked Hippler to immediately unseal hundreds of sealed documents in the case. He said he would go through the documents carefully to determine which ones could be made public, but said that process would not start until the sentencing is over. Kohberger admitted to breaking into the rental home through a sliding door and killing the four friends, who had no connection with him. Prosecutors said he spent months carefully planning the attack, and that his studies as a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University helped him take steps to cover up his tracks.
Miami Herald
02-07-2025
- Miami Herald
What Time is Bryan Kohberger's Plea Hearing? What To Know, How To Watch
Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students, is expected in court on Wednesday morning to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Kohberger, 30, is expected to plead guilty to charges that he murdered Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, in Moscow, Idaho, early on November 13, 2022. He agreed to the plea deal in the past few days, just weeks before his trial was set to begin, after his attorneys tried but failed to stop prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. The deal has divided the victims' families, with some furious that it will allow Kohberger to avoid capital punishment and others supporting it. Kohberger is due to appear before Idaho Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler for a change of plea hearing at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise at 11 a.m. MDT (1 p.m. ET), according to a notice filed on Monday. The proceedings will be live-streamed on YouTube by the court. Hippler on Tuesday denied requests by media outlets to record Wednesday's hearing. "A live-steam of the proceedings will be provided by the Court on its media streaming account," he wrote in an order. "Therefore, the various requests by media outlets to independently video record the proceedings are denied." The judge said he would permit The Associated Press to capture still photographs from the hearing. "The permission to provide such coverage is contingent on the AP agreeing to act as a pooled resource for such photographs for all media entities," he wrote. Hippler said the photographer may only capture images from the location within the courtroom assigned to them by court personnel. He added that photographs may not be taken of the family members of the victims inside the courthouse. The four University of Idaho students were found fatally stabbed at a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow in the early hours of November 13, 2022. The slayings sparked a massive hunt for the perpetrator, including an effort to track down a white sedan seen on surveillance cameras repeatedly driving by the rental home, the use of genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect and cellphone data to pinpoint his movements on the night of the killings. Kohberger, who was a graduate student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington, at the time, was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania weeks after the murders. Investigators said they had matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. He stood silent when asked to enter pleas in 2023, prompting a judge to enter not-guilty pleas on his behalf. His attorneys have since tried in vain to take the death penalty off the table. But with Kohberger's murder trial now just weeks away, they turned to a plea deal to avoid the possibility of execution. Prosecutors said in a letter to the families of the victims that Kohberger's defense attorneys had approached them seeking a plea deal last week, ABC News reported. "This resolution is our sincere attempt to seek justice for your family," they wrote in the letter. "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." The Goncalves family is furious about the plea deal, and have said they will seek to stop it. But they have also said that any deal should "at a bare minimum" require Kohberger to make a full confession, provide the location of the murder weapon and detail the facts of what happened on the night of the killings. No motive has emerged for the killings, and it is also not clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were also in the home at the time of the killings. The Goncalves family said in a Facebook post on Tuesday: "We stand strong that it is not over until a plea is accepted. We will not stop fighting for the life that was stolen unjustly." They added: "While we are cognizant that some may have wanted the plea, the prosecution relayed to us it was NOT a majority vote that was the deciding factor in offering this plea. At a bare minimum, please - require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, & the true facts of what happened that night. We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was." Chapin's mother Stacy Chapintold KTVB on Tuesday: "The Chapins will be in Boise tomorrow, July 2, in support of the plea bargain." Mogen's father Ben Mogen, who is supportive of the deal, toldCBS News: "We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don't want to have to be at, that we shouldn't have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person. "We get to just think about the rest of [our] lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids." Martin Souto Diaz, an attorney for the Kohberger family, said in a statement on behalf of the family: "In light of recent developments, the Kohbergers are asking members of the media for privacy, respect, and responsible judgement during this time. "We will continue to allow the legal process to unfold with respect to all parties, and will not release any comments or take any questions. We ask that you respect our wishes during a difficult time for all those affected." Hippler must approve the plea deal. If Kohberger pleads guilty as expected at the change of plea hearing on Wednesday, prosectors expect sentencing to take place in late July. He will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences on the murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count, ABC News reported, citing the agreement. This article includes reporting by The Associated Press. Related Articles Bryan Kohberger's Family Breaks Silence On Plea DealBryan Kohberger Plea Deal: Victims' Families Deeply DividedBryan Kohberger Plea Deal Sparks Wave of Reaction OnlineBryan Kohberger Update: Last Minute Deal Rocks Murder Trial 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Newsweek
27-06-2025
- Newsweek
Bryan Kohberger Dealt New Legal Blow from Judge
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The judge presiding over Bryan Kohberger's case said a delay to the trial is "not warranted" in an order on Thursday. District Judge Steven Hippler denied the defense's motion to continue the trial after hearing oral arguments on the matter at a hearing on June 18. "Defendant has not made showing that there is good cause to continue the trial or that his substantial rights will be prejudiced by proceeding to trial as scheduled," Hippler wrote. Why It Matters Defense attorney Anne Taylor argued that the delay would grant the defense more time for reviewing discovery and preparing for the sentencing phase of proceedings if convicted. Taylor also argued that recent and upcoming media coverage of the case have an "extremely prejudicial impact" on the case. The prosecution argued that the defense had not shown good cause to delay the trial or prejudice resulting from the current start date. Newsweek reached out to Taylor and prosecutors for comment. Bryan Kohberger, a former Washington State University doctoral student, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary in connection with the deaths of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The students were found fatally stabbed in an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022. Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania on December 30, 2022, and later extradited to Idaho to face trial. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. Bryan Kohberger, 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. Bryan Kohberger, 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. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File Prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted. What To Know At the hearing on June 18, Taylor said a recent Dateline special, along with an upcoming docuseries and book, could complicate jury selection. "The moment we start attempting to select a jury in this case, those things are going to be on everybody's TV, everybody's social media feed," Taylor said. Hippler wrote that there is "no assurance that the pretrial publicity will fade with time." "The circumstances of the murders were provocative — four college students in small Idaho college town were brutally stabbed to death by an unknown perpetrator. It was an immediate media sensation and garnered widespread attention that not only continues to persist, but continues to grow," Hippler said. Hippler said that if there were concerns over discovery, the motion to continue should have been filed prior to the expiration of discovery, expert deadlines and the final pretrial conference. He said the defense has been able to retain about two dozen experts, file and argue motions and disclose witnesses and exhibits "with nary whisper that continuance would be sought." "These actions belie his counsel's ongoing—and ultimately empty—discovery complaints," Hippler said. "Without more, the Court can only conclude that defense counsel is using the volume of discovery measured in terabytes as tactic to delay the proceeding at the eleventh hour simply for the sake of delay rather than legitimate threat of prejudice to Defendant's substantial rights." Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told Newsweek that a motion to continue does not have to be filed before discovery closes. "You can file a motion to continue at any time," Rahmani said. "There's not a specific cut off for it." What People Are Saying Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, in comments to Newsweek: "I don't see any world where kicking this can down the road will result in less pretrial publicity. Everyone in the entire world knows about this case and is waiting for this trial, so I don't think it was a particularly good argument." District Judge Steven Hippler, in an order filed Thursday: "The longer the public is made to sit and wait for the facts to come out at trial, the more time there is for inflammatory, speculative stories, movies and books to circulate and more time for prior ones to be rebroadcast, purchased, viewed and consumed by the public. Proceeding with trial as scheduled will likely avoid negative consequences from future publicity." What Happens Next While Hippler did not grant the defense's motion, an amended scheduling order filed on Thursday said jury selection will now begin on August 4 instead of the previously scheduled July 30. The change was an internal scheduling adjustment by the court and was not the result of the defense's attempt to delay proceedings, a court spokesperson told Fox News. Sealed court proceedings between the prosecution and the defense will take place from July 28 to August 1. The court said it is estimated that the trial will begin on August 18. Do you have a story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@
