By Matt McKnight and Steve Gorman
BOISE, Idaho (Reuters) -When relatives of four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in 2022 attend a court session on Wednesday to see a judge sentence the convicted killer, the outcome promises to be, in all likelihood, a foregone conclusion.
Bryan Kohberger, 30, a former criminal-justice doctoral student, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole or appeal under a deal with prosecutors that spared him the death penalty in return for his guilty plea to four counts of first-degree murder.
The proceedings in a county courtroom in Boise, the state capital, also will afford family members the chance to directly address Kohberger through the presentation of victim impact statements.
But relatives of the victims – Ethan Chapin, 20, his girlfriend Xana Kernodle, 20, and her roommates Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21 – may very well remain baffled about why their four loved ones were slain on Nov. 13, 2022.
In pleading guilty on July 2, Kohberger admitted to the underlying allegations that he had crept into an off-campus house under cover of pre-dawn darkness and stabbed the four victims to death with a hunting knife, then slipped away. Two other women living at the house survived unharmed.
But the killer made no mention of motive. Authorities likewise have yet to offer an explanation for what might have driven Kohberger to commit the crime, and how or why he singled out his victims. Neither does the plea agreement require Kohberger to provide any such insights.
Under Idaho’s judicial rules, he will have one last chance to address the court just before the judge passes sentence. Such statements, or allocutions, typically are used by defendants to express remorse or mitigating circumstances.
A spokesperson for the state judicial system said on Tuesday the court has not been notified as to whether Kohberger or his attorney planned to speak at the hearing.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the case on his Truth Social platform earlier this week, saying he hoped the judge in the case, Steven Hippler, “makes Kohberger, at a minimum, explain why he did these horrible murders.”
Some legal experts have voiced doubt that Kohberger will shed any light on the lingering mysteries surrounding his actions, even if he chooses to address the court at all. With the four consecutive life terms he faces virtually pre-ordained under the plea deal, there would seem nothing to be gained by Kohberger breaking his silence.
He would be free to speak out about the case in future media interviews. And some documents that remain sealed in the case may eventually be opened to public scrutiny.
During the plea hearing earlier this month, Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson sought to rule out one possible avenue of speculation, declaring that there was no evidence of sexual assault among the victims or a “sexual component” to the killings.
At the time of the murders, Kohberger was pursuing a doctorate degree in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, a short distance from the University of Idaho campus in the neighboring northwestern Idaho town of Moscow.
Thompson has said Kohberger planned the violence in advance, purchasing the knife online about eight months before the killings. The knife’s sheath was recovered, but the murder weapon was never found.
As evidence Kohberger sought to cover up his crimes, Thompson said investigators found he had meticulously cleaned the inside of his car, which he used as the getaway vehicle.
Authorities have said they linked Kohberger to the murders using DNA evidence, cell phone data and video footage. He was arrested weeks after the killings in Pennsylvania, where he was visiting family during the Christmas holidays, and was returned to Idaho to face charges.
The families of the victims were divided about the plea deal, with some relatives expressing anger that they were not consulted before the agreement was reached.
(Reporting by Matt McKnight in Boise, Idaho; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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