MOSCOW, Idaho (KXXV) — Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty Wednesday to the 2022 killings of four University of Idaho students, admitting to the brutal stabbings that gripped the nation and stunned the college town of Moscow.
The plea deal, entered in Latah County Court, comes just weeks before his capital murder trial was set to begin. Kohberger’s defense team had recently attempted to have the death penalty removed as a sentencing option, but the court denied the motion.
As part of the agreement, Kohberger avoided a potential death sentence and will instead serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. The victims — Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen — were found stabbed to death in a rental home near the university campus in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022.
Kohberger, a former criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested weeks later and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
