Bryan Kohberger gets life in prison but leaves loved ones of Idaho students he killed wondering why

Boisse, Idaho – One after the other, the friends and the family of the four students of the Idaho University killed their home by Bryan Kohberger expressed their emotions in sobs, insults and curses before a courtroom wrapped on Wednesday when he was sentenced to life prison.

Ben Mogen, Madison Mogen’s father, attributed to him to have helped to keep him alive thanks to his fight against drug addiction. He called it “the only thing I’m proud of”.

Dylan Mortensen, a roommate of the victims who told the police to have seen a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask at home that night, called Kohberger “a hollow vessel, something less than human”. She trembled with tears by describing how Kohberger “took the light they transported in each room”.

“Hell will wait,” Kristi Goncalves said Kaylee Goncalves, the killer.

Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four perpetuity convictions without parole for first degree in the murders of Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Kohberger was also sentenced to 10 years for burglary and estimated $ 270,000 in fines and civil sanctions.

Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty of weeks before his trial to start an agreement to avoid the death penalty. Defense prosecutors and lawyers agreed.

When it was his turn to speak in court, Kohberger said: “I respectfully refuse”, having no light on the reasons why he slipped into the rental house in Moscow by a sliding glass door early on November 13, 2022 and stabbed four of the students inside.

“I share the desire expressed by others to understand why,” said Hipler. “But after reflection, it seems to me, and it’s just my own opinion, that by continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr. Kohberger the relevance, we give him an agency and we give him power.”

The crime has horrified the city, which had not seen homicide for about five years, and caused massive research for the attacker. Some students took the rest of their online courses because they felt dangerous. Kohberger, a graduate in criminology of the neighboring Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania, where her parents lived, about six weeks later.

A Q-Tip of the garbage from his parents’ house and the genetic genealogy was used to correspond to Kohberger’s DNA in material recovered in a knife sheath found at home, the investigators said. They used data on mobile phones to identify its movements and images of surveillance cameras to help locate a white sedan that has been seen several times to spend the home of the murders.

But the investigators told journalists after Wednesday’s hearing that exhaustive efforts had not found the murder weapon, the clothes that Kohberger had at the time or any link between him and the students.

In the hours following the conviction, the Moscow police service published hundreds of documents on the survey on its website. They detailed how the investigators treated the horrible crime scene; run advice from people who claimed to have taken an Amadou date with Kohberger or saw him walk along a highway; And tested the floor and pollen found on a shovel in his car to see if they could restrict where it had been used.

“This world was a better place with her,” said Scott Laramie, Mogen’s stepfather. “Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived an extraordinary life because we had Maddie.”

Goncalves’s father Steve narrated Kohberger for being taken despite his studies in legal medicine.

“You were so negligent, so stupid, so stupid,” he said. “Master? You are a joke.”

Kernodle’s father Jeff recalled that his daughter did not feel well that night and he thought of driving the 7 miles (11.3 km) to the rental home with her. He decided not to do that because he had drunk.

Mortensen and another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, later described panic attacks thereafter.

“I slept in my parents’ room for almost a year and I made them lock each door twice, put an alarm and check everywhere in the room in case someone hides,” said Funke in a press release read by a friend.

The voice of Alivea Goncalves did not hesitate by asking questions to Kohberger, including the last words of her sister. She shot applause after lowering Kohberger, who remained without expression.

“You have not won, you have just exposed yourself as a coward that you are,” said Alivea Goncalves. “You are a delusional, pathetic and hypochondriac loser.”

Chapin’s family did not attend.

Kohberger’s mother and sister were seated in the gallery near the defense table. His mother was sometimes crying quietly while the other parents described their sorrow. She briefly sobbed when Mogène’s grandmother said that her heart went to other families, including that of Kohberger.

The aunt of Xana Kernodle, Kim Kernodle, said that she had forgiven Kohberger and asked her to call her from prison, hoping that he would answer his persistent questions about the murders.

“Bryan, I’m here today to tell you that I have forgiven you, because I couldn’t live with this hatred in my heart anymore,” she said. “And for me to become a better person, I have forgiven you. And every time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number. I’m here. No judgment. “

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the family name of Dylan Mortensen.

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Johnson reported to Seattle.