Latest news with #quadruplehomicide
Al Arabiya
03-07-2025
- Al Arabiya
A Q-Tip and spotless car were key evidence linking Bryan Kohberger to the murders of four Idaho students
The lead prosecutor, Bill Thompson, presented key evidence against Bryan Kohberger in the University of Idaho quadruple homicide case. Kohberger pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty. Thompson detailed how Kohberger's cell phone pinged near the crime scene multiple times in the months before the killings. Surveillance footage also placed his vehicle in the area. On the night of the murders, Kohberger entered the house through a sliding door, killing Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves on the third floor. He then killed Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin on the second floor. A surviving roommate described seeing an intruder. After the murders, Kohberger meticulously cleaned his car and apartment, changed his car registration, and turned off his cell phone. Investigators later retrieved DNA from his parents' trash, linking it to DNA found on a knife sheath at the crime scene. Kohberger's motive and connection to the victims remain unclear. The plea deal involves four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole or appeal. The families of the victims are divided on the outcome, with some supporting and others denouncing the agreement.
Daily Mail
01-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Bryan Kohberger accepts plea deal in Idaho murders case after prosecution drops death penalty
Quadruple homicide suspect Bryan Kohberger has accepted a plea deal over the horrific slaying of four University of Idaho students. Kohberger, 30, is expected to plead guilty to the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20 in their off-campus home in November 2022. He will also admit a burglary charge stemming from the same incident if the deal is signed off by a judge during a court appearance scheduled on Wednesday. Idaho prosecutors have agreed to drop the death penalty in exchange for his plea. Kohberger must instead agree to spend life in prison without the possibility of parole for the grisly stabbings. The former criminology grad student had previously pleaded not guilty to the slayings, but is now scheduled to issue a change of plea in court on Wednesday. He would then be sentenced in late July to four consecutive life sentences on the murder charges and 10 years behind bars for burglary. News of the plea deal infuriated the family of victim Kaylee Goncalves. 'We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho,' they wrote on Facebook. 'They have failed us. This was very unexpected.' Prosecutors had told the family on Friday about the possibility of a plea deal, but the Goncalves family said they were stunned when they were alerted that the deal went through in a letter by Sunday. It explained that state prosecutors were approached last week by Kohberger's defense team asking to be presented with an offer. Prosecutors then said they met with available family members and 'weighed the right path forward, and made a formal offer' to the murder suspect, according to ABC News. 'This resolution is our sincere attempt to seek justice for your family,' prosecutors wrote in the letter to the victims' families. '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. 'Your viewpoints weighed heavily in our decision-making process, and we hope that you may come to appreciate why we believe this resolution is in the best interest of justice.' Just one day before families received the letter, a judge slapped down Kohberger's efforts to point the finger at four alternate suspects - blasting his legal team's evidence as 'entirely irrelevant' and 'wild speculation 'Nothing links these individuals to the homicides or otherwise gives rise to reasonable inference that they committed the crime; indeed, it would take nothing short of rank speculation by the jury to make such a finding,' Judge Steven Hippler wrote in his decision. It was a huge blow to Kohberger's legal team as they scrambled to find a defense which could compete with the state's mounting evidence against him. The court had earlier heard he purchased a balaclava from Dick's Sporting Goods store months before the savage murders inside the victims' off-campus home. Surviving housemate Dylan Mortensen told police she saw a man wearing 'the same kind of mask' during the crime spree. Kohberger desperately wanted his purchase to be inadmissible in his upcoming trial, but prosecutors argued it was crucial to their case. He was ultimately linked to the murder of the four students by DNA found on the sheath of a knife found at the scene of their off-campus home, investigators said. The criminology grad student was arrested nearly six weeks after the students were found dead, at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania where he had returned for the holidays. A motive for the murders was never disclosed, but a damning Dateline report claimed that Kohberger - who was then a graduate criminology student at the nearby Washington State University - saved dozens of photos of female students at both Washington State and the University of Idaho on his phone. The photos apparently came from a pool party Kohberger was invited to in Moscow, Idaho on July 9. A review of the accounts that had posted the photos found that a number of them were close friends with Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen. Kohberger had even allegedly returned to Moscow after dark following the pool party, and data from his cellphone showed it connected to a cellphone tower near the victims' off-campus house a total of 23 times over the course of four months. From cellphone data produced by prosecutors, the route allegedly driven by Bryan Kohberger on the night of the brutal Idaho murders may be a crucial piece of evidence in the state's case against the 28-year-old. In his new alibi filing, his lawyers say they plan to dispute this data At the same time, Kohberger allegedly searched for pornography containing the keywords 'drugged' and 'sleeping,' and Googled the phrase 'Sociopathic Traits in College Students' as he was struggling to work as a teaching assistant, Dateline reported. After he was pulled over by police in October 2022 and was seen politely conversing with an officer about traffic laws, Kohberger allegedly searched 'Can psychopaths behave pro-socially', the Dateline report claimed. Prosecutors have alleged that Kohberger broke into the University of Idaho students' home on King Road shortly after they had gone to bed from a night partying on November 13, 2022 and stabbed them all to death. His white Hyundai Elantra was allegedly caught on a neighbor's home security footage at around 3.30am, and was seen circling around the block multiple times over the next half hour. By 4.07am, the vehicle came back drove by once again - then didn't come back into view until 4.20am, when it was seen speeding off. During that 13-minute window, sources close to the investigation said Kohberger went directly upstairs to Mogen's bedroom, where he allegedly killed her and Goncalves. He is accused of the turning his attention to Kernodle on his way back out the house, killing her as she was up ordering food, and then targeting her boyfriend, Chapin, whom Kohberger allegedly 'carved'. Two other roommates survived, with one of them coming face-to-face with a masked man inside the home around the time of the murders. Meanwhile, data from Kohberger's phone indicate he turned it off before 3am that morning, and when he apparently turned it back on at around 4.48am, it connected with a cellphone tower south of Moscow. But the phone also appeared to be briefly back in the city shortly after 9am, when Kohberger reportedly returned to his apartment in Pullman, Washington, where he took a chilling selfie. giving the thumbs up pose in a bathroom mirror. In the days that followed, Dateline reports Kohberger searched for a program about serial killer Ted Bundy and a YouTube video about the King Road victims. Then, as police continued their multi-state search for the suspect, Kohberger reportedly searched for even more videos of Ted Bundy, and played the song Criminal by Britney Spears as he took additional selfies. Prosecutors have also claimed his shopping history reveals that he bought a Ka-Bar knife, sheath and sharpener from Amazon back in March 2022. News of the plea deal came just hours after a key hearing in Kohberger's case descended into chaos, with his defense apparently calling the 'wrong witness' as others expressed their bewilderment at being called at all. Five men connected to Kohberger's past in Pennsylvania appeared in Monroe County Court on Monday to determine whether they would be ordered to travel to Idaho for his high-profile trial, which was scheduled for August. The group of Pennsylvanians included the accused killer's former boxing coach, a man who he went to high school with, and a guard who worked at the local jail where he was briefly held while awaiting extradition. But when the defense called on Ralph Vecchio III, 65, who owns the business where the Kohbergers bought his now infamous white Hyundai Elantra, he claimed he thought the attorneys may have subpoenaed the wrong guy. He noted that his father with the same name had run the business when the Kohbergers bought the car, which matched one seen circling the students' home around the time of the murders. Vecchio even said he has never met or laid eyes on the murder suspect. 'I feel the subpoena has no merit for me. I have never seen in my lifetime or talked to in my lifetime the accused,' he told the court. 'I've never had any personal contact with him ever.' Vecchio then went on to say he had 'no idea' why he had been called as a witness in the case, adding: 'It doesn't make sense.' 'I've never seen or met, seen from a distance or had any contact with the accused in my life,' he said. He also said that Kohberger had never stepped foot inside his auto business, that it was Kohberger's mother or father who had purchased the vehicle back in 2019 - and that he himself wasn't the one who had made the sale. When Judge Arthur Zulick then questioned if the Ralph Vecchio present was the right one, attorney Abigail Parnell - who was speaking on behalf of Kohberger's legal team - admitted she didn't know. 'Your honor, I cannot say for certain,' she said. Of the other four men, one agreed to travel to Idaho to testify ahead of the hearing, two were ordered by the judge to appear after voicing their opposition, and the fourth had yet to decide.
Daily Mail
30-06-2025
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Bryan Kohberger accepts plea deal in Idaho murders case after prospection proposes dropping death penalty
Quadruple homicide suspect Bryan Kohberger has accepted a plea deal in the horrific slaying of four University of Idaho students. Kohberger, 30, will now plead guilty to the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in their off-campus home in November 2022. He will also admit a burglary charge stemming from the same incident. Idaho prosecutors have agreed to drop the death penalty in exchange for his plea, according to News Nation. Instead, Kohberger must agree to spend life in prison without the possibility of parole for the grisly murders that captivated America three years ago. The former criminology grad student had previously pleaded not guilty to the slayings, and is now scheduled to issue a change of plea in court on Wednesday.
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Kohberger attorney calls to delay trial in murder of Idaho college students in bombshell last-minute request
Defense attorneys representing quadruple homicide suspect Bryan Kohberger have filed a bombshell last-minute request to delay his upcoming trial. Kohberger, 30, was set to face a capital murder trial in August for the November 2022 murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20. But in a new filing, his attorneys argue that an episode of NBC's Dateline that aired earlier this month violates a gag order that has been in place since 2023. The episode had revealed new details about the killings, including the suspected killer's phone records, porn choices and online searches for Ted Bundy. It also aired never-before-seen surveillance footage of a suspect vehicle fleeing the horrific crime scene on November 13, 2022.
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Kohberger trial thrown into jeopardy as judge cites major violation that could prevent an impartial jury
's trial has been thrown into disarray as the judge reveals someone with intimate knowledge of the case has leaked sensitive details to the press. The breach could make it harder to find impartial jurors for Kohberger's August trial over the alleged quadruple homicide of four University of Idaho students back in November 2022. The case has been plagued by setbacks as defense team scrambled to have evidence thrown out, the death penalty ruled out and, most recently, point the finger at another potential suspect. But now, Judge Steven Hippler has issued an extraordinary rebuke, revealing 'sensitive information not previously publicly circulated' had been leaked to Dateline. 'It appears likely that someone currently or formally associated with law enforcement, or the prosecution team, violated this Court's non-dissemination order,' he wrote in a new filing released Thursday. Certain facts of the case have been withheld from the public to preserve the integrity of the investigation. Kohberger is facing the death penalty if convicted of the brutal murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Two other housemates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, survived. 'Such violations not only undermine the rule of law, potentially by persons charged with upholding it, but also significantly impede the ability to seat an impartial jury.' Judge Hippler warned the offenders' actions have likely 'substantially increased the cost to be borne by the taxpayers' because it will now likely take longer to find jurors. Jury selection will take place behind closed doors on July 30. But the process of selecting an impartial jury is made substantially more difficult on high profile cases which deeply impacted the community, like this one. An investigation will take place to track down the leaker, and Judge Hippler put every single official with a connection to the case on high alert in his memo. 'All persons who at any time, past or present, worked directly or indirectly [on this case]... are hereby prohibited from deleting, discarding, overwriting, destroying, altering or otherwise making unavailable any... records, files, documents, metadata, messages, emails, text messages, direct or private messages, phone logs or logs of communications,' he ruled. He went on to specify that this order must be adhered to regardless of whether the information was stored on a work owned or personal device. Any contact that officials have had with media companies, friends or relatives outside of their colleagues which related to Kohberger or the facts of the case against him must be stored. 'All such Documents or materials or records that could potentially constitute a Document - even if it is uncertain whether such meet that criteria shall be preserved and must be protected from deletion, alteration or loss until further order of the Court. 'Any feature on any device or account that is set to automatically delete or overwrite information that could be covered by this Order must immediately be disabled.' Judge Hippler went on to order authorities to hand over to the court a list of 'all individuals within law enforcement and prosecuting agencies, past or present, who are known to have had access to any facts related to the investigation.' He is particularly interested in learning who had access to surveillance videos of Kohberger, AT&T records of his phone, the content of his phone and social media accounts. Beyond that, Judge Hippler is seeking the names of any person who was aware of Kohberger's internet search history, photographs or details of his Amazon account. These specifications are in direct response to the exclusive details aired on a recent Dateline episode studying the case. The program revealed the criminology PhD student called his dad Michael Kohberge r three times on the morning of November 13, 2022, just two hours after the slayings. According to Dateline, Kohberger made several searches around serial killer Ted Bundy - who was put to death for a string of murders including the killings of female students in a sorority house in Florida. In the days after the murders, Kohberger - on multiple occasions - then also allegedly watched shows about the serial killer. He also searched and listened to the Britney Spears' song Criminal. Other online searches after the murders show the suspect was researching the killings - as well as his own name, the show reported. Dateline also reported that the intended target of the attack was believed to be Mogan, and that it took the killer by surprise to find her best friend, Kernodle, sharing her bed. Judge Hippler warned that if he does not receive the information he has requested, he could find the person responsible to be in contempt of court, and they could face criminal consequences. 'Within seven days the State must also provide to the Court a written plan designed to address and prevent the future unauthorized disclosure of information related to this case,' he wrote. He also wants to know 'what it has done, or proposes to do, to identify any violations ofthe Court's non-dissemination orders previously entered in this case, and those responsible for such violations.'
