By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
Bryan Kohberger, the man who murdered four University of Idaho students in late 2022, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday, coming weeks after he reached a deal with prosecutors to spare him the death penalty.
Ada County Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to 10 years in prison for the one count of burglary and four life sentences to be served consecutively for each first-degree murder count in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, and Madison Mogen.
The sentence was widely expected after Kohberger reached a plea deal with the state, having admitted guilt in their stabbing deaths in exchange for not going to trial and avoiding his possible execution.
“Even if I could force him to speak … how could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth?” Hippler said of Kohberger at one point on Wednesday, according to a video feed from inside the courtroom as the sentencing occurred.
The judge added that the sentencing is now the time to end Kohberger’s “15 minutes of fame,” asking, “Do we really believe after all this, he’s capable of speaking the truth or giving up something of himself to help the very people whose lives he destroyed?”
At one point, Hippler noted that Kohberger’s motive in the four slayings may never be known.
When asked by the judge whether he wanted to speak, Kohberger said, “I respectfully decline,” as he sat forward slightly in his chair.
In an emotional message, the judge told the courtroom that Kohberger “slithered through that sliding glass” of the house to kill the four victims on Nov. 13, 2022, in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.
“This unfathomable and senseless act of evil has caused immeasurable pain and loss. No parent should ever have to bury their child,” Hippler said before he sentenced Kohberger. “This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person.”
Hippler described Kohberger, now aged 30, as a “faceless coward” who had “senselessly slaughtered” four college students.
Noting that Kohberger evaded capture for several weeks after the four students were found murdered, the judge said that “due to the killer’s incompetence and outstanding police work,” he was caught.
Kohberger, a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania, where his parents lived, roughly six weeks after the murders.
Police said they recovered DNA from a knife sheath found at the home, and used genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect. They accessed cellphone data to pinpoint his movements and surveillance camera footage to help locate a white sedan that was seen repeatedly driving past the home on the night of the killings.
A Q-tip from the garbage at his parents’ house was used to match Kohberger’s DNA to genetic material from the sheath, investigators said.
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson previously stated that Kohberger used his knowledge of forensic investigations to try to cover his tracks by deep cleaning his vehicle after the crime.
During the sentencing hearing, the families and surviving roommates of the victims described the damage the killings have done to them.
“This world was a better place with her in it,” Scott Laramie, Mogen’s stepfather, said at the sentencing hearing. “As for the defendant, we will not waste the words. Nor will we fall into hatred and bitterness. Evil has many faces, and we now know this, but evil does not deserve our time and attention. We are done being victims. We are taking back our lives.”
Ben Mogen, Mogen’s father, said: “I thought we would have the rest of our lives together.
“Maddie was my only child that I ever had. It was just the only great thing I ever really did, the only thing I was really ever proud of.”
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump suggested that the judge should force Kohberger to explain himself.
“I hope the judge makes Kohberger, at a minimum, explain why he did these horrible murders,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday. “There are no explanations, there is no NOTHING.”
Before the plea deal, his trial had been set to begin next month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
