Friends and family members of the four University of Idaho students, who were killed in their rental house by Bryan Kohberger, expressed deep emotions of love, sorrow, and criticism as the court sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole possibility.

“This world was a better place with her in it,” Scott Laramie, the stepfather of Madison Mogen, told the court.

“Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie.”

Kaylee Goncalves’ father ridiculed Kohberger for leaving his DNA on a knife sheath near Mogen’s body, highlighting how he was apprehended despite being a criminology graduate student at the nearby Washington State University.

“You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid,” Steve Goncalves said.

“Master’s degree? You’re a joke.”

Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four life terms without parole for the first-degree murder charges in the devastating stabbing deaths of Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin on November 13, 2022.

He was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed US$270,000 ($409,134) in fines and civil penalties. He has waived his right to appeal.

The defendant pleaded guilty early this month, just weeks before his trial was to start, in a deal to avoid the death penalty, and the prosecutors and defence attorneys had agreed on the sentence.

Kohberger broke into the home through a kitchen sliding door and brutally stabbed the four friends. It remains unclear why Kohberger did it. When given an opportunity to speak, he told the judge, “I respectfully decline.”

The judge acknowledged that the motive may never be known.

“I share the desire expressed by others to understand the why,” Hippler said.

“But upon reflection, it seems to me, and this is just my own opinion, that by continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr Kohberger relevance, we give him agency, and we give him power.”

Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson told the court before the sentencing that Kohberger would be led away in his orange jumpsuit with his wrists and ankles shackled, and that the prison door would close behind him forever. “That is the closure we seek,” he said.

Investigators told reporters after the hearing that exhaustive efforts failed to find the murder weapon or any connection between Kohberger and the students.

The in-court statements ranged from accounts of terror and anxiety to expressions of profound love, loss and fury.

Dylan Mortenson, a roommate who told police of seeing a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask in the home that night, sobbed as she described how Kohberger “took the light they carried into each room.”

“He is a hollow vessel, something less than human,” Mortenson said.

“A body without empathy without remorse.”

Mortenson and another surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, described crippling panic attacks after the attack.

“I slept in my parents’ room for almost a year, and had them double lock every door, set an alarm, and still check everywhere in the room just in case someone was hiding,” Funke wrote in a statement read by a friend.

“I have not slept through a single night since this happened. I constantly wake up in panic, terrified someone is breaking in or someone is here to hurt me, or I’m about to lose someone else that I love.”

Alivea Goncalves’s voice didn’t waver as she asked Kohberger questions, including what her sister’s last words were. She drew applause after belittling Kohberger, who remained expressionless.

“You didn’t win, you just exposed yourself as the coward you are,” Alivea Goncalves said.

“You’re a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser.”

Kohberger’s mother and sister sat in the gallery near the defence table. His mother quietly wept at times as the other parents described their grief. She sobbed briefly when Maddie Mogen’s grandmother said that her heart goes out to the other families, including Kohberger’s.

Xana Kernodle’s aunt, Kim Kernodle, said she forgave Kohberger and asked him to call her from prison, hoping he would answer her lingering questions about the killings.

“Bryan, I’m here today to tell you I have forgiven you, because I no longer could live with that hate in my heart,” she said.

“And for me to become a better person, I have forgiven you. And any time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number. I’m here. No judgment.”

Police initially had no suspects, which terrified the rural western Idaho city of Moscow. Some students took the rest of their classes online because they felt unsafe.

Authorities used surveillance videos, genetic genealogy, cellphone data and online shopping records for a a military-style knife and a sheath to tie Kohberger to the murders.