Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty
Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty
On July 2, 2025, Bryan Kohberger, the 30-year-old former criminology PhD student from Washington State University, pleaded guilty to the November 13, 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students: Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. The murders happened inside an off-campus rental in Moscow, Idaho, in a brutal stabbing that left a college town terrified and a nation glued to every update as it unfolded. Kohberger’s guilty plea covered four counts of first-degree murder and burglary, admitting he broke into the home specifically to commit murder.
This plea deal took the death penalty off the table, sparing Kohberger from Idaho’s reinstated death penalty, which now includes a firing squad option. Instead, he will serve four consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 10 years for the burglary charge, and he’s waived his right to appeal, sealing his conviction for good. The evidence against him: DNA found on a knife sheath left at the scene that matched his profile, cell tower data showing him near the house before and during the murders, surveillance footage of his vehicle in the area, and genealogy testing from trash at his parents’ home. Prosecutors also revealed Kohberger bought the Ka-Bar knife online in March of 2022, turned off his phone during the murders, methodically killed the victims, cleaned himself up, and tried to wipe out his digital and physical footprints afterward - including his Amazon history where he bought the knife.
Even with his admission of guilt, Kohberger hasn’t given a motive, leaving families and everyone questioning “why.” Why these victims? Why this house? Why did he do it at all? We may never know, and legally, he doesn’t have to say a word about it. Reactions to the plea deal have been mixed. Some families are relieved it’s over so they don’t have to sit through years of court dates and relive the trauma again and again. Others, like the Goncalves family, feel blindsided and frustrated, calling it a “secretive deal” that denied them the transparency and justice they deserve.
And honestly, I agree with them. If you’re going to offer a plea in a case this big, where four young lives were brutally taken, the families should have been talked to, included, and actually considered before any deal was offered. This wasn’t just a legal case; it was their children, siblings, and friends, and they deserved a voice in that process. Too often, the system pushes ahead for “closure,” forgetting the people still living in the aftermath. Every single day.
Next up in this case is sentencing on July 23, 2025, where victim-impact statements will be read, and Kohberger may address the court, though we all know the outcome is already set. There won’t be any appeals or more hearings to revisit the evidence or challenge his conviction. Kohberger will never walk free again, but his plea does nothing to explain the monstrous violence that took four young lives. In the end, it’s a hollow justice that can never bring them back.
