Love for murdered Idaho students and condemnation for Bryan Kohberger mark his sentencing

BOISE Idaho AP Friends and relatives of four University of Idaho students murdered in their rental home by Bryan Kohberger delivered powerful statements of love anguish and condemnation as his sentencing hearing began Wednesday This world was a better place with her in it Scott Laramie the stepfather of Madison Mogen narrated the court Karen and I are ordinary people but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie The father of Kaylee Goncalves taunted Kohberger for leaving his DNA behind and getting caught despite being a graduate attendee in criminology at nearby Washington State University at the time You were that careless that foolish that stupid Steve Goncalves announced Master s degree You re a joke Judge Steven Hippler was expected to order Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for the brutal stabbing deaths of Mogen Goncalves Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin early on Nov The defendant pleaded guilty early this month just weeks before his trial was to start in a deal to avoid the death penalty Kohberger broke into the home through a kitchen sliding door and brutally stabbed the four friends who appeared to have no connection with him No motive has been offered though Kohberger was to be given an opportunity to speak later in the hearing Dylan Mortenson a roommate who recounted police of seeing a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask in the home that night sobbed as she described how Kohberger seated across the room in an orange jumpsuit took the light they carried into each room He is a hollow vessel something less than human Mortenson announced A body without empathy without remorse Mortenson and another surviving roommate Bethany Funke described crippling panic attacks and anxiety after the attack I slept in my parents room for almost a year and had them double lock every door set an alarm and still check everywhere in the room just in affair someone was hiding Funke wrote in a report read by a friend I have not slept through a single night since this happened I constantly wake up in panic terrified someone is emerging in or someone is here to hurt me or I m about to lose someone else that I love Alivea Goncalves s voice didn t waver as she inquired Kohberger questions about the killings including what her sister s last words were She drew applause after belittling Kohberger who remained expressionless as she insulted him You didn t win you just exposed yourself as the coward you are Alivea Goncalves commented You re a delusional pathetic hypochondriac loser Kohberger s mother and sister also attended the hearing sitting in the gallery near the defense table His mother quietly wept at times as the other parents described their grief She sobbed briefly when Maddie Mogen s grandmother disclosed that her heart goes out to the other families including Kohberger s Police initially had no persons in the killings which terrified the rural western Idaho city of Moscow Specific students at both universities left mid-semester taking the rest of their classes online because they felt unsafe A knife sheath left near Mogen s body had a single source of male DNA on the button snap investigators stated and surveillance videos proved a white Hyundai Elantra near the rental home around the time of the murders Police used genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a realizable suspect and accessed cellphone facts to pinpoint his movements the night of the killings Online shopping records established Kohberger had purchased a military-style knife months earlier along with a sheath like the one at the home Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania about six weeks after the killings Both the inspection and the situation drew widespread attention Discussion groups proliferated online members eagerly sharing their theories and questions about the matter A few armchair web-sleuths pointed fingers at innocent people purely because they knew the casualties or lived in the same town Misinformation spread piling additional distress on the already-traumatized region Source