Outraged family members of the slain University of Idaho students said they will fight the plea deal accepted by Bryan Kohberger that puts him behind bars for life — but spares him from the firing squad.
“Idaho has failed. They failed me. They failed my whole family,” Steve Goncalves, father of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the four roommates stabbed to death at their home in November 2022, told NBC’s “Today” Show.
Just five weeks before Kohberger was supposed to go to trial for killing Kaylee, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Steve Goncalves said the family was stunned on Monday when they learned hat the alleged murderer had apparently accepted a plea deal.
Khoberger, who previously claimed he was innocent, will avoid the possibility of the death penalty in exchange for confessing to the slayings and spending the rest of his life in prison, according to the Idaho Statesman, citing a letter sent to the victims’ families.
Xana Kernodle’s aunt, Kim Kernodle, told TMZ the the prosecution wanted to “spare the families” the pain of going to trial and reliving the grisly details of the quadruple homicide.
Both the Kernodle family and the Goncalves both wanted Kohberger to stand trial and face the weight of evidence of his crimes, she said.
“We know the graphics. They were not trying to spare us,” Kernodle said.
Kim said prosecutors told her there was enough evidence to secure a guilty verdict if they were to go to trial.
The Goncalves family in a statement said they had told prosecutors that offering Kohberger the deal was a “HARD NO from our family.”
But days later the state moved forward anyway, avoiding a trial altogether.
“They told us it’s not really about us, it’s about their process. Just shut up and get on board and deal with it, that’s really what they told us,” Steve Goncalves said on “TODAY,” describing a later meeting with prosecutors.
Kaylee Goncalves’ 18-year-old sister Aubrie raged in an online post that the “introduction of this plea deal, just weeks before the scheduled trial, is both shocking and cruel,” Aubrie wrote.
“The system,” she said, “has failed these four innocent victims and their families.”
Goncalves and Kernodle said a hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, where Kohberger is expected to ask a judge to accept the deal.
The families will push the judge to delay making a decision, Kim said.
“It’s my daughter. It’s our children. How can you say it’s just when you haven’t even talked to us to see what justice looks like for us?” Steve Goncalves said.
However, one family is supporting the deal. Ethan’s mother, Stacy Chapin, told KHQ-TV that the family would be in court on Wednesday “in support of the plea bargain.”
