More than a year after the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students, Bryan Kohberger faced sentencing Wednesday in a Boise courtroom, but offered no explanation for his actions.
The 30-year-old former criminology PhD student was handed four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the November 2022 killings of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
He was also sentenced to 10 years for burglary and ordered to pay nearly $290,000 in restitution to the victims’ families.
As families and survivors sat in the courtroom waiting for answers, Kohberger was given the opportunity to speak. Rising slightly from his seat, he delivered just three words: “I respectfully decline.”
Judge Steven Hippler, who oversaw the hearing, addressed the moment directly. “The more we struggle to seek explanation for the unexplainable, the more power and control we give to him,” Hippler said, per Fox News. “In my view, the time has now come to end Mr. Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame.”
Kohberger had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder earlier this month, avoiding a death sentence through a plea agreement.
Prosecutors said he broke into the students’ off-campus home in the early hours of November 13, 2022, and used a military-style Ka-Bar knife to carry out the attack, BBC News detailed.
Investigators believe he began by killing Mogen and Goncalves in an upstairs bedroom before moving to the main floor to stab Kernodle and Chapin. All four students were found dead in their beds.
The crime shocked the nation and prompted a lengthy investigation that led authorities to Kohberger, a graduate student at nearby Washington State University.
In a press conference following the sentencing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the families' grief, saying (via NBC News): “We are so sorry for the pain and the grief you have experienced at the hands of such a vicious and evil killer. Our nation grieves with you.”
She added: “If it were up to President Trump, he would have forced this monster to publicly explain why he chose to steal these innocent souls.”
Leavitt concluded her remarks by honoring the victims and offering condolences to their parents: “May God bless everyone affected by this unimaginable tragedy, especially the parents who lost their children.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors requested that the court extend the no-contact orders barring Kohberger from communicating with the victims’ families.
Those orders currently expire in January 2027, but prosecutors are seeking to lengthen them by an additional 99 years to protect the families from future harassment or trauma.