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Judge sentences Bryan Kohberger to life in prison for murdering four University of Idaho students

Judge sentences Bryan Kohberger to life in prison for murdering four University of Idaho students
You didn't win. You just exposed yourself as *** coward you are. You're *** delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser who thought you were so much smarter than everybody else. Constantly scolding, turning your nose up to grammar mistakes, nitpicking and criticizing others. You wanted so badly to be different, to be special, to be better, to be deep, to be mysterious. You found yourself thinking you were better than everyone else, and you thought you could figure out the human psyche and see through it all all tweaked out on heroin. Lurking in the shadows made you feel powerful, because no one ever paid you any attention in the light. You thought you were exceptional, all because of *** grade on *** paper. You thought you were *** elite because your online IQ test from 2010 told you so. All of that effort just to seem important. It's desperate. There is *** name for your condition, though, your inflated ego just didn't allow you to see it. Wannabe. You act like no one could ever understand your mind, but the truth is you're basic. Your textbook case of insecurity disguised as control. Your patterns are predictable, your motives are shallow. You are not profound, you're pathetic. You aren't special or deep, not mysterious or exceptional. Don't ever get it twisted again. No one is scared of you today. No one is intimidated by you, no one is impressed by you. No one thinks that you are important. You orchestrated this like you thought you were God. Now look at you, begging *** courtroom for scraps. You spent months preparing and still all it took was my sister in *** sheath. You worked so hard to seem dangerous. But real control doesn't have to prove itself. The truth is, The scariest part about you how painfully average you turned out to be. The truth is, as dumb as they come. Stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak, dirty. Let me be very clear. Don't ever try to convince yourself you mattered just because someone finally said your name out loud. I see through you. You want the truth? Here's the one you'll hate the most. If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night like *** pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your. Thank you. Thank you.
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Updated: 1:27 PM CDT Jul 23, 2025
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Judge sentences Bryan Kohberger to life in prison for murdering four University of Idaho students
AP logo
Updated: 1:27 PM CDT Jul 23, 2025
Editorial Standards ⓘ
Friends and relatives of four University of Idaho students murdered in their rental home by Bryan Kohberger delivered powerful statements of love, anguish and condemnation as his sentencing hearing began Wednesday.Video above: Alivea Goncalves, sister of Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves, addresses Bryan Kohberger “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 Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle 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.The defendant pleaded guilty early this month, just weeks before his trial was 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, though Kohberger was to be given an opportunity to speak later in 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,” Mortenson said. "A body without empathy without remorse.”Video below: A portion of Mortenson's victim impact statement: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,” 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 didn’t 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.”Video below: A portion of Steve Goncalves's victim statement:Kohberger’s mother and sister also attended the hearing, sitting in the gallery near the defense 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.”Video below: Bethany Funke, a roommate of the Idaho murder victims, has victim statement read by friendPolice 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 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 cellphone 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.Both the investigation and the case drew widespread attention. Discussion groups proliferated online, members eagerly sharing their theories and questions about the case. Some armchair web-sleuths pointed fingers at innocent people simply because they knew the victims or lived in the same town. Misinformation spread, piling additional distress on the already-traumatized community.

Friends and relatives of four University of Idaho students murdered in their rental home by Bryan Kohberger delivered powerful statements of love, anguish and condemnation as his sentencing hearing began Wednesday.

Video above: Alivea Goncalves, sister of Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves, addresses Bryan Kohberger

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“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 Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle 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.

The defendant pleaded guilty early this month, just weeks before his trial was 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, though Kohberger was to be given an opportunity to speak later in 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,” Mortenson said. "A body without empathy without remorse.”

Video below: A portion of Mortenson's victim impact statement:

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,” 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.”

Dylan Mortensen gets a hug after speaking at the sentencing hearing of Bryan Kohberger at the Ada County Courthouse, for his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)
Kyle Green
Dylan Mortensen gets a hug after speaking at the sentencing hearing of Bryan Kohberger.

Alivea Goncalves's voice didn’t 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.”

Video below: A portion of Steve Goncalves's victim statement:

Kohberger’s mother and sister also attended the hearing, sitting in the gallery near the defense 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.”

Video below: Bethany Funke, a roommate of the Idaho murder victims, has victim statement read by friend

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 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 cellphone 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.

Both the investigation and the case drew widespread attention. Discussion groups proliferated online, members eagerly sharing their theories and questions about the case. Some armchair web-sleuths pointed fingers at innocent people simply because they knew the victims or lived in the same town. Misinformation spread, piling additional distress on the already-traumatized community.