Bryan Kohberger to plead guilty in Idaho student murders, avoids death penalty

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in a high-profile 2022 case, has agreed to a plea deal that will allow him to avoid the death penalty.

Under the terms of the deal, Kohberger will plead guilty to all charges and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The plea hearing is scheduled for Wednesday and marks a major shift in the case, which had been scheduled to go to trial later this year. Kohberger, a 30-year-old former criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University, had previously pleaded not guilty.

He is accused of fatally stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in their off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, just days before Thanksgiving 2022. The brutal killings shocked the country and prompted a months-long investigation that led to Kohberger’s arrest at his family’s home in Pennsylvania. DNA evidence and surveillance footage were key to identifying him as the suspect.

Prosecutors reportedly informed the victims' families of the plea agreement in advance. The reactions have been mixed. Some relatives, including Kaylee Goncalves’ family, expressed outrage over the state’s decision to remove the death penalty as a sentencing option. Others, like Madison Mogen’s father, accepted the deal as a form of justice that spares families from years of appeals and uncertainty.

If accepted by the court, the agreement ensures Kohberger will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, ending one of the most closely followed murder cases in recent U.S. history.