By Michaela Althouse
Bryan Kohberger, 30, the Pennsylvania native accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in 2022, is expected to plead guilty as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
Kohberger was set to go on trial in August for allegedly killing Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. Prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty.
The plea deal removes that possibility in exchange for Kohberger pleading guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one charge of felony burglary, the Idaho Statesman reported. He is expected to appear in court Wednesday morning to change his plea to guilty, according to a letter that prosecutors sent to the victims’ families and was obtained by the newspaper.
“This agreement ensures that the defendant will be convicted, will spend the rest of his life in prison, and will not be able to put you and the other families through the uncertainty of decades of post-conviction appeals,” the letter states.
The family of Goncalves said they received formal notice of the deal Sunday and met with prosecutors Monday to continue pushing for the death penalty, but they were not successful.
“We DID talk to the prosecution on Friday about the POSSIBILITY of a plea deal and it was a HARD NO from our family,” the Goncalves family wrote in a Facebook post. “It was very nonchalant and barely discussed as the majority of the conversation was surrounding the upcoming trial.”
Kohberger was arrested a month after the killings at his parents’ house in Chestnuthill Township, Monroe County, about 70 miles north of Philadelphia.
A documentary series detailing the killings and the media frenzy that followed, including interviews with friends and family, is set to premiere July 11 on Prime Video.