Family Of Idaho Murder Victim Outraged At Plea Deal With Bryan Kohberger Without Their Input

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Baila Eve ZismanJuly 1, 2025, 4:45 pmNews >

The family of the Idaho murder victim, Kaylee Goncalves, has expressed their disgust with Bryan Kohberger’s guilty plea deal.

In November 2022, Kohberger stabbed four off-campus Idaho students – Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin – to death. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary that December. In May 2023, he was indicted by a grand jury, following which a judge entered not-guilty pleas on his behalf, as he remained silent during his arraignment. In August 2023, the case was delayed indefinitely, and the trial was pushed to August 2025.

Last month it was announced by the Goncalves family via Facebook that prosecutors had introduced a plea deal “without seeking our input.” When the family made their opposition clear, they received an email saying the deal would be moving forward regardless.

The plea deal would allow Kohberger to escape the death penalty.

In an NBC Today Show interview that aired on July 1, Goncalves’ father, Steve, shared his disgust with the deal: “Idaho has failed. They failed me. They failed my whole family…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 continued, “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.”

Goncalves’ sister, Aubrie, also voiced her anger, posting a lengthy message to Facebook on June 30, in which she declared, “What the families of Ethan, Kaylee, Maddie, and Xana have endured over the past 2 year and a half is beyond comprehension…Through it all, we have tried to hold on to hope. We’ve believed in the process. We’ve had faith in the system. But at this point, it is impossible not to acknowledge the truth: the system has failed these four innocent victims and their families.”

Aubrie continued, “The introduction of this plea deal, just weeks before the scheduled trial, is both shocking and cruel. Had this proposal come a year and a half ago, the families could have had time to process, discuss, and potentially come to terms with the idea of a life sentence, however difficult that may be. We could have had the time to understand it, to prepare for it emotionally, and perhaps even to find some degree of peace. But now, with mere weeks left, we are being asked to absorb and respond to life-altering decisions with no room to breathe.”

She declared, “The justice system was created to serve and protect—not to retraumatize grieving families. And yet, time and time again, we find ourselves blindsided, unheard, and unsupported. This last-minute plea deal feels less like an act of justice and more like an afterthought.”

“We are not asking for vengeance. We are asking for accountability. We are asking for dignity for our loved ones. And we are asking—pleading—for a justice system that truly lives up to its name,” Aubrie concluded.