Bryan Kohberger, the former criminal justice doctoral student charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022, is expected to officially plead guilty Wednesday in a deal with prosecutors that spares him from the death penalty.
The hearing is expected to begin at 11 a.m. local time (1 p.m. ET). People hoping to be inside the courtroom have been lined up since 2:45 a.m.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of murder in the stabbings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, who were killed at a home in Moscow, Idaho, during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania six weeks later. DNA evidence linked him to a knife sheath found at the crime scene, according to a police affidavit.
The plea deal was first revealed in a letter sent to the victims’ families by the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office. Mogen’s father, Ben Mogen, shared portions of the letter with “CBS Mornings,” in which the prosecutor’s office said that attorneys for Kohberger, 30, requested the deal and Kohberger accepted it.
The deal requires Kohberger plead guilty to all the counts against him and says he would be sentenced to “four consecutive (back to back) life sentences on the four Murder counts” and “would waive all rights to appeal.” The plea deal would spare him the death penalty, which prosecutors had sought.
Kohberger will also plead guilty to a burglary count and be sentenced to ten years, according to the letter.
In Idaho, a judge has the authority to reject plea deals, but it’s considered rare.
The letter says that if Kohberger “enters guilty pleas as expected,” prosecutors expect him to be sentenced in late July. If he does not enter the expected guilty plea, prosecutors will proceed to trial. Kohberger’s trial was expected to begin in August, following several delays.
Kohberger’s defense team had a motion to remove the death penalty as a possible sentence if he was convicted denied in November 2024. The case was meant to be tried in Latah County, but was moved to Boise out of concerns that media coverage and statements from local officials would make it impossible for Kohberger to receive a fair trial.
Most recently, Ada County Judge Steven Hippler denied a motion by Kohberger’s lawyers, who were seeking to argue that four “alternate perpetrators” could have committed the slayings. The judge called the argument “rank speculation” and said nothing linked the parties to the murders.
Martin Souto Diaz, an attorney for the Kohberger family, said in a statement provided to CBS News Tuesday evening on behalf of the family that, “In light of recent developments, the Kohbergers are asking members of the media for privacy, respect, and responsible judgment during this time. We will continue to allow the legal process to unfold with respect to all parties, and will not release any comments or take any questions.”
Prosecutors planned to present evidence including Kohberger’s Amazon purchase history, which showed he bought a Ka-Bar knife with a sheath and sharpener. The blade he bought macthed the sheath found at the crime scene, prosecutors said. They also planned to present surveillance video of Kohberger’s car and cellphone data that they said showed him in the vicinity of the killings.
The families of the victims have been split on the plea deal. The Goncalves family said in a statement shared on Facebook that they are “beyond furious at the State of Idaho,” and said officials had “failed” them.
“This was very unexpected,” the family wrote. In another statement, they asked that the plea deal “require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, & the true facts of what happened that night.”
Ben Mogen said he was relieved to get the letter, and said the plea deal will spare him and his family from more time in court.
“We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don’t want to have to be at, that we shouldn’t have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person,” he told CBS Mornings. “We get to just think about the rest of our lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and without the rest of the kids.”
