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The sole suspect in the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students has officially pleaded guilty to his crimes.
On Wednesday, July 2, 2025, Ada County Judge Steven Hippler accepted the plea agreement set forth between Latah County prosecutors and now confessed killer Bryan Kohberger, as seen in live courtroom proceedings. The 30-year-old criminal justice grad student gave only short “yes” and “no” answers when asked by Judge Hippler if he understood the nature of changing his plea from ‘not guilty’ to ‘guilty.’
Hippler scheduled sentencing for Wednesday, July 23, 2025, and left the next day open, should time go over. There, the loved ones of victims Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 21, will have a chance to read their victim impact statements before the court.
Kohberger now faces life behind bars without the possibility of parole for each of the four counts of first-degree murder, plus 10 years for one count of burglary to be served consecutively. His plea removed the death penalty from the table and waived his right to post-conviction appeals.
The trial was slated to begin in August.
What did Kohberger confess to doing?
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, at Wednesday’s hearing, outlined the facts of the case. As widely reported in the media, on November 13, 2022, Kohberger, under cover of night, snuck through the sliding glass door in the kitchen of the students’ off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.
Kohberger admitted to going to a third-floor bedroom before fatally stabbing Mogen and Goncalves.
According to the prosecution, Kohberger then came upon Kernodle — who dormed on a different floor — as she received a middle-of-the-night DoorDash order. Kohberger then stabbed her to death before stabbing her boyfriend, Chapin, and leaving the residence.
Hours later, Kohberger took a selfie of himself smiling with an upturned thumb.
Thompson noted there was no evidence of the murders being sexual in nature, though a motive remains unclear.
DNA later connected Kohberger to a knife sheath found near Mogen’s body, and he was arrested in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Kohberger family gives rare statement
The formal hearing came days after the victims’ families expressed their outrage over the plea deal between prosecutors and Kohberger.
On Wednesday morning, after reports of the deal but before Kohberger’s public confession, the defendant’s family released a rare, albeit brief, statement, as reported by NBC News.
“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,” the family stated. “We ask that you respect our wishes during a difficult time for all those affected.”
According to NBC News, the Kohberger family previously vowed to promote his “presumption of innocence” and to “love and support our son and brother.”
The victims’ loved ones continue to oppose the plea deal
The Goncalves family continued to express anger, as seen in a lengthy statement posted on their Facebook page shortly before the formal hearing.
“Thompson robbed us of our day in court,” they stated. “No negotiations, no jury of our peers, not even the pretense of cooperation and fairness.”
In a separate post, they asked their thousands of followers to contact the Department of Justice to support their opposition.
Some relatives stated they felt blindsided by the plea deal and were “beyond furious” because they believed it happened in secret. The Goncalves family described only a “nonchalant” conversation with prosecutors on Friday before being notified by an email signed by Thompson and senior deputy Ashley Jennings on Sunday.
The email from prosecutors stated:
“We cannot fathom the toll that this case has taken on your family. This resolution is our sincere attempt to seek justice for your family. 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 Mogen family, however, said in a statement read outside the courthouse by their attorney that they support the plea agreement “100%,” per NBC News. The family’s statement continued, in part, “We lost our Maddie, our kind, loving, vivacious and caring daughter, full of purpose and promise… We are grateful for the gift of her life, and we have grieved the loss of that life during each of these 962 days.”
Formal sentencing will be at 9:00 a.m. on July 23, 2025.
A non-dissemination order remains in place until then.
