Idaho families slam Bryan Kohberger at emotional sentencing hearing: ‘Hell will be waiting’

One by one, the relatives of the University of Idaho murder victims stepped up to the podium and stared down admitted killer Bryan Kohberger during victim impact statements at his sentencing on Wednesday.

Victim Kaylee Goncalves’ sister, Alivea Goncalves, who has been an outspoken advocate for Kaylee and her lifelong best friend and fellow victim Maddie Mogen, said in a forceful statement to Kohberger, “My sister Kaylee and her best friend Maddie were not yours to take. They were not yours to study, to stalk or to silence.”

“They’re everything you could never be: loved, accepted, vibrant, accomplished, brave and powerful,” she said.

“They would’ve been kind to you. If you had approached them in their everyday lives, they would’ve given you directions, thanked you for the compliment. … In a world that rejected you, they would’ve shown mercy,” she said.

Goncalves said she “won’t stand here and give you what you want”: tears and trembling.

“You didn’t win. … You’re a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser who thought you were so much smarter than everybody else,” she said.

“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 you are important,” she said.

She concluded her statement with memorable words to Kohberger, saying that, if he hadn’t attacked the students in their sleep, “Kaylee would’ve kicked your f—— ass.”

People in the courtroom clapped when Goncalves stepped down.

Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four consecutive life sentences on the four first-degree murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count.

The students — roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin — were stabbed to death at the girls’ off-campus house on Nov. 13, 2022. On July 2, weeks before the trial was set to start, Kohberger pleaded guilty to all counts. As a part of the plea deal, the death penalty was taken off the table.

When Kaylee’s mom, Kristi Goncalves, read her statement on Wednesday, she said to Kohberger, “hell will be waiting.”

“You are nothing. May you continue to live your life in misery. You are officially the property of the state of Idaho, where your fellow inmates are anxiously awaiting your arrival,” she said.

Kaylee’s dad, Steve Goncalves, said to Kohberger, “Today, you’ve lost control. Today we are here to prove to the world that you picked the wrong families, the wrong state, the wrong police officers, the wrong community.”

“You tried to plant fear, you tried to divide us — you failed. Instead, your actions have united everyone in their disgust for you,” he said.

Goncalves slammed Kohberger as “foolish and stupid” for leaving his DNA behind at the crime scene. “Master’s degree? You’re a joke, a complete joke,” he said.

“Nobody cares about you. … From this moment, we will forget you. … You picked the wrong family and we’re laughing at you on your trip” to prison, he said.

Maddie Mogen’s grandmother, Kim Cheeley, said in court that her “fear was truly debilitating” in the wake of the murders.

Then, after Kohberger’s arrest, she said her family has lived “with the effects of traumatic grief.”

Cheeley said she’s experienced depression and anxiety and has tried to cope with grief classes and EMDR therapy.

She said she’s grateful her own mother died in the months before Mogen was killed, so she did not live through “the horror.”

Xana Kernodle’s stepfather, Randy Davis, addressed the other victims’ families, saying this was likely the last time they’d all be in the same room.

“I love you all and I feel your pain,” he said.

To Kohberger, he said while shaking, “You’re gonna go to hell … you’re evil … you took our children … you are gonna suffer, man.”

“Go to hell,” he concluded, as everyone clapped.

However, one relative struck a different tone.

Xana Kernodle’s aunt, Kim Kernodle, said to Kohberger, “I’ve forgiven you, because I could no longer live with that hate.”

“Any time you want to talk and tell me what happened … I’m here, no judgment,” she said to her niece’s killer.

Ethan Chapin’s family chose not to attend the sentencing.

The court also heard from the two surviving roommates.

Dylan Mortensen, who told police she saw a man in a mask in their house on the night of the murders, sobbed in court as she described her debilitating, tsunami-like panic attacks.

“Sometimes I drop to the floor with my heart racing, convinced something is very wrong. … It’s my body reliving everything over and over again,” she said.

She said Kohberger “took away my ability to trust the world around me” and “shattered me in places I didn’t know could break.”

“I was barely 19 when he did this,” she said. “I should’ve been figuring out who I was. I should’ve been figuring out the college experience … instead, I was forced to learn how to survive the unimaginable. I couldn’t be left alone. I had to sleep in my mom’s room because I was too terrified to close my eyes.”

She called Kohberger a “hollow vessel, something less than human — a body without empathy, without remorse.”

“He tried to take everything from me: my friends, my safety, my identity, my future,” she said. “He took their lives, but I will continue trying to be like them, to make them proud. Living is how I honor them.”

Friend Emily Alandt read a statement on behalf of the second surviving roommate, Bethany Funke.

Funke said she carries guilt over not calling 911 right away.

“I was so frantic that morning and scared to death, not knowing what had happened. And when I made the 911 call I couldn’t even get out the words,” she said.

Funke said she wonders every day why she got to live and her friends did not, and said she felt “sick with guilt” when she looked at her friends’ families.

She said the crime has left her terrified. She said she slept in her parents’ room for nearly a year and made them double lock each door. She said she has never slept through the night and constantly wakes up in panic, worried that someone is breaking in, trying to hurt her or someone she loves.

Funke said she’s still scared to go out in public but forces herself to do so because she knows her friends would want her to live her life to the fullest.

Funke also opened up about what she misses about her friends.

She said Xana Kerndole was the “kindest and funniest person,” and that Ethan Chapin and Kerndole “were absolute soulmates.”

Kaylee Goncalves “had the most beautiful, radiant smile” and could have ruled the world, Funke said.

Maddie Mogen, Funke’s big sister in their sorority, was the “older sister I would’ve always wanted,” she said. “There was no one I looked up to or admired more than Maddie.”

“I wish more than anything I could hug them one last time,” she said.