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Bryan Kohberger heading to infamous Idaho prison where inmates have complained of feces covered walls
Bryan Kohberger heading to infamous Idaho prison where inmates have complained of feces covered walls

Yahoo

time04-07-2025

  • Yahoo

Bryan Kohberger heading to infamous Idaho prison where inmates have complained of feces covered walls

Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty this week to the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students, will likely spend the rest of his life in what's widely considered one of the worst prisons in the country. Tucked away in a desolate area on the outskirts of the capital Boise, the Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI), has earned a grim reputation for its harsh conditions with allegations of abusive guards, violent brawls, feces-covered recreation 'cages' and a dirty ventilation system described as being 'biohazard.' The maximum-security facility houses some of the state's most dangerous criminals — including convicted killer Chad Daybell, the husband of 'Doomsday' cult mom Lori Vallow. And now, 30-year-old Kohberger is expected to join them after he is sentenced later this month for the sayings of Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, a case that rocked the small college town of Moscow in November 2022, the New York Post reported. In the two and a half years since Kohberger's arrest, his attorneys unsuccessfully attempted to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty and challenged DNA evidence, leaving a plea deal their final option to spare his life before the start of Kohberger's highly-anticipated trial in August. Kohberger avoided the death penalty in pleading guilty to the crimes this week in exchange for spending the rest of his life in prison. He has been held at the Ada County Jail in Boise under maximum security since the trial was moved from Moscow. But now he will live out the rest of his days at a remote prison about 10 miles south – a place surrounded by a double perimeter fence with razor wire, an electronic detection system, and 24-hour armed guards. It's a place that was designed for what the Idaho Department of Correction describes as the state's 'most disruptive male residents.' In 2024, the Security Journal Americas named IMSI one of the '15 Worst Prisons in America,' along with the Louisiana State Penitentiary known as The Farm, California's San Quentin, and New York's Attica Correctional Facility. The unfavorable recognition came after 90 inmates went on a hunger strike demanding better treatment and services. Reports at the time cited excessive use of solitary confinement, a lack of mental health resources, and a 'tense and volatile environment' stemming from overcrowding and inmate violence, according to the Idaho Statesman. Solitary confinement at IMSI has long been a point of concern. In 2016, then-Director of the Idaho Department of Correction, Kevin Kempf, launched efforts to reform the practice, noting that many inmates were confined alone for up to 23 hours a day, with minimal human contact, meals delivered in their cells, and showers limited to three times a week — a routine that, for some, lasts years, local outlet KBOI reported. 'Ninety-seven percent of these guys are going to get out and walk into an Idaho community,' Kempf told KBOI at the time. 'If we treat them like animals, they're going to walk out of prison like that.' For Kohberger, his likely transfer to IMSI would mark the beginning of the life sentence without the possibility of parole plea deal he accepted in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table. The 11th hour bombshell decision came about just weeks before Kohberger's long-awaited trial was set to begin. At his plea deal hearing on Wednesday, the former criminology student remained impassive as he admitted to breaking into the off-campus home and killing the four students who appeared to have no connection with him. Prosecutors did not reveal a motive behind the slayings.

'Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow is found guilty of attempted murder as she serves life for killing her two children
'Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow is found guilty of attempted murder as she serves life for killing her two children

Daily Mail​

time13-06-2025

  • Daily Mail​

'Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow is found guilty of attempted murder as she serves life for killing her two children

Lori Vallow has now been found guilty in the attempted murder of her niece's ex-husband in 2019. The 'doomsday mom', who is already serving a life sentence for killing two of her children, was convicted by an Arizona jury on Thursday of conspiring to kill Brandon Boudreaux, who was once married to her niece, outside his home in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert. Vallow was previously sentenced to life in Idaho in 2023 for murdering her two youngest children, seven-year-old Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, as well as conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, her fifth husband Chad Daybell 's previous wife. Thursday's court result marks her second conviction in two months, with another Arizona jury finding the 'cult mom' guilty in late April of conspiring to kill her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in July 2019 at her home in Chandler, another Phoenix suburb. Her brother, Alex Cox, shot Charles Vallow and claimed he had done so in self defense. Cox was not charged before he died of a pulmonary embolism in December 2019. Prosecutors have claimed that these deranged series of murders carried out by the unhinged mom and Daybell - who was sentenced to death in June 2024 for killing his ex-wife Tammy as well as Vallow's two children - were done so the new couple could run off together to pursue 'money, power and sex.' Vallow's plot to kill Boudreaux, for which she was convicted Thursday, also had to do with her goal to get rid of anyone who stood in the way of her burgeoning relationship with Daybell. Boudreaux testified that his marriage to Vallow's niece, Melani Pawlowski, broke down because she became heavily involved in Vallow's twisted cult. Vallow and Daybell were Mormons who splintered off from the church because they were becoming increasingly radical. Daybell was self-published author who wrote doomsday-focused fiction and would later promote spiritual beliefs to justify the murders, essentially saying his victims were possessed and marked for death. Boudreaux explained that Pawlowski aspired to be like Vallow, which led to the two of them attending religious meetings in 2018. Soon after, Pawlowski was telling him that they should be stockpiling food for the end of the world. By July 2019, the two began divorce proceedings. The attempt on Boudreaux's life came on October 2019, when someone in a white Jeep rolled up to his house and fired a rifle shot that missed him but shattered a window on his car. By this time, Vallow's children Joshua and Tylee had been missing for about a month. Boudreaux previously claimed Pawlowski likely knew the location of their bodies, which weren't found until June 2020 after the search for them had swelled into a nationwide manhunt. Boudreaux was also on high alert because Charles Vallow had been killed by gunfire months earlier. Boudreaux had gone to him for advice about his marriage to Pawlowski mere weeks before he was gunned down. On the stand, Boudreaux said he immediately suspected Vallow and her brother Alex Cox, USA Today reported. Prosecutor Treena Kay presented cellphone location data, receipts and video footage that placed Cox at the scene of the shooting driving what was later determined to be Vallow's Jeep. She argued that Vallow gave Cox a fake alibi, arranged for the phone used in the plot and planned out the shooting. Vallow, despite not being a lawyer, represented herself at trial and sought to downplay or outright deny all the evidence being presented against her. At times, she suggested that the data could have been tampered with by prosecutors. Vallow's closing argument shifted the blame onto Boudreaux as she claimed he had a vendetta against her because he blamed her for his marriage falling apart. 'Boudreaux decided that I was responsible for his family tragedy, and I'm really sorry he feels that,' Vallow said. The jury spent just 30 minutes deliberating before convicting Vallow of attempting to murder Boudreaux. In both of the Arizona cases against her, she is set to be sentenced on July 25. Each conviction carries a life sentence.

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