BREAKING NEWSBryan Kohberger Sentenced to Life in Prison for 'Evil' Murders of 4 University of Idaho Students
Bryan Kohberger murdered four college students in November 2022.
July 23 2025, Published 1:53 p.m. ET
Bryan Kohberger will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The convicted killer was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after confessing to the murders of four University of Idaho college students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — as part of a guilty plea deal.
The 30-year-old former PhD student of criminology narrowly avoided the death penalty by admitting to breaking into the victims' home and brutally stabbing them to death in November 2022.
Kohberger will likely be sent to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution — the state's only maximum-security prison — opened in 1989 to hold Idaho's "most disruptive male residents."
Bryan Kohberger Chillingly Declines Making a Statement
Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to four lifetimes in prison without the possibility of parole.
Kohberger appeared to show no remorse as he remained emotionless throughout the sentencing hearing.
Before Judge Steven Hippler officially gave Kohberger his sentence, the convicted killer was asked if there was anything he wanted to say.
"Mr. Kohberger, you have an opportunity to make a statement," Judge Hippler said. "I take it you are declining?"
"I respectfully decline," Kohberger — dressed in an orange prison uniform — confirmed while leaning forward slightly in his chair.
Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one burglary charge as part of a plea deal.
Judge Hippler referred to the murders of Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle and Chapin as an "unspeakable evil" as he expressed hope the sentencing of this case would help bring closure to the victims' families.
The judge recalled how in the early hours of the morning on November 13, 2022, a "faceless coward breached the tranquility of six beautiful young people and senselessly slaughtered them, four of them" after he "slithered through that sliding glass" of their college home.
"Who committed this unspeakable evil was unknown for several weeks, but due to the killer’s incompetence and outstanding police work," Kohberger was caught "and now stands before the world and this court, unmasked."
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- Bryan Kohberger Accepts Guilty Plea Deal for Brutal Murders of 4 Idaho College Students, Death Penalty Dropped
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Judge Steve Hippler Says 'No Parent Should Ever Have to Bury Their Child'
Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death in 2022.
"This unfathomable and senseless act of evil has caused immeasurable pain and loss. No parent should ever have to bury their child. This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person," Judge Hippler continued.
He added: "Parents who took their children to college in a truck filled with moving boxes had to bring them home in hearses lined with coffins."
Judge Ends Bryan Kohberger's '15 Minutes of Fame'
Bryan Kohberger has not yet revealed his motive in committing the murders.
Judge Hippler then advised the murder victims' families and those invested in the case to not dwell on trying to figure out Kohberger's motive in the killings, as it gives him "agency" and "power."
"Even if I could force him to speak, which legally I cannot, how could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth?" the judge pointed out. "Do we really believe after all this, he’s capable of speaking the truth or giving up something of himself to help the very people whose lives he destroyed?"
Judge Hippler believes Kohberger's truth will eventually come out in a "self-serving" way, seemingly suggesting a book or documentary deal, though he said "the time has now come to end Mr. Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame."
