Some people just need killing. Bryan Kohberger is one of them.
Instead, thanks to a controversial plea deal, Kohberger was sentenced on Wednesday to four consecutive life terms — one each for the savage murders of college students Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21 — with no chance for parole.
Is this justice? Depends who you ask.
Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, said the deal ‘wasn’t justice’.
The Goncalves family had long been vocal about wanting a trial and the death penalty, which likely would have had Kohberger killed by firing squad — and said the state of Idaho had ‘failed us’ and that they were ‘beyond furious’.
Steve Goncalves also said that prosecutors told him Kaylee had been stabbed more than 30 times.
‘It was horrific what Kaylee went through’, he said outside of court. She had, he said, ‘quite a bit of damage to her face.’
Kohberger may never say why, may never give up a motive, but it seems obvious: driven by rage at young, beautiful, happy girls who would never give him the time of day.
Some people just need killing. Bryan Kohberger is one of them.
Instead, thanks to a controversial plea deal, Kohberger was sentenced on Wednesday to four consecutive life terms – one each for the savage murders of college students Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen – with no chance for parole.
So let him keep what he thinks is his sick little secret. We could all see it on his face in court — the lack of shame, remorse, or even self-pity.
Kohberger is likely proud of what he’s done, while the rest of the world sees him for what he is: a pathetic shell of a psychopath pretending to be human.
Xana’s father, Jeff Kernodle, told the New York Times in a statement that he was against the plea deal – in part because it did not require Kohberger to provide details of the crime or motive.
‘I do not agree with this outcome and expressed my concerns before the deal was negotiated,’ Kernodle said. ‘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.’
The Mogen family, however, was relieved to avoid a trial.
Chapin’s parents also approved of the plea deal, with Ethan’s father Jim saying that when he learned about it, ‘If I could physically do a handstand at that time, I would probably do one. Because I am so ready for it to be done.’
Yet it’s hard not regard this plea deal as a true failure of the system. Of a police department so small and inexperienced they initially told the public that the killings were targeted before contradicting themselves, days later, with Moscow Police Chief Jason Fry announcing, ‘We cannot say there is no threat to the community’ — prompting droves of college students to flee.
But it’s the FBI who may be at most to blame here.
As weeks went by with no suspect and no theory of the crime, the FBI — clearly desperate — resorted to running the DNA on a knife sheath left behind through two private, commercial databases: GEDmatch and MyHeritage.
Now, does that seem like a big deal when a mass murderer is on the loose, and the only clue is DNA not found in criminal databases meant for law enforcement?
The moral answer is no. But the legal answer is much more complicated, and had Kohberger gone to trial — even though the judge in this case ruled the DNA admissible — his lawyers could have filed a solid appeal based on the ‘fruit of the poisonous tree’ doctrine, or evidence obtained illegally.
If this is the real reason that prosecutors moved for a plea deal, we all deserve to know.
Because it doesn’t seem as if this prosecution was coming from a place of strength.
In fact, lead prosecutor Bill Thompson made a spectacle of himself in court on Wednesday, delivering his closing as if through tears.
It was completely undignified. Thompson’s self-serving theatrics were grotesque.
The same holds true for Judge Steven Hippler, who delivered the agreed-upon sentence with a tremulous voice and far too much emotion.
That’s not the job. Not since Judge Ito lorded over the OJ trial as if it were the role of a lifetime have such disgusting histrionics been needlessly injected into proceedings.
In rending their garments — rather than delivering cold, clinical justice that would starve Kohberger of satisfaction —Hippler and Thompson insulted the victims, their families and survivor Dylan Mortensen.
Only 19 at the time of the murders, Mortensen pushed through sobs and near-hyperventilation to explain her torment as Kohberger sat just feet away, expressionless.
‘I was barely 19 when he did this,’ Mortensen said. ‘I had to sleep in my mom’s bed because I was too terrified to close my eyes. Terrified that if I blinked, someone might be there. I made escape plans everywhere I went. If something happens, how do I get out? What can I use to defend myself? Who can help?’
She went on to describe her ongoing PTSD, her body ‘reliving everything over and over again. My nervous system never got the message that it is over, and it won’t let me forget what he did to them.’
Firing squad.
But no — unless Kohberger gets the kind of prison justice meted out to Jeffrey Dahmer (one can hope), he will live out his days fielding calls from Netflix and podcasts and maybe even working with his one-time criminal professor on a book, despite Judge Hippler declaring, with unearned certainty, that this sentence marks the end of Kohberger’s ’15 minutes of fame’.
Lead prosecutor Bill Thompson (pictured) made a spectacle of himself in court on Wednesday, delivering his closing as if through tears. It was completely undignified. Thompson’s self-serving theatrics were grotesque.
How infuriating to watch this prosecution team and judge act as if they had just delivered the harshest punishment possible — the end of infamy! — when they failed.
When the harshest punishment possible would have been the death penalty.
Hippler, it turned out, had one more legal note after that display, telling Kohberger that he could still file a notice of appeal.
And Kohberger, in that moment, finally expressed emotion, however faint. He smirked.
How’s that for justice?
