(23 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Boise, Idaho — 23 July 2025
1. Wide exterior of Ada County Courthouse building
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Raúl Labrador, Idaho Attorney General:
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"There is no sentence that can bring true justice for this kind of evil. Nothing we do today can undo the heartache or fill the empty chairs of family tables. But today’s sentencing ensures one thing, that the perpetrator will never again walk free. In fact, he will never harm another family."
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Bill Thompson, Prosecutor, Latah County Prosecutor’s Office:
"As I said in court today, we reached out to the families, we asked their thoughts, we listened to what they had to say. We accept and recognize that not everybody agrees with the decision we made, but this isn’t a popularity contest. And we made what we thought was the most appropriate decision under the law and on the facts to give this case closure in a sense it would never be realized otherwise."
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STORYLINE:
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador acknowledged that nothing would bring “true justice” for the “evil” of Bryan Kohberger’s murderous attack on four University of Idaho students. But he endorsed the sentence handed down by the court.
“Today’s sentencing ensures one thing: That the perpetrator will never again walk free,” Labrador said Wednesday. “In fact, he will never harm another family.”
Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for four counts of first-degree murder in the brutal stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin early on Nov. 13, 2022.
He was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed $270,000 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 defense attorneys had agreed on the sentence.
Prosecutor Bill Thompson has defended the plea deal.
At least one family has blasted the deal as a “shortcut” that didn’t constitute justice.
Thompson said that all perspectives were considered before Kohberger was offered the deal that led to his being sentenced to life in prison.
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 Wednesday, he told the judge, “I respectfully decline."
The judge acknowledged that the motive may never be known.
Investigators told reporters after the hearing that exhaustive efforts failed to find the murder weapon or any connection between Kohberger and the students.
Law enforcement confirmed their belief that the location of the murders wasn’t random.
"The evidence suggests that there was a reason that this particular house was chosen. What the reason is, we don’t know," Brett Payne, Corporal, Moscow Police Department, said at the news conference.
They speculated that the location might have been strategically chosen because it allowed Kohberger to "hide in plain sight" since it is an area with a lot of college students who are often outside late at night.
AP video shot by Manuel Valdes
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