Bryan Kohberger, the man facing charges for killing four University of Idaho students, entered a guilty plea on Wednesday for their murders.
The judge accepted Kohberger’s guilty plea during Wednesday morning’s proceedings.
Kohberger had been scheduled to stand trial next month before he reached a plea agreement earlier this week. Reports indicate he agreed to the plea deal to avoid facing the death penalty.
Kohberger will receive his sentence on Wednesday, July 23 at 8 a.m. PST.
Kohberger’s attorneys made multiple attempts to stop prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty before they entered the plea agreement earlier this week.
When initially asked to enter a plea in 2023, Kohberger remained silent, prompting the judge to enter a not-guilty plea for him.
Kohberger’s trial had been expected to span more than three months.
Authorities accused Kohberger of murdering Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen at their off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. Police arrested Kohberger in Pennsylvania weeks after the killings, and investigators reported matching his DNA to evidence found on a knife sheath at the crime scene.
The Goncalves family opposed the agreement and stated they would attempt to block it. They also maintained that any deal should force Kohberger to provide a complete confession, explain exactly what happened, and reveal where he disposed of the murder weapon.
“We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was,” they expressed in a Facebook post.
The Chapin family — one of three triplets who attended the university together — supports the deal, according to their spokesperson, Christina Teves, who spoke Tuesday.
Attorney Leander James, who represents Mogen’s mother and stepfather, refused to share their position but promised to deliver a statement for them following Wednesday’s hearing. Mogen’s father, Ben Mogen, told CBS News the agreement brought him relief.
“We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don’t want to have to be at, that we shouldn’t have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person,” he explained. “We get to just think about the rest of lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids.”
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