The University of Idaho murder case took a shocking turn this week. On Monday, we learned from Bryan Kohberger ‘s 360 team that he agreed to a last-minute plea deal rather than face trial.
On the one hand, this should be good news for the victims’ families, right? Because it means everything is coming to an end without a messy trial. But so far, we’ve heard mostly the opposite. The families of both Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle have spoken out strongly against the decision.
Xana’s aunt, Kim Kernodle, has criticized how they handled everything. For example, she’s calling out their claim that they only wanted to “spare the families” because they’d already heard the graphic details of the crime. What they wanted was to see Kohberger found guilty in court.
The GonCalves family is upset that the plea agreement means the death penalty is off the table. Kohberger will receive “four consecutive life sentences on the four murder counts,” according to the prosecutor’s letter to the families. But Kaylee’s family wants the death penalty—and believes that’s where a trial was headed. They said in a fiery statement through their attorney that prosecutors “should be ashamed” that the two-year ordeal they were put through is ending in a “secret deal and a rushed effort to dismiss the case without any input from the victims’ families on the details of the plea.”
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But not all families feel the same way. Maddie Mogen’s father told CBS News their family is relieved it will be over so soon:
“We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don’t want to be at, that we shouldn’t be at, that have to do with this terrible person. We just think about the rest of our lives and trying to figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids.”
Plus, he’s glad Kohberger isn’t getting the death penalty—because to his way of thinking, that’s pretty easy:
“If you get that quick death sentence, you don’t have to spend decades thinking about how terrible you made the world.”
Interesting. Obviously, the death penalty is an extremely controversial topic, but we rarely see it cause a rift with victims of the same crime.
The GoCalves family isn’t relieved. And they’re not ready to let go of anything. In a new statement on social media on Tuesday, they “will not stop fighting for the life that was unjustly stolen”:
“We remain firm that this will not end until a plea is accepted. At a minimum, please – demand a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation that the defendant acted alone, and the true facts of what happened that night.”
We can definitely all agree on that! No plea bargain without a full confession. This is fair to everyone who needs the closure of getting everything that would be released at trial.
What do you think about the families’ mixed feelings?
[Image via Ada County Sheriff’s Office/Maddie Mogen/Instagram.]
The Post Bryan Kohberger Funds Settlement: Why One Victim’s Family Is Relieved first appeared on Perez Hilton.
