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  • 7/23/2025
Bryan Kohberger was sentenced on Wednesday to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murders of four Idaho students. He was handed an additional 10 years for one count of burglary.
Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of four University of Idaho students—Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. The murders took place at an off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022.
Goncalves’ sister, Alivea Goncalves, spoke directly to Kohberger, confronting him by calling him a “sociopath, psychopath, and murderer.”
“I won't stand here and give you what you want. I won't offer you tears. I won't offer you trembling,” she said. “Disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power.”
She pressed Kohberger with questions about the case and her sister’s murder, questions she says “reverberate violently.”
“Did you prepare for the crime before leaving your apartment? Please detail what you were thinking and feeling at this time,” she asked. “Where is the murder weapon? What were Kaylee's last words?”

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00:00I won't stand here and give you what you want.
00:02I won't offer you tears.
00:03I won't offer you trembling.
00:06Disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power.
00:11And I won't feed your beast.
00:15Instead, I will call you what you are.
00:19Sociopath.
00:21Psychopath.
00:22Murderer.
00:24I will ask the questions that reverberate violently in my own head.
00:28So loudly that I can't think straight most any day.
00:34Some of these might be familiar.
00:36So sit up straight when I talk to you.
00:39How was your life right before you murdered my sisters?
00:44Did you prepare for the crime before leaving your apartment?
00:48Please detail what you were thinking and feeling at this time.
00:52Why did you choose my sisters?
00:55Before making your move,
00:57did you approach my sisters?
01:00Did you tell what you were thinking and feeling?
01:03Before leaving their home,
01:05is there anything else you did?
01:07How does it feel to know the only thing you failed more miserably at
01:12than being a murderer
01:14is trying to be a rapper?
01:15Did you recently start shaving or manually pulling out your eyebrows?
01:24Why November 13th?
01:27Did you truly think your Amazon purchase was untraceable because you used a gift card?
01:32How do you find it enjoyable to stargaze with such a severe case of visual snow?
01:38Where is the murder weapon?
01:40Where is the murder weapon?
01:41The clothes you wore that night?
01:45What did you bring into the house with you?
01:49What was the second weapon you used on Kaylee?
01:52What were Kaylee's last words?
01:55If you were really smart,
01:57do you think you'd be here right now?
02:00What's it like needing this much attention just to feel real?
02:05You're terrified of being ordinary, aren't you?
02:08Do you feel anything at all?
02:14Or are you exactly what you always feared?
02:17Nothing.
02:19If you're so powerful, then why are you still hiding, defendant?
02:24You see, I'm here today as me.
02:27But who are you?
02:29Let's try to take off your mask and see.
02:33You didn't create devastation.
02:35You revealed it in yourself.
02:37And that darkness you carry, that emptiness,
02:40you'll sit with it long after this is over.
02:44That is your sentence.
02:45And it was written on the wall long before you ever pled guilty.
02:49Lurking in the shadows made you feel powerful
02:51because no one ever paid you any attention in the light.
02:55You thought you were exceptional, all because of a grade on a paper.
03:00You thought you were elite because your online IQ test from 2010 told you so.
03:05All of that effort just to seem important.
03:09It's desperate.
03:11There is a name for your condition, though.
03:13Your inflated ego just didn't allow you to see it.
03:16Wannabe.
03:19You act like no one could ever understand your mind.
03:22But the truth is, you're basic.
03:24You're a textbook case of insecurity disguised as control.
03:27Your patterns are predictable.
03:29Your motives are shallow.
03:31You are not profound.
03:33You're pathetic.
03:36You aren't special or deep.
03:39Not mysterious or exceptional.
03:41Don't ever get it twisted again.
03:44You orchestrated this like you thought you were God.
03:47Now look at you, begging a courtroom for scraps.
03:50You spent months preparing, and still all it took was my sister and a sheath.
03:56You work so hard to seem dangerous.
03:59But real control doesn't have to prove itself.
04:02Let me be very clear.
04:04Don't ever try to convince yourself you mattered
04:07just because someone finally said your name out loud.
04:11I see through you.
04:13You want the truth?
04:15Here's the one you'll hate the most.
04:17If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep,
04:20in the middle of the night, like a pedophile,
04:24Kaylee would have kicked your fucking ass.
04:31On count one, burglary.
04:38Ten years fixed.
04:40Zero years indeterminate.
04:43I also impose a fine of $50,000.
04:45Count two, first-degree murder of Madison Mogan.
04:51I sentenced the defendant to a fixed term of life imprisonment
04:54without the possibility of parole,
04:57a fine of $50,000,
04:59and a civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.
05:04On count three,
05:06for first-degree murder of Kaylee Gonsalves,
05:08I sentenced the defendant to a fixed term of life imprisonment
05:12without the possibility of parole,
05:14a fine of $50,000,
05:16and a civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the victim of the family.
05:21Or to the family of the victim, pardon me.
05:24On count four,
05:25for the first-degree murder of Zana Karnotl,
05:28I sentenced the defendant to a fixed term of life imprisonment
05:31without the possibility of parole,
05:33a fine of $50,000,
05:35and a civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.
05:40On count five,
05:42for the first-degree murder of Ethan Chapin,
05:44I sentenced the defendant to a fixed term of life imprisonment
05:47without the possibility of parole,
05:49a fine of $50,000,
05:51and a civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.
05:55The sentences on counts one, two, three, four, and five
06:00shall run consecutively to one another.
06:02All right, Mr. Kohlberger,
06:03you have an opportunity to make a statement if you wish to.
06:06I take it you are declining.
06:08I respectfully decline.
06:10Go.
06:20Howard.
06:22Please.
06:23Truth be told,
06:24I am unable to come up with anything redeeming about Mr. Kohlberger
06:27because his grotesque acts of evil
06:30have buried and hidden anything
06:32that might have been good or intrinsically human about him.
06:37His actions have made him the worst of the worst.
06:40Even in pleading guilty,
06:42he is giving nothing hinting of remorse or redemption,
06:46nothing suggesting,
06:47even a recognition or understanding,
06:50let alone regret for the pain that he has caused.
06:54And therefore,
06:55I will not attempt to speak about him further
06:58other than to simply sentence him
07:00so that he is forever removed from civilized society.
07:04You're like,
07:05excuse me,
07:09you're brainwashed by wordmark and what it's being said to me.
07:12You're like,
07:13long-term death.
07:15I have never STEVE Anyway,
07:16what about me?
07:17What on the day?
07:18You have never seen them before.
07:19It is a dream
07:21assignment,
07:22I have never seen him
07:25anymore,
07:26about anything.

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