Latest news with #Victims
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Malay Mail
US student who murdered four Idaho housemates sentenced to life in prison without parole
LOS ANGELES, July 24 — A criminology student who crept into a shared house and murdered four young people in their beds as they slept was told yesterday he would die in prison, in a case that has gripped and baffled the United States. Bryan Kohberger has never explained his motive for carrying out the murders and sat passively in an Idaho court as he heard heart-wrenching statements from families of the four students he stabbed to death in 2022 in the small town of Moscow. But in a deal that took the death penalty off the table earlier this month, he agreed to plead guilty to the horrific killings of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. At an emotional sentencing hearing in Boise, Kohberger again refused to offer any justification when offered the chance to speak, telling Judge Steven Hippler: 'I respectfully decline.' Handing down four life sentences without the possibility of parole, Hippler said the heartbroken families may never know why Kohberger killed their loved ones. 'The need to know what is inherently not understandable makes us dependent upon the defendant to provide us with a reason, and that gives him the spotlight, the attention and the power he appears to crave,' he said. 'In my view, the time has now come to end Mr Kohberger's 15 minutes of fame. 'It's time that he been consigned to the ignominy and isolation of perpetual incarceration. Kohberger was studying for a doctorate degree in criminology at Washington State University in 2022 when he drove to the small town of Moscow in the neighboring northwestern US state of Idaho. There, he broke into a shared student house and went from room to room stabbing four of the six occupants to death. The investigation that followed was a national and international sensation, attracting lurid speculation from all corners of the internet, fuelled by a police policy of refusing to release details on the probe. Then, on December 30, Kohberger was arrested at his parents' house in Pennsylvania thousands of miles (kilometers) away, after DNA found on a knife sheath was traced to him. He continued to deny the charges, despite mounting evidence, and appeared set to go to trial until this month when a shock plea deal was announced. Not all families were happy with the agreement, with the Goncalves family saying it was 'shocking and cruel' that he would not face a firing squad. 'After more than two years, this is how it concludes with a secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims' families on the plea's details,' the family wrote in a statement when the deal was announced. 'Bryan Kohberger facing 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,' they said. Friends and family of the victims attending the sentencing on Wednesday paid tribute to their loved ones, while many dismissed Kohberger as a 'failure' or said they hoped fellow prisoners would mete out justice. Others said they had faith that God would punish him. 'Man, you're going to go to hell,' Kernodle's stepfather Randy Davis told Kohberger, shaking with rage. 'You're evil. There's no place for you in heaven. You took our children. You are going to suffer, man.' —AFP
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Washington Post
Families of slain University of Idaho students share emotions at Bryan Kohberger's sentencing
The families and loved ones of the four students stabbed to death in a home near the University of Idaho campus faced Bryan Kohberger during his sentencing in a Boise court Wednesday in an outpouring of grief, anger and even forgiveness. Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four life sentences without parole for four counts of first-degree murder in the brutal deaths of Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves and Ethan Chapin early on Nov. 13, 2022. He was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed $270,000 in fines and civil penalties. He has waived his right to appeal.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Man sentenced to life in prison for murdering four University of Idaho students
Friends and relatives of four University of Idaho students in the US who were murdered in their rental home by Bryan Kohberger delivered powerful statements of love, anguish and condemnation as his sentencing hearing took place. 'This world was a better place with her in it,' Scott Laramie, the stepfather of Madison Mogen, told the court. 'Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie.' The father of Kaylee Goncalves taunted Kohberger for leaving his DNA behind and getting caught despite being a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University at the time. 'You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid,' Steve Goncalves said. 'Master's degree? You're a joke.' Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for four counts of first-degree murder in the brutal stabbing deaths of Ms Mogen, Ms Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin early on November 13 2022. He was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary. The defendant pleaded guilty earlier this month, just weeks before his trial was due to start, in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Kohberger broke into the home through a kitchen sliding door and brutally stabbed the four friends, who appeared to have no connection with him. No motive has been offered, and Kohberger chose not to speak at the hearing. Dylan Mortenson, a roommate who told police of seeing a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask in the home that night, sobbed as she described how Kohberger, seated across the room in an orange jumpsuit, 'took the light they carried into each room'. 'He is a hollow vessel, something less than human,' Mr Mortenson said. 'A body without empathy, without remorse.' Mr Mortenson and another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, described crippling panic attacks and anxiety after the attack. 'I slept in my parents' room for almost a year, and had them double lock every door, set an alarm, and still check everywhere in the room just in case someone was hiding,' Ms Funke wrote in a statement read by a friend. 'I have not slept through a single night since this happened. I constantly wake up in panic, terrified someone is breaking in or someone is here to hurt me, or I'm about to lose someone else that I love.' Alivea Goncalves's voice did not waver as she asked Kohberger questions about the killings, including what her sister's last words were. She drew applause after belittling Kohberger, who remained expressionless as she insulted him. 'You didn't win, you just exposed yourself as the coward you are,' Alivea Goncalves said. 'You're a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser.' Kohberger's mother and sister also attended the hearing, sitting in the gallery near the defence table. His mother quietly wept at times as the other parents described their grief. She sobbed briefly when Maddie Mogen's grandmother said that her heart goes out to the other families, including Kohberger's. Xana Kernodle's aunt, Kim Kernodle, said she forgave Kohberger and asked him to call her from prison, hoping he would answer her lingering questions about the killings. 'Bryan, I'm here today to tell you I have forgiven you, because I no longer could live with that hate in my heart,' she said. 'And for me to become a better person, I have forgiven you. And any time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number. I'm here. No judgment.' Police initially had no suspects in the killings, which terrified the rural western Idaho city of Moscow. Some students at both universities left mid-semester, taking the rest of their classes online because they felt unsafe. A knife sheath left near ms Mogen's body had a single source of male DNA on the button snap, investigators said, and surveillance videos showed a white Hyundai Elantra near the rental home around the time of the murders. Police used genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect and accessed mobile phone data to pinpoint his movements the night of the killings. Online shopping records showed Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife months earlier, along with a sheath like the one at the home. Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania about six weeks after the killings.
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Wall Street Journal
Bryan Kohberger to Be Sentenced in University of Idaho Killings
For the families and friends of four murdered University of Idaho students, Wednesday marks their long-awaited day in court. Bryan Kohberger will be sentenced to prison just weeks after he confessed to the November 2022 murders of Xana Kernodle, 20 years old, Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21. In a Boise, Idaho, courtroom, the students' families will be allowed to take turns detailing the impacts of their losses in statements in front of Kohberger before he is sent to prison for the rest of his life.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Climate
- Arab News
Heavy storms in northern Vietnam leave 1 dead, as Wipha weakens into a tropical depression
HANOI: Heavy storms in northern Vietnam left one person dead and another missing, police said Wednesday, as Wipha weakened from a tropical storm into a depression. A 59-year-old man was killed in Nghe An province when a tree fell on his house on Sunday before the storm made landfall, police said. Nghe An, which stretches from the coast to the mountainous Laos border, was among the areas hit hardest by heavy rain and floods. Another woman was swept away by floodwaters and remains missing. Four other people were injured. Flooding damaged hundreds of homes, destroyed crops and cut off remote communities, officials said. Nearly 400 households were evacuated from the province's landslide-prone areas, and several upland communities remain isolated without electricity or communication, officials said. Heavy rains triggered landslides that damaged roads, collapsed part of a school building and destroyed crops and forest. The storm made landfall Tuesday morning with sustained winds of up to 102 kilometers per hour (63 mph) before weakening as it moved inland. It caused power outages, disrupted farming operations and forced temporary airport closures in northern provinces. In neighboring Thailand, heavy rain from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning triggered flooding in several northern provinces, swelling rivers and inundating homes. Authorities said more than 350 people were affected, though no casualties have been reported. They warned of possible flash floods and landslides.
