Bryan Kohberger is expected to spend the rest of his life at Idaho Maximum Security Institution after pleading guilty to four counts of murder.
The criminology PhD student entered a plea agreement with prosecutors, admitting to the murders of Ethan Chapin, 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21, while they were asleep in their home in November 2022.
This agreement spares him from the death penalty, resulting in a life sentence without the possibility of parole or appeal.
He is likely to be transferred out of maximum security at Ada County jail and into Idaho Maximum Security Institution after his sentencing hearing on July 23.
The prison, which has been open since 1989, is home to the state’s ‘most disruptive male residents’ and violent offenders, according to the facility’s website.
The double perimeter fence surrounding the prison is reinforced with razor wire and an electronic detection system, along with a 24 hour armed patrol to ensure prisoners cannot escape.
It holds a capacity if 549 inmates at any given time, including a dedicated section for mental health offenders.
The prison offers restrictive housing beds, disciplinary detention and is the state’s death row facility.
Bryan Kohberger is likely to spend the remainder of his days inside Idaho Maximum Security Institution (pictured) after he pleaded guilty to four counts of murder
The criminology PhD student struck a deal with prosecutors in which he admitted to killing Ethan Chapin , 20, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21, in their home as they slept in November 2022
It is situated in Kuna, Idaho – part of the greater Boise region and a six-hour flight away from his family, who live on the other side of the country in Pennsylvania.
Notorious triple murderer Chad Daybell is one of eight prisoners on death row living in the facility.
Daybell murdered his first wife Tammy, along with the two children of his second wife, Lori Vallow.
Goncalves’ family, who are distraught about Kohberger’s plea deal, expressed concerns earlier this week that he will capitalize on his crime by writing a book and chatting publicly about the horror mass-stabbing now that he’s been spared death.
‘We have a killer who wants a show, and they just gave him one,’ Kaylee’s father Steve said of the former criminology student.
Kohberger’s team contacted prosecutors to ask about a plea deal last week as his defense – including claims of an ‘alternate perpetrator’ – fell apart.
He spoke calmly during his plea hearing Wednesday, answering ‘yes’ as he was asked plainly whether he murdered the four students.
Investigators had long claimed that Kohberger broke into the off-campus home and stabbed to death Mogen and Goncalves, before then killing Kernodle and Chapin.
Kohberger’s apartment and office were scrubbed clean when investigators searched them, and his car had been ‘pretty much disassembled internally’, prosecuting attorney Bill Thompson told the plea hearing Wednesday.
Kohberger has now admitted to the world that he did murder Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin , 20, on November 13, 2022
This extraordinary selfie taken hours after the murders shows Kohberger smirking and offering a ‘thumbs up’ to the camera
He also changed his car registration to Washington State after the four killings.
FBI agents were able to link Kohberger to the killings after collecting DNA samples from the garbage outside his parents’ Pennsylvania home, where he was living at the time.
Investigators determined that DNA left on a Q-Tip belonged to the father of the person who left DNA on the knife sheath found at the crime scene.
‘The defendant has studied crime,’ Thompson told the court. ‘In fact, he did a detailed paper on crime scene processing when he was working on his PhD, and he had that knowledge skillset.’
Judge Steven Hippler accepted Kohberger’s plea and said he will be sentenced at Ada County Court on July 23 at 9am local time (11am EST).
‘The trial will be vacated and the jury commissioner will get words to those who were summoned that they won’t be required to attend,’ Hippler added.
Documents in the court file won’t be unsealed until after sentencing.
