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The Guardian
03-07-2025
- The Guardian
Idaho student stabbings suspect pleads guilty to murder to avoid death penalty
Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to murder on Wednesday in the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in 2022 that stunned and terrified the campus and set off a nationwide search, which ended weeks later when he was arrested in Pennsylvania. Kohberger, who was a criminal justice graduate student at nearby Washington State University, admitted to the slayings before entering a formal guilty plea in a deal with prosecutors that will allow him to avoid the death penalty. He was set to go to trial in August. Idaho fourth judicial district judge Steven Hippler said as the hearing began on Wednesday that he would not take into account public opinion when deciding whether to accept the agreement. 'This court cannot require the prosecutor to seek the death penalty, nor would it be appropriate for this court to do that,' he said. 'This court … cannot force the state to seek the death penalty.' The small farming community of Moscow, in the northern Idaho panhandle, had not had a homicide in about five years when Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were found dead at a rental home near campus on 13 November 2022. Autopsies showed the four victims were all likely asleep when they were attacked. Some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times. Long before sunrise on Wednesday, reporters were setting up cameras outside the courthouse in Boise and lining up along with those hoping to snag a seat for the hearing. The killings grabbed headlines around the world and set off a nationwide hunt, including an elaborate effort to track down a white sedan spotted on surveillance cameras repeatedly driving by the rental home. Police said they used genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect and accessed cellphone data to pinpoint his movements on the night of the killings. At the time, Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate student at nearby Washington State University who had just completed his first semester and was a teaching assistant in the criminology program. Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene. Online shopping records showed that Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife months earlier – as well as a sheath like the one found at the scene. No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were in the home. There also was no indication he had a relationship with any of the victims, who all were friends and members of the university's Greek system. Authorities have said cellphone data and surveillance video show that Kohberger visited the victims' neighborhood at least a dozen times before the killings, and that he traveled in the same area that night. Kohberger's lawyers said he was simply on a long drive by himself around the time the four were killed. The case was moved to Boise because of pretrial publicity in northern Idaho. Hippler must approve the plea deal. If Kohberger pleads guilty as expected, he would likely be sentenced in July. Although the Goncalves family opposed the agreement and said they would seek to stop it, they also argued that any such deal should require Kohberger to make a full confession, detail the facts of what happened and provide the location of the murder weapon. 'We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was,' they wrote in a Facebook post. The family of Chapin – one of three triplets who attended the university together – supports the deal, their spokesperson, Christina Teves, said on Tuesday. Attorney Leander James, who represents Mogen's mother and stepfather, declined to give their views but said he would deliver a statement on their behalf after Wednesday's hearing. Mogen's father, Ben Mogen, told CBS News he was relieved by the agreement. '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,' he said. 'We get to just think about the rest of lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids.'
Associated Press
03-07-2025
- Associated Press
A Q-Tip and spotless car were key evidence linking Bryan Kohberger to murders of 4 Idaho students
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The lead prosecutor tasked with finding justice for four University of Idaho students killed in a grisly quadruple stabbing more than two years ago laid out his key evidence Wednesday at a court hearing for Bryan Kohberger, who agreed to plead guilty earlier this week to avoid the death penalty. The evidentiary summary — recited by lead prosecutor Bill Thompson before Kohberger entered his pleas — spun a dramatic tale that included a DNA-laden Q-tip plucked from the garbage in the dead of the night, a getaway car stripped so clean of evidence that it was 'essentially disassembled inside' and a fateful early-morning Door Dash order that may have put one of the victims in Kohberger's path. These details offered new insights into how the crime unfolded on Nov. 13, 2022, and how investigators ultimately solved the case using surveillance footage, cell phone tracking and DNA matching. But the synopsis leaves hanging key questions that could have been answered at trial — including a motive for the stabbings and why Kohberger picked that house, and those victims, all apparent strangers to him. The small farming community of Moscow, in the northern Idaho panhandle, had not had a homicide in about five years when Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were found dead at a rental home near campus. Kohberger, now 30, had begun a doctoral degree in criminal justice at nearby Washington State University — across the state line from Moscow, Idaho — months before the crimes. 'The defendant has studied crime,' Thompson said, as the victims' family members dabbed at their tears. 'In fact, he did a detailed paper on crime scene processing when he was working on his Ph.D., and he had that knowledge skillset.' What we learned from the hearing Kohberger's cell phone began connecting with cell towers in the area of the crime more than four months before the stabbings, Thompson said, and pinged on those towers 23 times between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. in that time period. A compilation of surveillance videos from neighbors and businesses also placed Kohberger's vehicle — known to investigators because of a routine traffic stop by police in August — in the area. On the night of the killings, Kohberger parked behind the house and entered through a sliding door to the kitchen at the back of the house shortly after 4 a.m., Thompson said. He moved to the third floor, where Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were sleeping. After killing both of them with a knife, Kohberger left a knife sheath next to Mogen's body. Both victims' blood was later found on the sheath, along with DNA from a single male that ultimately helped investigators pinpoint Kohberger as the only suspect. On the floor below, another student was still awake. Xana Kernodle had ordered Door Dash not long before, and as Kohberger was leaving, he crossed paths with her and killed her with a large knife, Thompson said. He then killed her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, who was sleeping in Kernodle's bedroom. Kohberger left two others in the house alive, including one roommate who was expected to testify at trial that sometime before 4:19 a.m. she saw an intruder there with 'bushy eyebrows,' wearing black clothing and a ski mask. Roughly five minutes later, the car could be seen on the next-door neighbor's surveillance camera. speeding away so fast 'the car almost loses control as it makes the corner,' Thompson said. What did Kohberger do next? After Kohberger fled the scene, Thompson said, his cover-up was elaborate. Prosecutors believe he drove backroads to his apartment in Pullman, Washington, to avoid surveillance cameras on the major roads and didn't turn his cell phone back on until 4:48 a.m. By 5:26 a.m., he was back in Pullman, Thompson said. Later, Kohberger changed his car registration from Pennsylvania to Washington State — significant for investigators who were combing through surveillance camera footage because Pennsylvania law doesn't require a front license plate, making it harder to identify the vehicle. And by the time investigators did catch up with him weeks later, his apartment and office in nearby Pullman were scrubbed clean. 'Spartan would be a kind characterization. There was nothing there, nothing of evidentiary value was found,' Thompson said of Kohberger's apartment. The car, too, 'had been essentially disassembled inside,' he added. 'It was spotless. The defendant's car had been meticulously cleaned inside.' The Q-tip that broke the case Investigators had honed in on Kohberger, but they needed to prove he was their suspect. With the DNA of a single mystery male on the knife sheath, they worked with the FBI and the local sanitation department to secretly retrieve garbage from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger's parents, seeking a DNA match to their suspect. 'They conducted what's called a trash pull during the nighttime hours,' Thompson said, and 'took trash that had been set out on the street for collection' and sent it to Idaho's forensics lab. The pile of garbage yielded investigative gold: A Q-tip that contained DNA identified 'as coming from the father of the person whose DNA was found on the knife sheath that was found by Madison Mogen's body on the bed,' he said. With that, Kohberger was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania, where he had gone for the holidays, and ultimately was extradited to Idaho for prosecution. The mysteries that remain Even while prosecutors detailed that night, a key question remains: Why did Kohberger target that house and those victims? Did he know them? And what was his motive? 'We do not have evidence that the defendant had direct contact with 1122 or with residents in 1122, but we can put his phone in the area on those times,' Thompson said, referring to the house number where the murders took place. Some of that evidence may have come out at trial, and may yet be contained in documents related to the case that have been sealed by the court until after a July 23 sentencing hearing. A gag order in place for all attorneys in the case is still in effect as well. Those documents include witness lists, a list of exhibits, an analysis of the evidence, requests for additional discovery, filings about mitigating factors and various unsuccessful defense motions that sought to introduce alternative suspects, among other things. The families of the victims are split over the plea deal With the case solved, families remain divided over its resolution. The deal stipulates that Kohberger will be spared execution in exchange for four consecutive life sentences. He also waived his right to appeal and to challenge the sentence. Chapin's and Mogen's families support the deal. 'We now embark on a new path. We embark on a path of hope and healing,' Mogen's family said in a statement. The family of Kaylee Goncalves publicly denounced the plea deal ahead of Wednesday's hearing and her father refused to attend the proceedings. Goncalves 18-year-old sister, Aubrie Goncalves, said in a Facebook post that 'Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world.' 'Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever,' she wrote.
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- The Guardian
Idaho student stabbings suspect pleads guilty to murder to avoid death penalty
Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to murder on Wednesday in the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in 2022 that stunned and terrified the campus and set off a nationwide search, which ended weeks later when he was arrested in Pennsylvania. Kohberger, who was a criminal justice graduate student at nearby Washington State University, admitted to the slayings before entering a formal guilty plea in a deal with prosecutors that will allow him to avoid the death penalty. He was set to go to trial in August. Idaho fourth judicial district judge Steven Hippler said as the hearing began on Wednesday that he would not take into account public opinion when deciding whether to accept the agreement. 'This court cannot require the prosecutor to seek the death penalty, nor would it be appropriate for this court to do that,' he said. 'This court … cannot force the state to seek the death penalty.' The small farming community of Moscow, in the northern Idaho panhandle, had not had a homicide in about five years when Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were found dead at a rental home near campus on 13 November 2022. Autopsies showed the four victims were all likely asleep when they were attacked. Some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times. Long before sunrise on Wednesday, reporters were setting up cameras outside the courthouse in Boise and lining up along with those hoping to snag a seat for the hearing. The killings grabbed headlines around the world and set off a nationwide hunt, including an elaborate effort to track down a white sedan spotted on surveillance cameras repeatedly driving by the rental home. Police said they used genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect and accessed cellphone data to pinpoint his movements the night of the killings. At the time, Kohberger was a criminal justice graduate student at nearby Washington State University who had just completed his first semester and was a teaching assistant in the criminology program. Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene. Online shopping records showed that Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife months earlier – as well as a sheath like the one found at the scene. No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were in the home. There also was no indication he had a relationship with any of the victims, who all were friends and members of the university's Greek system. Authorities have said cellphone data and surveillance video show that Kohberger visited the victims' neighborhood at least a dozen times before the killings, and that he traveled in the same area that night. Kohberger's lawyers said he was simply on a long drive by himself around the time the four were killed. The case was moved to Boise because of pretrial publicity in northern Idaho. Hippler must approve the plea deal. If Kohberger pleads guilty as expected, he would likely be sentenced in July. Although the Goncalves family opposed the agreement and said they would seek to stop it, they also argued that any such deal should require Kohberger to make a full confession, detail the facts of what happened and provide the location of the murder weapon. 'We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was,' they wrote in a Facebook post. The family of Chapin – one of three triplets who attended the university together – supports the deal, their spokesperson, Christina Teves, said on Tuesday. Attorney Leander James, who represents Mogen's mother and stepfather, declined to give their views but said he would deliver a statement on their behalf after Wednesday's hearing. Mogen's father, Ben Mogen, told CBS News he was relieved by the agreement. '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,' he said. 'We get to just think about the rest of lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids.'
