Bryan Kohberger Pleads Guilty

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Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?

Yes.

What a moment.

A guilty plea, 962 days in the making.

In the murder case that horrified the country, Brian Koberger pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students as their anguished loved ones looked on in a packed courtroom in Boise, Idaho.

He did not react with emotion as he communicated with the judge.

As to count two,

murder in the first degree as it relates to the murder of Madison Mogan.

How do you plead guilty or not guilty?

Guilty.

As to count three, as it relates to murder in the first degree for the murder of Kaylee Donsalves, how do you plead guilty or not guilty?

Guilty.

As to count four,

the first degree murder of Xana

Cernodle, pardon me, a human being, how do you plead?

Guilty or not guilty?

Guilty.

That's count five, the first-degree murder of Ethan Chapin, a human being.

How do you plead?

Guilty or not guilty?

Guilty.

This is what these four families of the victims had been longing to hear, an admission of guilt that Koberger had attacked their loved ones in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho.

But family members were divided over whether justice was being fully served.

Some wanted him tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

Koberger, who had been a Ph.D.

candidate studying criminology at nearby Washington State University, was arrested on December 30, 2022.

We've spent the last two and a half years awaiting a trial for these monstrous crimes, in hopes of finally understanding the full story of what happened that night.

And why?

What was the motive?

Who was Koberger's main target?

How did he seem to know exactly where to go once inside that house?

I'm Peter Van Sant.

I've been covering this case for 48 hours since the beginning.

I attended nearby Washington State University.

I knew Moscow, Idaho to the point where I could just drive about anywhere without using a map.

These murders really hit home for me.

Here at 48 Hours, we were preparing to take you through the trial week by week.

But then news broke on Monday evening that a plea deal had been struck, and Brian Koberger would admit in open court that he was the killer.

So joining me today to review these developments is CBS News legal analyst attorney Mary Fulgenidi.

Mary, thanks for helping us sort all this out.

Thanks for having me, Peter.

And Mary, just starting at the beginning of today's hearing, I was struck by Judge Stephen Hipler's introduction about outside pressure he was facing as it pertains to this plea deal.

The court is not supposed to, and this court will never, take into account public sentiment

in making an opinion regarding its judicial decisions in cases.

Courts should And I always will make decisions based on where the facts and the law lead me.

Period.

I have not read any of the numerous messages nor listened to any of the numerous voicemails that have been sent to me and my staff.

Those have all been forwarded to security and, where appropriate, to law enforcement.

And there's so much emotion in this case.

Mary, what was your reaction to what the judge had to say?

Well, you know, Peter, this case has captured the nation and the world, really.

And I think the judge is sending a clear message to the public that all the calls in the world are not going to impact his decision in this case, and that he's going to rely strictly on the facts and the evidence and to stop.

You know, it's inappropriate, it's time consuming, and

it's taxing on the people that are working in the courthouse.

For the millions of people who have been following this case, all the attention was, of course, on the plea deal itself, a plea deal that surprised all of us.

Talk about what this agreement entails.

So

the defendant pleaded guilty to all five counts included in the indictment, which were the felony burglary count and four first-degree murder counts.

And with regard to the homicides, all four of them, it was life, a fixed life sentence, which is life without the possibility to parole, with all five counts to run consecutive to each other.

In addition, the defendant waived his right to not only a jury trial, but to appeal his sentence and to even have the court consider any leniency in his sentence at the time of sentencing.

So it was interesting because I think a lot of people didn't understand: is the court bound by this?

And what the court basically said is this is not a binding plea agreement, which means he is not bound by the plea agreement, and that he could impose a different sentence, a lawful sentence, obviously, at the hearing when it comes up.

But I think that's probably unlikely in this case that he's going to stick with what the parties have agreed to,

which has taken a long time to get to.

This plea deal seemed to come out of the blue.

We were all prepared for a long trial.

Why do you think the defense approached prosecutors about making a deal?

Oh, to save his life, to take the death penalty off the table.

And remember, accepting a plea deal is ultimately not the decision of the defense lawyers, but rather the defendant.

And sometimes it's hard to get to that place until all legal arguments and strategies are thoroughly exhausted.

And for all of us who've lived with this case, the prosecution today stood up and basically what seemed like almost an opening statement laid out what the prosecution's case was.

Here's prosecutor Bill Thompson.

Back in March of 2022, when the defendant was residing at his parents' residence or residing back in Pennsylvania, his home state, he purchased online a K-bar knife and sheath with an Amazon gift card that he had purchased shortly prior to the purchase of the knife, sheath, and sharpener.

Jumping ahead, the end of June of that year, the defendant Mr.

Koberger moved from Pennsylvania to Pullman, Washington, which is right across the state line from Moscow, Idaho, for the purpose of pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at Washington State University.

The state's evidence would indicate that beginning July 9th of 2022, Mr.

Koberger's phone began connecting to a cell tower that serves the area of the 1122 King Road residence in Moscow, Idaho.

Now, I will acknowledge for the court and all present that there are many residences in that area.

It's a dense population of mostly college-related occupants.

Between July 9th of 2022 and November 7th, the defendant's phone connected to that particular tower during late night, early morning hours, 10 p.m.

to 4 a.m., on approximately 23 times.

And then Thompson described what transpired in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022.

According to the state's evidence, Koberger's phone left his Pullman residence and was turned off at 2.54 a.m.

and remained off until 4.48 a.m.

They also obtained video surveillance on the highway that runs between Pullman, Washington and Moscow, Idaho that showed a vehicle matching Kohlberger's car entering Moscow at 3.02 a.m.

and circling the neighborhood.

And at 4.05 a.m., surveillance video showed Kohlberger's car parked behind the 1122 Kings Road home.

The state believes that its evidence would then show

that

the defendant entered the residence of 1122 through the kitchen sliding door on the back side of the residence, which is the side of the residence that would face the area above where the defendant's car was parked.

Defendant entered the residence, went to the third floor, and with a knife, killed Madison Mogan and Caitlin Gonzalez.

The defendant, as he left that room, for whatever reason,

ended up leaving or the sheath for a K-bar knife was left on the bed.

next to Madison Mogan's body.

And I can jump ahead.

That sheath was tested by the Idaho State Police Forensic Lab and single source male DNA was found on the snap of that sheath,

as well as blood from both Cayley and Madison and other trace evidence.

But it's important to note single source male DNA was on the snap of that sheath.

The state's evidence would show that Zana Kenodel was still awake at this time.

In fact, had taken a door dash order not long before this started.

Her room was not on the third floor.

It was on the second floor on the west side.

As the defendant was either coming down the stairs or leaving, he encountered Xanna and he ended up killing her also with a large knife.

Ethan Chapin, Zana's boyfriend, was asleep in their bedroom, in her bedroom, and the defendant killed him as well.

with a large fixed-bay knife.

Each victim suffered multiple wounds.

I will state for the record that there is no evidence there was any sexual component or sexual assault on any of the victims.

I want to make that clear so there's no speculation.

There were two other roommates in the house, and they were already asleep.

During the course of this, one of those roommates awoke, looked out her door not knowing what was going on, and saw the defendant who was dressed in black.

with a black balcon on, holding some sort of container in his hand, and she saw him leave the house through the direction of the kitchen where that sliding door is that I mentioned before.

At approximately 4.20 that morning,

so this would have been 15 minutes or so later,

Defend's car is seen on a surveillance camera for 1112 King Road, which is immediately next door to the west of 1122,

leaving the area at a high rate rate of speed and if the court were to see that or anybody in this courtroom would see that you can see the court the car almost loses control as it makes the corner heads north and then turns to go south on Walinta which is one of the only ways to get out of that part of town

the evidence would show that following that the defendant in his eyantra

Drove south of Moscow.

We know that he drove on the back roads because there are surveillance cameras on the main highways, Highway 95, that would have picked up the defendant's car if he had gone that route.

And they did not show the defendant's car on that route during the time.

So we know that he went through a variety of back roads in a very rural, isolated part of Leytaw County.

About 4.48 that morning,

the defendant's phone comes back on.

And The evidence will show that that phone was located south of Moscow, likely at a side road intersection with Highway 95.

From there, the defendant's phone activity tracks him back north towards Pullman, Washington, where the defendant lived.

About 5.26, starting approximately 5.26, various surveillance cameras in Pullman, Washington pick up the defendant's vehicle as he enters Pullman from the south.

and heads north and slightly west towards his apartment where he arrived at approximately 5.30 in the morning.

Later that morning,

still this Sunday, the 13th of November of 2022,

Mr.

Koberger's phone returned to the area of King Road.

We don't know exactly what he did, but it returned to that area about 9 o'clock in the morning,

was there for about 10 minutes, and then returned to his Pullman residence.

About 9.30, the state's evidence will show, evidence taken from the defendant's phone, that he took a selfie of himself on his phone in what appears to be the bathroom of his Pullman apartment with a thumbs up.

So we know there was a lot of evidence, but we didn't hear anything about motive.

Mary, what about that?

I know.

The big question that everybody wants to understand in this case.

We didn't hear anything about motive.

Motive is not an element of the crime.

And I'm not so sure that the prosecution actually knows at this point even what the motive was.

And sometimes in cases like these particular where the murders are so gruesome and heinous,

you don't have any sort of black and white explanation.

So I think that's why we probably didn't hear anything along those lines because either they didn't know it or they felt that it wasn't,

it might be confusing to the factual basis because it's not necessary.

And by the way, I had a brief conversation by text message with Christy Gonzalves, Kaylee's mother, yesterday.

In it, she told me that the family asked the prosecutor if they were asking Koberger for more evidence, including the location of the murder weapon as part of the deal.

And according to Christy, the prosecutor said no.

This raises the prospect that families may never know exactly what happened.

Imagine living with that.

for the rest of your life.

Yeah,

that's actually, you know, there are so many elements to a case that sometimes, you know, people will never know.

So it's hard.

And I know it's

consuming for many of them because they want the picture filled in so they can fully understand what happened and hopefully put closure and get some closure out of the case, but that doesn't always happen.

And even if it went to trial, they wouldn't necessarily have had that closure as well.

So unfortunately,

in cases like these,

you need to focus on the evidence and what the evidence is and stick with that when it comes to the resolution.

But even without a motive, why not take this to trial?

The reason why the prosecution at this late date,

I think, decided to discuss a plea was because the defense reached out to them.

I mean, after all the hearings and the motions, and the judge finally denied the continuance,

the defense reached out to the prosecution and asked if there was a plea deal.

And they would be remiss and not really going through that with them.

And anything can go wrong.

I mean, you can have witnesses go sideways, you can have a juror do something that could cause a mistrial and then restart the whole process again.

So they have to evaluate everything.

And in this situation, and here is the defendant willing to plead to everything, to all the facts, to everything that's included in the indictment.

And I think they took all of that into consideration and decided that this was the most appropriate and just thing to do in the circumstances.

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And we've seen a divide among families of the victims.

Some are relieved while others are outraged, feeling betrayed by the prosecution for taking this deal.

The Chapins said that they were attending the hearing in support of the plea deal, and the Mogans family attorney read a statement on their behalf today, also supporting the plea deal.

We support the plea agreement 100%.

While we know there are some who do not support it, we ask that they respect our belief that this is the best outcome possible for the victims, their families, and the state of Idaho.

We extend our deep gratitude to the many law enforcement officers and staff who worked tirelessly to obtain the critical evidence that brought justice today.

This is something where they want to put it away and this is a guarantee.

There's no more risk involved.

That's going to save them a lot of pain and anguish on the other side the gonzalves family issued a statement saying they are beyond furious at the state of idaho they said the state failed us calling it a deal with the devil kaylee's father steve gonsalves refused to go inside the courtroom today but spoke outside to the media before the hearing he blasted prosecutor bill thompson for negotiating a plea deal he only negotiated with the murder of our children.

That was the only person that he negotiated with.

He didn't give us the common courtesy to negotiate with us, to even pretend.

He could have just pretended and then lied, but he didn't even pretend.

He basically said, your guys' input isn't needed.

The judge could hear one thought from you that he should remember what isn't.

He's going to own this.

He's going to inherit what Thompson did, and he's the only one that can fix it.

He's the only one who can make it right.

I know it's an emotional one for some of the victims' families, but it's a call that is solely within the prosecutor's discretion, weighing not only the victim's interests, but the state's in the time, the money, and the consumption of this case on the court's resources.

And there's another reason Kaylee Gonzalvez's parents have expressed outrage.

This deal took the death penalty off the table.

They wrote on social media that the death penalty is merely an illusion in the criminal justice system.

When available, it serves as a bargaining tool for the state.

A new law in Idaho will go into effect on July 1st, 2026, that will make death by firing squad the state's primary method of execution.

When I spoke to the Gonsalves family over two years ago, they had very strong opinions about that should he be found guilty of the murders.

Oh, firing squad.

Absolutely.

I think lethal injection is way too easy.

I mean, I've read about it and it's evidently very torturous, but I'm like, yeah, no, I'm not buying it.

Evidently, if you feel like you're drowning and whatnot, I don't know.

I mean, yeah,

but I think that a firing squad would be pretty terrifying, but nowhere near as terrifying as what our girls went through.

They are

understandably very angry and upset and want the defendant to pay the ultimate price here.

And I know the Gonsalves's wish that since the prosecution had all the the leverage in this negotiation, that they had included a stipulation that Koberger tell every detail about how this crime was committed, how he planned it, how he carried it out, that he would have to tell that story before he could get the plea deal.

And that breaks their heart that that was not a part of this.

Yeah, and no one can compel that.

The court can't compel that.

The prosecution can't compel that.

I mean, what we do know is that the judge found that there was sufficient facts and evidence to accept his guilty plea to each of the five counts?

So, after all this, what happens next?

Is this case finally over?

Not yet.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 23rd, and we expect on that day the families will be able to have their day in court.

They will be able to address the court and give victim, what they call victim impact statements about the pain and the anguish and the torture basically that they have gone through as a family.

And I expect that that'll last the whole day, and it's going to be a very emotional day.

It's one that you hope gives some closure and some peace to the families.

And it's one that I suspect there won't be a dry eye in the house.

And these will be very powerful statements for people like the Gonzalves family.

They finally get to say in a room where they know Brian Kohlberger can hear them what they think about all of this, and they are devastated so that will be that will be a compelling day.

And we will continue to provide updates on this case.

Thanks Mary for joining us.

Thank you Peter

and thanks to all of you for listening.

I'm Peter Van Sant

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