A 30-year-old and a former criminology doctoral student has admitted to ending the lives of four roommates in a small Idaho college town in 2022, in a move to avoid a death penalty.
The case raised concerns in the United States and in a small town where murder incidents are rare.
Bryan Kohberger responded to a succession of questions posed to him by Judge Steven Hippler during a hearing on Wednesday. He confessed to entering the apartment at 1122 King Road in Moscow on November 13, 2022, with the sole objective of committing murder.
He earlier denied the murder charges leveled against him; however on Wednesday July 2, he pleaded guilty in court that he broke into the residence of the four University of Idaho students.
Kohberger made use of the sliding windows where he had access to the apartment and committed the cold murder. The students had no links to him or any transactions with him. But, there is no available reason for his inhumane act according to prosecutors.
The victims have been identified as Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen.
The plea deal, as detailed by Hippler, stipulated that Kohberger would get four consecutive life sentences and forfeit his rights to appeal or request a review of the sentence.
His sentencing is scheduled for July 23.
All the four who died were between the ages of 20 and 21. While Kernodle was an indigene from the southern state of Arizona, Mogen and Goncalves hail from Idaho. Chapin, her boyfriend, was a native of Washington state.
According to autopsy results, the deceased students were stabbed many times and sustained injuries while defending themselves.
The homicide has taken many by surprise, including law enforcement authorities, and has sparked a plethora of inquiries regarding the reasons behind the horrific incident that occurred at a rural college in Moscow.
