Some of the families of the Idaho college murder victims are divided over accused killer Bryan Kohberger accepting a plea deal.
Kohberger is charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin and Kaylee Goncalves, to death at an off-campus home in November 2022.
Mogen’s father, Ben Mogen, said that he was relieved to receive a letter, sent from prosecutors to the victims‘ families, regarding the plea deal that would keep Kohberger in prison for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole.
“If you get that quick death sentence, you don’t have to spend decades thinking about how terrible you made the world,” Mogen said.
Earlier this year during pretrial hearings, CBS News spoke to Steve Goncalves, the father of victim Kaylee Goncalves.
“You see all these people there to protect him, and you know no one was there to protect your daughter,” Goncalves said in April.
In a social media post Monday, the Goncalves family said they did not approve of a plea deal, writing, “We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho. They have failed us. Please give us some time. This was very unexpected. We appreciate all your love and support.”
In a statement through their attorney, they added that the victims’ families had not been consulted.
In another statement released Tuesday, the Goncalves family said they “will not stop fighting for the life that was stolen unjustly.”
“We stand strong that it is not over until a plea is accepted,” they wrote. “At a bare minimum, please – require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, & the true facts of what happened that night.”
Kohberger was a Ph.D. criminology student at the time and arrested in Pennsylvania six weeks after the murders and extradited to Ohio. DNA evidence also linked him to a knife sheath found at the crime scene, according to a police affidavit.
But for Mogen, the plea deal is justice.
“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 said. “We get to just think about the rest of lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids.”
What to know about the plea deal
Kohberger’s trial was scheduled to start in August.
The plea deal will allow the 30-year-old to avoid the death penalty.
Mogen showed CBS News portions of the letter sent by prosecutors to the victims’ families. In it, the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office says Kohberger’s attorneys requested a deal and he accepted it.
The letter also states that as part of the plea agreement, Kohberger will plead guilty to all of the counts against him and in return he would be sentenced to “four consecutive (back-to-back) life sentences on the four murder counts.” He would also waive all rights to appeal.
A change of plea hearing is expected Wednesday, according to a lawyer for the Goncalves family. If Kohberger does enter a guilty plea, the sentencing will be in late July. In Idaho, a judge has the authority to reject plea deals, but it’s considered rare.
Prosecutors added in the letter that if Kohberger does not accept the plea agreement as expected, “we are prepared to proceed to trial as planned.”
