What to know about Kohberger agreeing to plead guilty to murdering 4 University of Idaho students

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Bryan Kohberger is expected in court Wednesday to plead guilty to murder in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty.

Here’s what to know about the case and the recent developments:

Kohberger, 30, is accused in the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen at a home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. Autopsies showed the four were all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds and each was stabbed multiple times.

Kohberger, then a criminal justice graduate student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania weeks after the killings. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.

Kohberger has been charged with four counts of murder in the stabbings. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

When initially asked to enter a plea in 2023, Kohberger stood silent, prompting the judge to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

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. The trial was scheduled to move to Boise after the defense expressed concerns that Kohberger couldn’t get a fair trial where the killings occurred.

Kohberger’s trial was set to start in August and was expected to last more than three months. But after his attorneys failed to have execution stricken as a possible punishment, he agreed to the plea deal.

An attorney for the family of Goncalves confirmed that families of the victims received news of the plea deal in a letter from prosecutors Monday.

“We are beyond furious at the State of Idaho,” Goncalves’ family wrote in a Facebook post. “They have failed us. Please give us some time. This was very unexpected.”

The prosecutors said they met with available family members last week, including some members of the Goncalves family, before deciding to make Kohberger an offer.

A spokesperson for the family of Chapin said they support the deal, while an attorney for Mogen’s mother and stepfather, declined to give their views before Wednesday’s hearing.

Court filings have shown that prosecutors intended to introduce evidence including Kohberger’s “click history” at Amazon.com with the purchased of a Ka-Bar knife — a military-style, fixed-blade knife — along with a sheath and sharpener months before the killings. A Ka-Bar knife sheath was found next to one of the victims.

Prosecutors had also said they also intended to introduce what appears to be a self-portrait Kohberger took on his phone just hours after the killings. In it, he is smiling and giving a thumbs-up gesture.

A roommate who was in the home that morning, sleeping and intoxicated, told police she woke up and saw a man she didn’t know — someone with “bushy eyebrows” who was wearing a face mask, prosecutors have said.

No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were in the home at the time. Authorities have said cellphone data and surveillance video shows that Kohberger visited the victims’ neighborhood at least a dozen times before the four students were slain.

In a court filing, Kohberger’s lawyers said he was on a long drive by himself around the time the four were killed.

A change of plea hearing was set for Wednesday in Boise, where the case was moved due to pretrial publicity in northern Idaho. If Kohberger pleads guilty as expected, he would likely be sentenced in July.

Judges may reject plea agreements in Idaho, though such moves are rare. If a judge rejects a plea agreement, the defendant is allowed to withdraw the guilty plea.

The court has issued a gag order that has largely kept attorneys, investigators and others from speaking publicly about the investigation or trial.

An empty lot stands on Monday, June 30, 2025, at the site where four University of Idaho students were killed in November 2022 inside a house in Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes)

A hearing about Pennsylvania-based defense witnesses in the upcoming murder trial of Bryan Kohberger, accused of killing 4 University of Idaho students in 2022, is held in the Monroe County Courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pa., Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

FILE - A private security officer sits in a vehicle on Jan. 3, 2023, in front of the house in Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students were killed in November 2022. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

FILE - A flyer seeking information about the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found dead is displayed on a table along with buttons and bracelets on Nov. 30, 2022, during a vigil in memory of the victims in Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

FILE - Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, is escorted into court for a hearing in Latah County District Court, Sept. 13, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool, File)

Glenn Hall, a Hockey Hall of Famer whose ironman streak of 502 starts as a goaltender remains an NHL record, has died. He was 94.

Nicknamed “Mr. Goalie,” Hall worked to stop pucks at a time when players at his position were bare-faced, before masks of any kind became commonplace. He did it as well as just about anyone of his generation, which stretched from the days of the Original Six into the expansion era.

A spokesperson for the Chicago Blackhawks confirmed the team received word of Hall’s death from his family. A league historian in touch with Hall’s son, Pat, said Hall died at a hospital in Stony Plain, Alberta, on Wednesday.

A pioneer of the butterfly style of goaltending of dropping to his knees, Hall backstopped Chicago to the Stanley Cup in 1961. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs in 1968 with St. Louis when the Blues reached the final before losing to Montreal. He was the second of just six Conn Smythe winners from a team that did not hoist the Cup.

His run of more than 500 games in net is one of the most untouchable records in sports, given how the position has changed in the decades since. Second in history is Alec Connell with 257 from 1924-30.

“Glenn was sturdy, dependable and a spectacular talent in net,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “That record, set from 1955-56 to 1962-63, still stands, probably always will, and is almost unfathomable — especially when you consider he did it all without a mask.”

Counting the postseason, Hall started 552 games in a row.

Hall won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 1956 when playing for the Detroit Red Wings. After two seasons, he was sent to the Black Hawks along with legendary forward Ted Lindsay.

Hall earned two of his three Vezina Trophy honors as the league's top goalie with Chicago, in 1963 and '67. The Blues took him in the expansion draft when the NHL doubled from six teams to 12, and he helped them reach the final in each of their first three years of existence, while winning the Vezina again at age 37.

Hall was in net when Boston's Bobby Orr scored in overtime to win the Cup for the Bruins in 1970, a goal that's among the most famous in hockey history because of the flying through the air celebration that followed. He played one more season with St. Louis before retiring in 1971.

“His influence extended far beyond the crease," Blues chairman Tom Stillman said. “From the very beginning, he brought credibility, excellence, and heart to a new team and a new NHL market.”

A native of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Hall was a seven-time first-team NHL All-Star who had 407 wins and 84 shutouts in 906 regular-season games. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975, and his No. 1 was retired by Chicago in 1988.

Hall was chosen as one of the top 100 players in the league's first 100 years.

Blackhawks chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz called Hall an innovator and “one of the greatest and most influential goaltenders in the history of our sport and a cornerstone of our franchise.”

“We are grateful for his extraordinary contributions to hockey and to our club, and we will honor his memory today and always,” Wirtz said.

The Blackhawks paid tribute to Hall and former coach and general manager Bob Pulford with a moment of silence before Wednesday night’s game against St. Louis. Pulford died Monday.

A Hall highlight video was shown on the center-ice videoboard. The lights were turned off for the moment of silence, except for a spotlight on the No. 1 banner for Hall that hangs in the rafters at the United Center.

Fellow Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur, the league's leader in wins with 691 and games played with 1,266, posted a photo of the last time he saw Hall along with a remembrance of him.

“Glenn Hall was a legend, and I was a big fan of his,” Brodeur said on social media. “He set the standard for every goaltender who followed. His toughness and consistency defined what it meant to play.”

AP Sports Writer Jay Cohen in Chicago contributed to this report.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

FILE - Glenn Hall, second from left, stands with fellow former Chicago Blackhawks players Stan Mikita, former general manager Tommy Ivan, Bobby Hull, Bill Wirtz and Tony Esposito during a pre-game ceremony at the Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Ill., April 14, 1994. (AP Photo/Fred Jewell, File)

FILE - St. Louis Blues goalie Glenn Hall, top right, is pinned to his net waiting to make a save on a Montreal Canadians shot as Blues' Noel Picard (4) tries to block the puck while Canadiens' John Ferguson (22) and Ralph Backstorm wait for a rebound in the third period of their NHL hockey Stanley Cup game, May 5, 1968. (AP Photo/Fred Waters, File)