BOISE, Idaho — Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students as part of a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty, multiple media outlets reported Monday.
The news was delivered to families of the victims in a letter, according to ABC News.
Bryan Kohberger, facing first-degree murder charges in the slayings of four University of Idaho students last fall, waived an extradition hearing and is taken by Sheriff Deputies from the Monroe County Courthouse on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. (Steven M. Falk/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Zach Wilkinson / Moscow-Pullman Daily NewsBryan Kohberger listens during his arraignment hearing in Latah County District Court.
Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for his arraignment hearing in Latah County District Court, Monday, May 22, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022.
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Kevin Fixler / Idaho StatesmanBryan Kohberger, left, in his senior photo from the 2012-2013 yearbook for Pleasant Valley High School, in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania. The Pleasant Valley School District has yet to comment publicly since its former student and part-time security officer's arrest in December on suspicion of killing four University of Idaho students.
Bryan Kohberger, left, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, looks toward his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, right, during a hearing in Latah County District Court, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. (Ted S. Warren/Associated Press, Pool)
Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, arrives at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport on Wednesday after a flight from Pennsylvania. He was transported to the Latah County Jail in Moscow, Idaho. (COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVI)
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Kohberger, 30, is accused in the stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. Autopsies showed the four were all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times.
Goncalves’ family expressed outrage in a Facebook post: “We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho. They have failed us. Please give us some time. This was very unexpected.”
Kohberger, then a criminal justice graduate student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested at his parents’ home in Monroe County weeks after the killings. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
In a court filing, his lawyers said Kohberger was on a long drive by himself around the time the four were killed.
The killings shook the small farming community of about 25,000 people, which hadn’t had a homicide in about five years. The trial, which was scheduled to begin in August, was moved from rural northern Idaho to Boise after the defense expressed concerns that Kohberger couldn’t get a fair trial in the county where the killings occurred.
In Idaho, judges may reject plea agreements, though such moves are rare. If a judge rejects a plea agreement, the defendant is allowed to withdraw the guilty plea.
Earlier Monday, a Monroe County judge had ordered that three people whose testimony was requested by defense attorneys would have to travel to Idaho to appear at Kohberger’s trial.
The defense subpoenas were granted regarding a boxing trainer who knew Kohberger as a teenager, a childhood acquaintance of Kohberger’s and a third man whose significance was not explained.
A gag order has largely kept attorneys, investigators and others from speaking publicly about the investigation or trial.
This is a developing story; check back for updates.