The Latest: Bryan Kohberger to plead guilty in University of Idaho stabbings

Bryan Kohberger is expected to appear in court Wednesday to plead guilty to murder in the fatal stabbing of four University of Idaho students in 2022.
He agreed to the plea deal just weeks before his trial was to begin to avoid the death penalty, which prosecutors had said they intended to pursue.
Kohberger, 30, has been charged with killing Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. The northern Idaho farming community of about 25,000 people was rocked by the killings and hadn’t seen a homicide in about five years.
Here’s the latest:
About an hour before Kohberger was set to plead guilty, the family of Ethan Chapin, a 20-year-old freshman killed that night, walked into the courthouse.
Ethan’s mother, Stacy Chapin, and father, Jim Chapin, support the plea deal, their spokesperson said Tuesday.
Family members of the other slain students, including relatives of victim Kaylee Goncalves, began filing in afterward.
▶ More about the victims
Long before the sun rose on Wednesday morning, television reporters from across the country quietly set up cameras outside the courthouse in Boise, Idaho, sipping energy drinks and greeting one another.
Reporters and true crime enthusiasts seeking a place in the courtroom began to trickle in as early as 2 a.m. MT — nine hours before the hearing would actually begin.
The group grew to some 40 people by 8 a.m., when they were let into the building, chattering about the case.
The hearing is set to begin at 11 a.m. local time.
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This item has been corrected to show that the hearing is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. local time, not 11 p.m.
The family of Kaylee Goncalves says it opposes any deal that would take the death penalty off the table. Prosecutors stressed in a letter to victims’ families, obtained by ABC News, that they had met with available family members last week before extending the offer.
Idaho, among other states, guarantees crime victims the right to communicate with prosecutors. This right largely means being kept informed and participating as a case proceeds — but it does not give victims or their families the final say in how prosecutors try a case or whether they can offer or approve a plea agreement.
There is no appeals process for victims or families who disagree with a prosecutor’s decision, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t recourse if a victim believes their rights have been violated.
Moscow resident Luke Brunaugh, who said he lives less than a mile from where the killings happened, didn’t like that a deal would mean the death penalty option would go away, saying that should be the punishment for murder.
“I think it’s just unfair to the families,” said Brunaugh. “It allows him to hide. He never had to really go to trial. He is answering to his crimes, but not to the fullest extent in my opinion.”
Heidi Barnett said she felt trepidation when her son chose the University of Idaho as his college three years ago. Visiting him in Moscow on Tuesday, Barnett said a long trial would have been very emotional for the families.
“I would think life in prison sometimes would be harder, so I kind of looked at it that way,” she said. “I’m not the parent, but I would be happy with that.”
His attorneys tried to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty on an array of grounds — that it would violate standards of decency or flout international law, that prosecutors had failed to provide evidence properly, that their client’s autism diagnosis reduced any possible culpability.
They challenged the legitimacy of DNA evidence and sought permission to suggest to a jury that someone else committed the crime.
None of it worked, so they turned to a final option: a plea deal to avoid execution.
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