One victim’s aunt urged the killer to call her and answer her questions. Another’s sister demanded to know her sibling’s last words. Even the White House said President Donald Trump would have forced the killer to explain. Instead, Bryan Kohberger is taking those details to prison with him.
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Cara Northington, mother of victim Xana Kernodle wipes a tear at the sentencing hearing of Bryan Kohberger at the Ada County Courthouse, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse, for his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. A private security officer sits in a vehicle, Jan. 3, 2023, in front of the house in Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students were killed in November, 2022. Bill Thompson, the county prosecutor who tried Bryan Kohberger for the murders of four University of Idaho students, reflects on the case, including a lack of known motive after the plea deal.Cara Northington, mother of victim Xana Kernodle wipes a tear at the sentencing hearing of Bryan Kohberger at the Ada County Courthouse, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. Cara Northington, mother of victim Xana Kernodle wipes a tear at the sentencing hearing of Bryan Kohberger at the Ada County Courthouse, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse, for his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse, for his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. A private security officer sits in a vehicle, Jan. 3, 2023, in front of the house in Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students were killed in November, 2022. A private security officer sits in a vehicle, Jan. 3, 2023, in front of the house in Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students were killed in November, 2022. and answer her questions. Another’s sister demanded to know her sibling’s last words. Even the White House weighed in, saying President Donald Trump “would have forced this monster to publicly explain why he chose to steal these innocent souls.”The plea deal that spared Kohberger’s life required him to admit the elements of the crimes he committed, but it didn’t force him to provide a narrative or say why he did it. That has raised questions about whether prosecutors could have or should have insisted on a full confession — including motive — as a condition of the deal. “Rarely does somebody in his situation give an accurate, true statement of what occurred,” Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said in an interview Thursday. “We would all like to know the details of what happened, but Mr. Kohberger is not going to be the source of getting the truth.”In their words: Families of slain students share emotions at Bryan Kohberger’s sentencingbrutal stabbing murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — four students with whom he had no apparent connection. Hippler suggested in court that he too wanted to know why Kohberger did it, but he cautioned against continuing to wonder. “By continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr. Kohberger relevance, we give him agency and we give him power,” the judge said. “The need to know what is inherently not understandable makes us dependent upon the defendant to provide us with a reason, and that gives him the spotlight, the attention and the power he appears to crave.” Plea deals typically require defendants to admit the elements of the offense and sometimes to provide a factual basis to support those elements. Prosecutors can also require defendants to provide testimony against co-defendants or give other cooperation. In some cases, they can require defendants to admit to crimes that couldn’t otherwise be proved. Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, who terrorized the Seattle area in the 1980s, had to give a full accounting of his criminal activities and lead investigators to previously undiscovered bodies before prosecutors took the death penalty off the table.But — whether in front of a jury or as part of a plea agreement — prosecutors don’t have to prove motive to obtain a conviction. “Motive is something that we really want to know as humans, but it’s not legally a part of the crime,” said Mary D. Fan, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at the University of Washington Law School. The Goncalves family criticized the agreement, saying the case should have gone to trial or that any deal should at least have required a full confession and the location of the murder weapon.“There’s no one way to respond adaptively to a horrific experience like this, other than to honor what one feels like they need in order to restore a sense of safety or equilibrium,” said Dr. Patricia Harney, who teaches psychology at Harvard Medical School and who lost her own boyfriend in an unsolved stabbing in the late 1980s.“What underlies that is a desire to have some way to make sense of something that is so senseless,” she said.Anna Cominsky, director of the criminal defense clinic at New York Law School, said it was reasonable for the public to want to understand, as well. “This is all of our worst nightmare,” she said. But she doesn’t think that by wondering about a motive people are necessarily giving Kohberger power. “It’s hard to argue at this point that the defendant has any power, given that he will now be serving the rest of his life in prison,” Cominsky said. “That said, he had a lot of power, unfortunately, over those four victims.”Boone is a correspondent who covers breaking news, the courts, accountability issues and more for The Associated Press. She is based in Boise, Idaho.Charges dropped against more than 120 defendants in Massachusetts because they can’t get attorney
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