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By Hanna Park, Josh Campbell and Zoe Sottile, CNN
(CNN) — The grieving family of 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves spent weeks waiting for an arrest in her killing. Since then, they and relatives of the three other University of Idaho students fatally stabbed on a late 2022 night in their off-campus home have endured a legal process punctuated by delay after delay.
Now, a month before the suspect’s murder trial was set to begin, the wait for justice is poised to end in what one Goncalves family member called a “shocking and cruel” plea deal that would remove the possibility of the death penalty.
“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,” the Goncalves family said in a statement shared with CNN.
The plea deal would bring an abrupt end to a case that has captured national attention since the four brutal killings rocked the small college town of Moscow. Bryan Kohberger, a 30-year-old former PhD student of criminology at nearby Washington State University, was charged in January 2023 with fatally stabbing Goncalves; Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, both 20; and Madison Mogen, 21.
Under the deal, Kohberger will plead guilty to four counts of murder in exchange for the government dropping the death penalty, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Goncalves family attorney Shanon Gray confirmed the deal to CNN, which has reached out to the families of Chapin and Mogen about the pending agreement.
“This isn’t what we should be doing,” Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Tuesday, adding, “You don’t deal with terrorists and you don’t deal with people who kill your kids in their sleep. So we’ll never, we’ll never see this as justice.”
Xana’s father, Jeff Kernodle, also expressed his issues with the deal.
“I do not agree with this outcome and expressed my concerns before the deal was negotiated, especially regarding what I believed would be the best capital punishment,” Kernodle said in a statement Tuesday. “After nearly three years of waiting and being told there would be a trial, with evidence presented to convict him, I’m disappointed in the (prosecutors’) decision.”
A hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET in front of Judge Steven Hippler, a court document shows; it will deal with the plea agreement, a letter from the prosecutor to a victim’s family says, the Idaho Statesman reported. The Goncalves family has asked prosecutors to delay Wednesday’s hearing to give them more time to get to Boise, the family’s lawyer told the Associated Press.
Hippler, a Boise native, was appointed as a district judge by former Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter for the 4th Judicial District Court in 2013.
“Death row is the only place where they’re actually treated as true criminals. And it’s sad that this individual won’t be treated like a criminal,” Goncalves told Sciutto.
“The offer was made on a Sunday, and then two days later, we’re supposed to go to court on Fourth of July weekend? Can people not see what’s going on here?” Goncalves said. “This is ridiculous. Nothing moved in this case for a year. And then in three days, it’s over.”
Jury selection in Kohberger’s murder trial was set to begin August 4. Prosecutors previously indicated they would pursue the death penalty.
An abrupt end to a national saga
The Goncalves family wasn’t “even called about the plea” and merely “received an email with a letter attached,” they said in a social media post.
The letter, sent to the victims’ families from Moscow Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson, indicates Kohberger will likely be sentenced to life in prison if he pleads guilty and the deal requires him to waive his right to appeal, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Still, the Goncalves family blasted prosecutors’ “very unexpected” decision, writing in a short social media post: “We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho. They have failed us.”
By contrast, Madison Mogen’s father is choosing acceptance, he told the Idaho Statesman, saying the plea agreement would let his family avoid a trial and allow its wounds to keep healing.
If Kohberger were given a death sentence, he wouldn’t “have to spend decades thinking” about “how terrible (he) made the world,” Ben Mogen told “CBS Mornings.”
“We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don’t want to have to be at, that we shouldn’t have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person,” Mogen told CBS. “We get to just think about the rest of our lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and without the rest of the kids.”
Thompson’s office could not comment on news of the plea deal because of a wide-ranging gag order in the case, he told CNN. In the letter to the Goncalves family, the prosecutor defended the deal as “our sincere attempt to seek justice for your family,” arguing it will ensure Kohberger “will spend the rest of his life in prison,” the Statesman reported.
In a lengthier statement posted by the Goncalves family, Kaylee’s 18-year-old sister, Aubrie, took issue with the suddenness of the deal after a painfully long legal process, calling it “both shocking and cruel” to bring it to the families “just weeks before the scheduled trial.”
“Had this proposal come a year and a half ago, the families could have had time to process, discuss, and potentially come to terms with the idea of a life sentence – however difficult that may be,” the statement said.
The Goncalves family is “not asking for vengeance,” Aubrie wrote, but considers the possibility of life in prison an unfair outcome.
“Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world. Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever,” she wrote.
The possibility of the death penalty has loomed large over the proceedings, with Kohberger’s defense team repeatedly arguing for it to be taken off the table.
“We all know he’s guilty,” Steve Goncalves told NewsNation. “There’s more than enough evidence, but it’s tough to put a community through this, and it could be bad for reputations and business identities, and there’s fallout, but this isn’t the will of the victims.”
“This is just one person making a decision,” he added, “and it doesn’t reflect what we were asking for.”
A frustrating legal journey
The victims’ families have lived through a sprawling case, starting with a wait for a suspect to be identified. For weeks, law enforcement released few details about the investigation. Then on December 30, 2022 – more than a month after the November 13 killings – Kohberger was arrested in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Kohberger’s arrest was based largely on DNA evidence, including a sample found on a knife sheath near one of the victims’ beds and DNA retrieved from trash outside the Kohberger family home, prosecutors said.
Since then, the legal case has been marked by delays, including when Kohberger kept silent during his May 2023 arraignment when a judge asked for his plea on the murder and burglary charges outlined in an indictment against him.
“Your honor, we are standing silent,” Kohberger’s attorney said before the judge entered not guilty pleas for him.
As the case proceeded, the defense team filed motions to suppress DNA evidence obtained through the forensic genealogy process and questioning the validity of other evidence, including cell phone records and the accuracy of a search warrant affidavit.
Kohberger’s trial was pushed back multiple times amid disputes over evidence and witnesses. Last September, it was moved from Latah County, where the crime took place, to the state capital of Boise.
Last year, the Goncalves family expressed its frustration at the repeated delays, saying the case had turned into a “hamster wheel of motions, hearings, and delayed decisions.”
Recent rulings narrowed Kohberger’s legal defense options heading into trial. The judge had barred the defense from submitting an official alibi, as no one could confirm Kohberger’s whereabouts at the time of the killings.
Last week, the judge rejected the defense’s attempt to present an “alternate perpetrator” theory. Kohberger’s lawyers had planned to argue one of four other people committed the murders, but the judge ruled there was no evidence beyond “pure speculation” to support the claim.
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CNN’s Betul Tuncer, Alisha Ebrahimji, Jean Casarez, Lauren del Valle and Jason Kravarik contributed to this report.
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