Bryan Kohberger, 30, the suspect in the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students and the former criminology PhD studen, has been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He pleaded guilty on July 2 in an agreement made between prosecutors and defence lawyers to avoid death sentence.
Bryan Kohberger Likely To Be Transferred To Maximum-Security Prison
Kohberger was convicted for the stabbing to death four students – Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves on November 13, 2022, at a rental home near the university campus in Moscow, Idaho. The sentencing hearing was held on Wednesday, July 23, in a Boise courtroom.
According to CNN, Kohberger may be transferred to Idaho’s only maximum-security prison, the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, which opened in 1989 and is designated for the state’s most disruptive male inmates.
Bryan Kohberger Refuses To Address Court
Before the sentence was handed down, Judge Steven Hippler offered Kohberger an opportunity to speak. The judge asked, “Mr. Kohberger, you have an opportunity to make a statement. I take it you are declining?”
Kohberger responded, “I respectfully decline.”
Judge Hippler then addressed the court regarding Kohberger’s refusal to speak,“even if I could force him to speak, which legally I cannot, how could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth? 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?”
The judge further remarked that he expects the truth to emerge in a “self-serving” manner and expressed that “the time has now come to end Mr. Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame.”
Judge Steven Hippler Condemns the Idaho Murders as ‘Unfathomable and Senseless Evil’
Judge Hippler described the killings as an “unspeakable evil,” stating that on the day of the murders, “a faceless coward breached the tranquility of six beautiful young people and senselessly slaughtered them, four of them.”
He acknowledged that the identity of the killer remained unknown for several weeks, but “due to the killer’s incompetence and outstanding police work,” Kohberger was caught and now stands “unmasked before the world and this court.”
The judge recounted how Kohberger “slithered through that sliding glass” door of the house to carry out the murders. He called the act “unfathomable and senseless” and emphasized the “immeasurable pain and loss” caused by the crime. “No parent should ever have to bury their child. This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person,” Hippler said.
He poignantly added, “Parents who took their children to college in a truck filled with moving boxes had to bring them home in hearses lined with coffins.”
Idaho Murders: Who is Bryan Kohberger And What Was His Motive Behind The Fatal Stabbings?
At the time of the murders, Kohberger was enrolled as a criminology PhD student at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, Washington, located about 10 miles west of the University of Idaho in Moscow.
According to a police affidavit, Kohberger drove a white Hyundai Elantra sedan. Surveillance cameras recorded this type of vehicle passing multiple times by the King Road house between approximately 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on the night of the murders. The footage also showed an attempt to park or turn around in front of the students’ home.
The affidavit stated the car left the area “at approximately 4:20 a.m. at a high rate of speed.” Investigators believe the vehicle then took a route heading toward Pullman.
Following a request by Moscow police for local agencies to watch for a white Hyundai Elantra, officers from WSU spotted Kohberger’s car. A Moscow police officer noted that Kohberger’s driver’s license information matched a description given by Madison Mogen’s friend, Dylan Mortensen, of a person seen near the crime scene.
Also Read: Why Did Bryan Kohberger Kill 4 Idaho Students? Sentencing Begins
