The man accused of stabbing four students from the University of Idaho to death agreed in court to the plea agreement his legal team reached with prosecutors.
The judge asked Bryan Kohberger, “Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” to which the defendant answered, “Yes.”
After a description of the crime was read into the record by the prosecution, the judge asked Kohberger for his plea on each of the counts.
Prosecutor Bill Thompson said investigators were able use Kohberger’s cell phone to give a timeline of the stabbings, The Associated Press reported. Thompson said he came in through the back door of the home, killing Madison Mogen first, The Associated Press reported.
He then killed Kaylee Goncalves. As he left her room, he ran into Xana Kernodle, who was getting a DoorDash order, and killed her and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, who was asleep in his bed.
Kohberger left the sheath of the knife in Mogen’s room. The sheath contained a single source of DNA that matched Kohberger.
Earlier this week, Kohberger said he would plead guilty to the murders of Goncalves, Chapin, Kernodle and Mogen.
He was charged with their murders as well as burglary.
Kohberger agreed to a life sentence for each of the murder charges and 10 years for the burglary charge, which will run consecutively. A mandatory minimum sentence for the murder charges was 10 years each. He also faces civil judgments as additional punishment.
The court is not bound by the agreement, the judge said.
Sentencing will happen on July 23, the AP reported.
The victims’ families sat together in the courtroom, which was packed with about 100 people, the AP reported.
The families were divided on the plea agreement with Chapin’s mother and father, Stacy and Jim Chapin, supporting it, while Goncalves’ family is against it.
[ Bryan Kohberger guilty plea: Victims’ families react ]
The plea agreement takes the death penalty off the table. Kohberger now faced life in prison with the plea and no ability to appeal.
Judge Steven Hippler, who is overseeing the hearing, said that the emails and phone messages that he received before the proceedings were inappropriate and that he would not be influenced by outside parties, the AP reported.
“Court is not supposed to, and this court will never, take into account public sentiment in making an opinion regarding its judicial decisions in cases. I always will make decisions based on where the facts and the law lead me, period,” Hippler said.
Kohberger’s trial was scheduled to start next month.