True Crime Society - The sentencing of Bryan Kohberger

On Wednesday July 23, 2025, Bryan Kohberger was sentenced for the murders of Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20.

Some of the families of the victims and survivors gave impact statements.

A friend of Bethany Funke’s (surviving roommate) read her statement about the situation. She said that she had woken up with a toothache and had called her father who was a dentist. He said to take an Advil and she did. She then went back to sleep.

“I was still out of it and still didn’t know what happened. If I had known, I of course would have called 911 right away,” she said. “I still carry so much regret and guilt for not knowing what had happened and not calling right away, even though I understand it wouldn’t have changed anything, even if the paramedics had been right outside the door.”

Later that morning, when she called 911, “I couldn’t even get out the words,” Bethany wrote in her statement.

“That was the worst day of my life, and I know it always will be,” she said.

“I hated and still hate that they’re gone, but for some reason, I am still here and I got to live. I still think about this every day. Why me? Why did I get to live, and not them?”

She also said that she has lived in terror since the murders and that she slept in her parents’ bedroom for over a year.

“I constantly wake up in panics, terrified someone is breaking in or someone is here to hurt me. Or I’m about to lose someone else that I love. The fear never really leave,” Bethany said.

The other surviving roommate, Dylan Mortenson also spoke.

“What happened that night changed everything,” she said. “Because of him, four beautiful, genuine, compassionate people were taken from this world for no reason.”

He didn’t just take their lives, she said, but also “the light” they created in every room.

“He took away who they were becoming, and the futures they were going to have,” Dylan said. “He took away birthdays, graduation, celebrations and all the memories they were supposed to make.”

She also spoke about how the murders had affected her.

“I can’t breathe, I can’t think, I can’t stop shaking. All I can do is scream, because the emotional pain and the grief is too much to handle on my chest,” she said.

“It’s far beyond anxiety. It’s my body reliving everything over and over again.”

We posted a lot of clips of the statements on our instagram – they are under Moscow highlights #7 and 8. We will run through a few of them in this blog.

Scott Laramie, Madison Mogen’s stepfather, said in his statement that losing her was devastating for the family.

He read a statement on behalf of himself and Maddie’s mother, Karen.

“Maddie was our gift of life, our purpose and our hope,” Scott Laramie said.

“Maddie was taken senselessly and brutally in a sudden act of evil,” he said.

“Since Maddie’s loss there’s emptiness in our hearts, home and family. An endless void,”Scott said.

“We will grow old grow without our only child.”

Maddie’s dad, Benjamin, read out the last Father’s Day card that his daughter sent to him.

“Happy Father’s Day. I hope you have the best day. I can’t wait till we can hang out again soon. I’ll be in Coeur d’Alene … hopefully we can find the time then. I love your birthday card that you sent me, by the way. Maybe we can see a concert sometime soon. I’d love to see the gorge when it’s not so smoky out. I hope you’re doing well. I’m proud of how far you’ve come. Thank you for always encouraging me to do my best. Love you lots and lots. Love, Maddie Mae.”

When Kaylee’s family had their turn to talk, they were understandably mad.

“The world’s watching because of the kids, not because of you. Nobody cares about you. … In time, you will be nothing but two initials, forgotten to the wind,” Steve Goncalves said.

He said Bryan was a “joke” and described how easy it was to track him down.

“Police officers tell us within minutes they had your DNA. Like a calling card. You were that careless. That foolish. That stupid. Master degree? You’re a joke. Complete joke,” Steve said.

Alivea Goncalves, the sister of Kaylee Goncalves, told Bryan he is “as dumb as they come,” adding that “no one thinks that you are important.”

“The truth is, you’re basic,” she said in her victim impact statement, in which she directly addressed Kohberger.

“Let me be very clear: Don’t ever try to convince yourself you matter just because someone finally said your name out loud. I see through you,” she said.

Alivea also said that Kaylee would “call you exactly what you are: sociopath, psychopath, murderer.”

“Sit up straight when I talk to you,” she said. “How was your life right before you murdered my sisters? Did you prepare for the crime before leaving your apartment? Please detail what you were thinking and feeling at the time.”

“Why did you choose my sisters? Before making your move, did you approach my sisters? Do you tell what you were thinking and feeling before leaving the home? Is there anything else you did? … Did you recently start shaving or manually pulling out your eyebrows?”

“If you were really smart, do you think you’d be here right now?”

“You want the the truth? Here’s the one you’ll hate the most: If you hadn’t attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night, like a pedophile, Kaylee would’ve kicked your fucking ass,” Alivea said to Bryan.

Xana’s family then gave their statements.

Jazzmin Kernodle described her sister as “everyone’s best friend,” a person who was kind and funny, and a “gift to each person she was able to make an impact on.”

“Yet her story was cut short by an act of evil.”

Xana’s uncle spoke about how Bryan had ‘contaminated’ the family name.

“His parents, his siblings, his friends, his universe – he has contaminated, tainted their family name and pretty much made a horrible, miserable thing to be ever related to him,” Stratton Kernodle said. “And I know that’s what he has to live with, and that has to be his pain.”

Randy Davis, Xana’s stepfather, directly addressed Bryan and called him “evil” during his victim impact statement.

“This evil thing is not going to take nothing from us,” he said, pointing at Bryan.

“I don’t know what my limits are here, but I’m really struggling dude,” Randy said, adding, “I want to be out in the woods with you just so I can teach you about loss and pain. I love God. I wouldn’t take your life. That’s up to him, but I guarantee you, you are weak.”

He told Bryan “You’re gonna go to hell” and said, “You’re evil. There’s no place for you in heaven. You took our children. You are going to suffer man. I’m shaking because I want to reach out to you … I hope you feel my energy. Ok? Go to hell.”

Xana’s mother Cara declined to share any memories of her daughter. She said to Bryan “I do not want that to be in your head.”

“You don’t deserve our good memories that we have,” she said.

Xana’s aunt Kim said to Bryan “Bryan, I am here today to tell you that I have forgiven you because I no longer could live with that hate in my heart.”

She said she is open to talking to him and invited him to reach out to her.

“I’ll be that one that will listen to you,” Kim said.

Ethan’s family declined to give a statement during court.

“Mr. Kohberger, you have an opportunity to make a statement,” Judge Steven Hippler told Bryan after the statements concluded. “I take it you are declining?”

“I respectfully decline,” Bryan said, leaning forward slightly in his chair.

Judge Steven Hippler called the murders an “unspeakable evil” and said he hopes sentencing in the case helps bring some closure to families.

On that November morning in 2022, a “faceless coward breached the tranquility of six beautiful young people and senselessly slaughtered them, four of them,” the judge said from the bench.

“Who committed this unspeakable evil was unknown for several weeks, but due to the killer’s incompetence and outstanding police work,” the person was caught “and now stands before the world and this court, unmasked.”

He said that Bryan “slithered through that sliding glass” of the house to kill the victims.

“This unfathomable and senseless act of evil has caused immeasurable pain and loss. No parent should ever have to bury their child. This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person,” he said, ahead of announcing Kohberger’s sentence.

“Parents who took their children to college in a truck filled with moving boxes had to bring them home in hearses lined with coffins,” he added.

On the burglary charge, Bryan was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

On the four counts of first-degree murder, he received fixed consecutive life sentences.

The five counts will run consecutively.

He is likely to be sent to Idaho’s only maximum-security prison, the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, which opened in 1989 to confine the state’s “most disruptive male residents.”

Addressing Bryan’s decision not to address the court at his sentencing hearing today, the judge questioned if he would ever tell the truth.

“Even if I could force him to speak, which legally I cannot, how could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth?” the judge said.

“Do we really believe after all this, he’s capable of speaking the truth or giving up something of himself to help the very people whose lives he destroyed?” he said.

Rather, the judge said, he anticipates the truth of what happened will eventually come out in a “self-serving” way, pointing to possible book or movie deals.

The judge said he believes “the time has now come to end Bryan’s 15 minutes of fame.”

After the sentencing, 300 documents were released by authorities regarding the case.

We have managed to go through them. Many of them are just routine documents, so we have picked out the main new points.

This excerpt talks about the injuries suffered – we later learn that Kaylee was unrecognizable.

This excerpt talks about someone walking past the house after the murders and the door being open. This would have been around the same time as Bryan was driving around the area.

This document is strange as it talks about Dylan seeing Kaylee awake and possibly seeing Bryan. But by all other accounts, Kaylee and Maddie were killed while asleep in their bed?

This document talks about Kaylee possibly being stalked before the murders.

It was concerning enough that Kaylee “told everyone” about it and called her roommates to ask if they’d be home soon, Bethany said in the documents.

Another document outlines a time that residents of the King Road home came home and found the door open, loose on its hinges. They grabbed golf clubs to arm themselves against a possible intruder.

This incident happened on November 4, nine days before the attack. The roommates came home at 11 a.m. to find the door open, loose on its hinges, as the wind blew. Kaylee was away at the time. Xana’s dad came to fix the door.

This document includes a strange statement about a firework from Dylan.

Graphic autopsy information was also released – reader discretion advised.

Two large cuts confirmed on the back of Ethan’s legs in later docs.

Since the documents have been released, Jennifer Coffindaffer has come out and given her thoughts on why Kaylee was so brutally attacked.

Jennifer said that she believes Bryan’s plan was to forcibly rape Maddie in her bed on the third floor.

She said that his plan was derailed after he stepped inside Maddie’s room only to find her sleeping in bed with Kaylee.

Jennifer has said she believes Maddie was the target because he went straight to her room, but he got pissed when he saw Kaylee there, making it virtually impossible for him to fulfill his twisted sexual desires.

As a result, Bryan took out his rage on Kaylee, stabbing her more than 20 times in the face until she was unrecognizable, and also strangling her.

The former FBI agent adds, “Kaylee ruined his plans on how the night would go, that’s why her face was completely disfigured.”

A woman who lived nearby told police that in either August or September 2022, she and her daughter saw a man in their yard who “looked nervous.” She said she was almost certain it was Bryan.

In the documents, there is also information about Bryan’s arrest.

The investigators wrote that they tried to make sports small-talk in the interview room with Kohberger, who was on winter break from his studies at Washington State University. Kohberger said he wasn’t into football but did like baseball, investigators wrote. He also talked “for some time” about “the beauty of the environment and its relationship to God and a higher power,” according to investigators.

But Kohberger shifted the conversation, allegedly telling authorities that he understood why they were “engaging in small talk but would appreciate it if we explained to him what he was doing there.”

When the investigators told him they were there for the Idaho quadruple homicide, they asked Kohberger if he knew about the case, to which they said he allegedly responded “of course.”

Interviews with other inmates who have interacted with Bryan were also released in the documents.

An inmate housed next to Bryan at the Latah County Jail in Idaho described him as the most intelligent person he’d met while incarcerated but that he also “quickly became annoying” because of his unusual habits, according to investigators.

Bryan would wash his hands dozens of times a day and spend 45 minutes in the shower, the inmate told police. He also annoyed the inmate by not sleeping and moving around nearly all night and then napping during the day, according to a police report of the interview.

A woman who matched with Bryan on Tinder was also interviewed by authorities.

She told investigators that she had communicated with Bryan and they had planned to meet up.

She said their conversation came to horror movies, which led to Bryan asking her what she thought would be the worst way to die, according to investigators. She said a stabbing. Bryan responded, she told police, by asking her about a Ka-Bar brand knife — the same type investigators say Bryan purchased before the murders and likely used.

“She eventually stopped talking to Kohberger because his questions made her uncomfortable,” investigators wrote.

A teaching assistant who shared an office with Bryan told police that he was ‘intelligent but selfish.’

He also said Bryan “began to talk much more than usual” after the homicides.

The teaching assistant said Bryan“attempted to use his authority as a TA to inappropriately interact with female students,” noting that “they talked about Bryan wanting a girlfriend on many occasions.”