'A narcissist': Victim's family hits out at Kohberger for challenging murder conviction
The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the four University of Idaho students killed in November 2022, denounced Bryan Kohberger as a narcissist after he moved to withdraw his guilty plea. Kohberger was sentenced last year to four consecutive life terms for the stabbing deaths of Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen at an off‑campus residence in Moscow, Idaho.
In recent remarks to the New York Times, Kohberger said he was retracting the plea that had been entered to avoid the death penalty, describing it as resting on “false promises and blatant disinformation.” He also declared his intention to enter a not‑guilty plea, maintaining his innocence and offering prosecutors an alternative path to pursue capital punishment if they wished.
The Goncalves household responded sharply. “He chose not to permission his destiny - oregon the facts of the lawsuit - to a jury,” a family representative stated. They added, “He ne’er cried foul, ne’er claimed helium was uninformed oregon pressured, and ne’er suggested determination were problems with the find materials helium and his counsel had reviewed for 2 years that should person been challenged.”
The family contended that the real tragedy lies in the amount of attention Kohberger continues to receive at the expense of the victims. “the existent tragedy was the magnitude of attraction that Kohberger was present receiving astatine the disbursal of the victims,” they said.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador expressed sympathy for the families, noting they had “already endured unimaginable nonaccomplishment and present indispensable look today's profoundly achy news.” He affirmed, “My bureau stands acceptable to bash immoderate is indispensable to guarantee justness is afloat carried out.”
Kohberger, a former criminology doctoral student at Washington State University, never disclosed a motive to the court. Investigators presented evidence placing him at the crime scene but could not establish a direct link to the victims. The killings shocked the small college town and dominated national headlines for roughly two months before his arrest.
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