Bryan Kohberger updates: Judge sentences Idaho killer to life, 1st police reports released
Bryan Kohberger declined to speak at the sentencing hearing.
Families of the University of Idaho murder victims directly addressed the admitted killer, Bryan Kohberger, at his sentencing on Wednesday.
One of the surviving roommates also gave an emotional statement, speaking out for the first time.
Judge Steven Hippler acknowledged Kohberger's motive may never be known as he sentenced him to four consecutive life sentences on the four first-degree murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count.
The students -- roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, and Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin -- were stabbed to death at the girls' off-campus house on Nov. 13, 2022. On July 2, weeks before the trial was set to start, Kohberger pleaded guilty to all counts. As a part of the plea deal, the death penalty was taken off the table.
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Maddie Mogen's grandma: 'Foundation fell out of our world'
Maddie Mogen’s grandmother Kim Cheeley said in court that, after her murder, the “foundation fell out of our world.”
“Initially the fear was truly debilitating,” she said, and after Bryan Kohberger's arrest, her family has lived “with the effects of traumatic grief.”
Cheeley said she’s experienced depression and anxiety and has tried to cope with grief classes and EMDR therapy.
She said she's grateful her own mother died several months before Mogen was killed so she did not live through "the horror."
Maddie Mogen's stepdad: 'Evil does not deserve our time and attention'
Scott Laramie, victim Maddie Mogen's stepdad, read a statement on behalf of himself and Karen Laramie, Mogen's mom, as Bryan Kohberger, wearing orange jail clothing, looked on.
“Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie. Maddie was taken senselessly and brutally in a sudden act of evil,” Laramie said.
“Since Maddie’s loss, there’s emptiness in our hearts, home and family -- an endless void,” he said.
Laramie said Mogen’s mom suffered from anxiety and depression after her daughter’s death, unsure how to go on.
"We support the plea agreement. Society needs to be protected against this evil. As for the defendant, we will not waste the words, nor will we fall into hatred and bitterness. ... Evil does not deserve our time and attention," Laramie said. "We are done being victims. We will take back our lives."
Surviving roommate calls Kohberger 'less than human'
Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen addressed Bryan Kohberger in court, calling him a "hollow vessel, something less than human -- a body without empathy, without remorse."
"He tried to take everything from me: my friends, my safety, my identity, my future," she said. "He took their lives, but I will continue trying to be like them, to make them proud. Living is how I honor them."
Surviving roommate: 'He took away my ability to trust the world'
Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen spoke in court through tears, saying, “He didn’t just take their lives, he took the light they carried into every room.”
“He took away my ability to trust the world around me” and “shattered me in places I didn’t know could break,” she said.
“I was barely 19 when he did this. We had just celebrated my birthday at the end of September. I should’ve been figuring out who I was. I should’ve been figuring out the college experience … instead I was forced to learn how to survive the unimaginable. I couldn’t be left alone. I had to sleep in my mom’s room because I was too terrified to close my eyes,” she said.
Mortensen recalled intense panic attacks and flinching at sudden sounds. “Sometimes I drop to the floor with my heart racing convinced something is very wrong. … It’s my body reliving everything over and over again,” she said.