Bryan Kohberger Will Spend Life in Prison After Idaho College Murders
Bryan Kohberger will be spending the rest of his life in prison.
The 30-year-old was sentenced to four lifetimes in prison on Wednesday, July 23, more than two years after he murdered Idaho University students Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in their Moscow, Idaho, home.
Wednesday's sentence came from Ada County District Court Judge Steven Hippler, weeks after Kohberger pleaded guilty to all four murders.
"This unfathomable and senseless act of evil has caused immeasurable pain and loss. No parent should ever have to bury their child," Judge Hippler stated on Wednesday. "This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person."
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."
Before Kohberger received his official sentence, several victim impact statements were read in court, including two from surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke.
Kohberger did not speak during Wednesday's hearing, only saying, "I respectfully decline." He is set to be transferred from the Ada County Jail to the Idaho Department of Corrections. Details about his placement have not yet been revealed.
In the early hours of November 13, 2022, Kohberger entered the home at 1122 King Road, killing Mogen, 21, Goncalves, 21, Kernodle, 20, and Chapin, 20, by stabbing them to death. Mortensen and Funke were also in the home at the time of the incident.
The recently released Prime Video docuseries, One Night in Idaho, detailed Mortensen's account of the evening as told by friend Emily Alandt.
"She heard Kaylee and Maddie come home and she heard them chit chatting on the couch for a while. The couch was on the wall of her bedroom. She was pretty much sleeping through it," Alandt recalled, noting that Mortensen saw Kohberger walk by her bedroom door. "Dylan said that she remembered hearing crying."
Mortensen eventually "made a run for it" to Funke's bedroom in the basement. When they woke up the next morning, Mortensen realized it wasn't "a dream."
Kohberger - who was studying for a PhD in criminology at Washington State University at the time of the murders - was arrested in December 2022. He initially entered a not guilty plea. His trial had been set to start in August.
On July 2, however, Kohberger pleaded guilty as part of a deal that took the death penalty off the table, which was a possibility if the case had gone to trial. Kohberger signed a confession admitting to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
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This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 12:26 PM.