In a recent development in the case of Bryan Kohberger, the convicted murderer of four Idaho students, his legal team has petitioned the court to relieve him from paying approximately $27,000 to the families of two of the victims. Kohberger, a former criminology Ph.D. student, is challenging these payments on the grounds that the families have already received substantial financial support through GoFundMe donations from sympathizers across the nation.
As part of Kohberger’s plea agreement, he consented to paying over $250,000 in criminal fines and fees, in addition to $20,000 in civil judgments per family. These payments are intended for the parents of the victims: Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
However, Kohberger’s attorneys argue against additional payments of approximately $20,000 to Kaylee Goncalves’ parents and nearly $7,000 to Madison Mogen’s mother, Karen Laramie. These amounts were requested by the prosecution to cover travel and accommodation expenses related to the case.
Kohberger was seen at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, during his sentencing hearing on July 23, 2025. He had pleaded guilty in a deal that spared him the death penalty for the brutal stabbings of four University of Idaho students, a crime that shocked the nation nearly three years ago. (Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images)
In their court filing, lawyers Anne Taylor, Elisa Massoth, and Bicka Barlow argued, “The additional funds sought do not qualify as an economic loss under Idaho Code 19-5304 because Steve and Kristi Goncalves and Karen Laramie received extensive funds through multiple GoFundMe campaigns that specifically asked for and covered the expenses sought.”
Read the court filing:
They later wrote that “Mr. Kohberger has no ability now or in the future to pay restitution because he is serving four consecutive life sentences plus 10 years.”
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
Across three fundraisers outlined in the court filing, donors gave $73,493 in one campaign for both Goncalves and Mogen, $48,815 so Laramie could attend Kohberger’s case in person, and $85,583 to Steve and Kristi Goncalves and their surviving children for the same purpose.
This still image taken from surveillance video of an Albertson’s supermarket in Lewiston, Washington, shows Bryan Kohberger shopping hours after the Idaho student murders. (Moscow Police Department)
Kohberger pleaded guilty to the November 2022 murders in July, weeks before he would have gone to trial after denying the charges for more than two years.
The deal spared him the death penalty in exchange for forfeiting his right to appeal or seek a sentence reduction.
