Idaho victim’s family demands Kohberger confess in court after plea deal decision: ‘Full accountability’

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Bryan Kohberger accepts plea deal to avoid death penalty in Idaho student murders case

Fox News national correspondent Jeff Paul has the latest on Bryan Kohberger’s murder trial on ‘Special Report.’

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Idaho student murders suspect Bryan Kohberger has accepted a plea deal to spare his life in the murders of four University of Idaho students, two sources close to the case told Fox News Digital Monday.

Kohberger’s family released a statement Tuesday, asking for privacy following the bombshell plea deal.

“In light of recent developments, the Kohbergers are asking members of the media for privacy, respect, and responsible judgment during this time,” the family said in a statement to NewsNation’s Brian Entin. “We will continue to allow the legal process to unfold with respect to all parties and will not release any comments or take any questions. We ask that you respect our wishes during a difficult time for all those affected.”

Kohberger, 30, is accused of killing Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, in a 4 a.m. home invasion attack on Nov. 13, 2022. As part of his plea, he will apparently not have to explain himself or answer why he committed the crimes as part of the deal, according to a source close to the case.

BRYAN KOHBERGER RETURNS TO COURT FOR HEARING ON PILE OF EVIDENCE HE WANTS THROWN OUT BEFORE TRIAL

Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for his arraignment hearing in Latah County District Court, May 22, 2023 in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022.  (Zach Wilkinson-Pool/Getty Images)

“Those families have been victimized by the very prosecutors who should have had their backs,” said Ted Williams, a Fox News contributor and a former Washington, D.C. homicide detective who has been following the case since the beginning.

The Goncalves expressed their disappointment with what they described as a “secretive deal” on Monday and issued another statement Tuesday saying they want Kohberger to confess in court.

“We stand strong that it is not over until a plea is accepted. We will not stop fighting for the life that was stolen unjustly,” the Tuesday statement said. “If you feel called or moved to try to make a difference, please contact the Ada County Courthouse to express your thoughts or feelings. While we are cognizant that some may have wanted the plea, the prosecution relayed to us it was NOT a majority vote that was the deciding factor in offering this plea.”

The family is further asking the court to “require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, [and] the true facts of what happened that night.”

“We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was,” the statement reads, adding that a confession “should be the minimum price to pay for his own life.”

The family called on supporters to contact Ada County Judge Steven Hippler.

On Monday, the family described the death penalty as “a bargaining tool for the State, and when rarely applied, it’s never enforced due to a highly inefficient appellate process.”

” The notion that someone can plead guilty to a crime and still face years of appellate delays reveals a systemic failure,” the statement said. “The Latah County Prosecutor’s Office’s treatment of our family during this process is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

The family added that they “questioned decisions early in the investigation” and were “branded as aversaries” as a result. 

“So, it was no shock how the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office mishandled the plea deal,” the statement read. “They vaguely mentioned a possible plea on Friday, without seeking our input, and presented the plea on Sunday. Latah County should be ashamed of its Prosecutor’s Office. Four wonderful young people lost their lives, yet the victims’ families were treated as opponents from the outset.”

The family said prosecutors never called them directly about a plea on Monday and gave “families just one day to coordinate and appear at the courthouse for a plea on July 2.”

“Who do they think they are?” the statement continued. “After more than two years, this is how it concludes with a secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims’ families on the plea’s details. Our family is frustrated right now and that will subside and we will come together as always and deal with the reality that we face moving forward.”

Goncalves’ parents live more than seven hours away, in Rathdrum. The hearing will be held Wednesday in Boise after Kohberger successfully argued for a change of venue.

The family questioned early choices in the investigation, the restrictive gag order, pressure from school officials as frustrating factors in the way they were treated.

Members of Kernodle’s family also condemned the plea deal. Her aunt, Kim Kernodle, told TMZ that relatives were vehemently opposed to the idea when Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson’s office first raised it over the weekend.

Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)

However, Chapin’s family indicated in a statement that they are “in support of the plea bargain” and will be present in Boise on Wednesday. 

All four had been stabbed multiple times with a large knife. Police recovered a Ka-Bar sheath that they allege had Kohberger’s DNA on it near Mogen’s body.

Kohberger was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. That’s 10 miles up the road from Moscow, Idaho, where all four victims were undergrads at the University of Idaho.

“By taking a plea deal, Bryan Kohberger has insulated himself from a sentence that would require his execution,” said Edwina Elcox, a Boise defense attorney who said the deal came as a surprise. “Only a jury can sentence him to death. Regardless, he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, without the possibility of ever being in society again.”

She said she hopes the process brings peace to the families after the horrifying crime – and also that the move would spare Kohberger from facing Idaho’s newly revived firing squad as the means of execution if he were convicted and sentenced to death. 

A screenshot of the Goncalves family statement posted to Facebook.  (Facebook)

“They will not have to go through the stress of a trial and the virtually guaranteed appeal process, in the event Kohberger was convicted at trial,” Elcox told Fox News Digital. “The judge will take his guilty plea and then set a hearing for Kohberger to be sentenced. He can absolutely expect to spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

The plea deal came as a surprise – prosecutors had not telegraphed the move and fought hard to keep the death penalty on the table in pretrial proceedings.

Kohberger’s defense failed repeatedly to have it removed, revealing his autism diagnosis and crying foul over discovery deadlines it claimed that prosecutors missed.

“If they don’t get the why, this is the most incomprehensible deal of all time,” Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector who is following the case, said before the latest update that indicates Kohberger will apparently not have to explain his crimes.

Bryan Kohberger arrives at Monroe County Courthouse in Pennsylvania in advance of highly anticipated extradition hearing. He’s charged with the murders of four University of Idaho students. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

If Kohberger agreed to truthfully explain what happened, that could be a reason for the deal to have materialized so unexpectedly, he said. Especially with opposition from at least one family, he said. 

Williams agreed.

“These four kids did not deserve to die this way, and as a part of any plea, he should be required to tell when, how and why he committed these offenses,” he told Fox News Digital before more details of the plea deal emerged. “I think that should be a part of any plea – he owes those families, and the public.”

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The latest development comes hours after a hearing in Pennsylvania to determine whether witnesses there can be compelled to travel to Idaho to testify in a trial that would have started on Aug. 18.

Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a leading criminologist and one of Kohberger’s former professors at DeSales University, acknowledged the chilling undertones of a criminal justice student using his knowledge to plot a crime but said the benefits of such an education are important.

“The risk of this must be weighed against the good that comes out of these programs,” she told Fox News Digital. ” We all know of killers who took crim courses. I teach about them. “Among those is Dennis Rader, the serial killer known as BTK, whom Kohberger studied.People need to be trained to stop people like him, she said.”And we study them to do early intervention when possible,” she added.

Joseph Giacalone is a former NYPD cold case investigator and a criminal justice professor at Penn State-Lehigh Valley. “I was never concerned about teaching someone how to be a better criminal,” he told Fox News Digital.  “Nothing beats experienced investigators. You can learn whatever you want from a book, but that doesn’t make you an expert.”He also said the plea deal could bring some comfort to the victims families — even if they don’t agree with it now.”He will have a very difficult time in prison, and if the families have any solace, it’s in that he will spend the rest of his life in fear and basically solitary confinement just to stay alive,” he said.