The Latest: Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty in University of Idaho stabbings

Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty Wednesday 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, was 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:

Reporters pack up their belongings

After hours of waiting, preparing, and then reporting on Kohberger's guilty plea, the rush for the reporters was over.

The cameras around the microphones outside the courthouse were broken down, packed into cases.

Madison Mogen's family supports the plea agreement

Leander James, an attorney for the parents of Madison Mogen, addressed the large press pool standing outside the courthouse on Wednesday.

Reading a statement from Mogen's mother and stepfather, James said, ''We support the plea agreement 100%.''

In the days leading up to the plea hearing, the family of Kaylee Goncalves blasted the plea deal, and said they were firmly against it.

''While we know there are some who do not support it, we ask that they respect our belief that this is the best outcome for the victims, their families and the state of Idaho,'' the statement read.

Prosecutors revealed new details about Kohberger's efforts to cover up the killings

In the months leading up to the murders, Kohberger's cellphone connected to a cell tower in the area approximately 23 times, mostly at night, the prosecutor said.

Thompson said that Kohberger's apartment and office were scrubbed clean when investigators searched them, and his car had been ''pretty much disassembled internally.'' He also changed his car registration to Washington State after the four killings, Thompson said.

FBI agents were able to collect DNA samples from the trash outside of Kohberger's parent's house, where he was living at the time. Investigators determined that DNA left on a Q-Tip belonged to the father of the person who left DNA on the knife sheath found at the crime scene.

''The defendant has studied crime,'' Thompson said. ''In fact, he did a detailed paper on crime scene processing when he was working on his Ph.D., and he had that knowledge skillset.''

They left behind tissue boxes and crumpled tissues.

A clump of microphones, set up for the families or their attorneys to comment outside the courthouse, sat vacant in the hot sun half an hour after the hearing by ended.

Reporters mingled as about 25 cameras trained on the microphones. It was not clear whether anyone was going to speak to the group.

The father of one of the victims left the courtroom before the hearing started

Kaylee Goncalves' father, Steve Goncalves, left the courthouse shortly after arriving on Wednesday, before Kohberger entered the courtroom.

''I'm just getting out of this zoo,'' Goncalves said in a video posted on X. The Gonclaves family had previously said in a Facebook post that they were ''beyond furious at the State of Idaho'' for offering Kohberger a plea.

As he walked out of the courthouse on Wednesday, he told a reporter that the rest of the Goncalves family felt it was important to be in the courtroom, but that he had no plans on going back.

The hearing has adjourned

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Kohberger remained expressionless as he entered the guilty plea

The judge will sentence Kohberger at 9 a.m. on July 23.

Documents in the court file won't be unsealed until after sentencing.

Bryan Kohberger formally pleads guilty to killing four University of Idaho students in a plea deal to avoid the death penalty

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Prosecutor describes the evidence they had built against Kohberger

Kohberger slipped through the sliding back door where the four victims were staying, Thompson said. He first killed Madison Mogen.

He then killed Kaylee Goncalves. Kohberger stabbed Xana Kernodle, who was collecting a DoorDash order, as he was leaving Goncalves' room. He also killed Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, who was asleep in bed, with a long-blade knife.

Kohberger left a sheath from his knife in Mogen's room. Thompson emphasized that there was a ''single source'' of male DNA that matched Kohberger's left on the sheath.

There is no evidence that any of the victims were sexually assaulted

The prosecutor said he wanted to emphasize that point so that members of the public would not speculate about whether there was a sexual component to the crimes.

The hearing is ongoing and the admission is not the formal plea.

Loved ones cry as the victims' names are read

As the judge read the names of those Kohberger is accused of killing, people in the section for families teared up.

One wiped their eyes with the back of their hand. Others cried into their tissues.

Kohberger remained unemotional as he confirmed to the judge that he stabbed the four victims almost three years ago.

Judge Hippler addressed Kohberger, wearing a gray shirt and dark tie, directly to explain the possible penalties to the crime that he is set to plead guilty to.

Kohberger confirmed to the judge that he was pleading guilty'' freely and voluntarily'' because he was, in fact, guilty, and not because he had some other incentive.

The families maintained stoic expressions across the courtroom from Kohberger as he gave his short, affirmative answers to the judge.

The judge says he learned of the guilty plea on Monday, just like everyone else

The judge wasted no time to address the controversy around the decision to offer Kohberger a plea to avoid the death penalty -- a decision that one victim's family has vehemently opposed.

He also addressed criticisms that the families were not given time to weigh in on the plea deal.

''I, like everyone else, learned of this plea agreement Monday afternoon and had no inkling of it beforehand. Once I learned of the defendant's decision to change his plea in this case it was important that I take the plea as soon as possible.''

Judge admonishes those who have tried to contact the court and influence his decision

Judge Steven Hippler said his court received numerous emails and phone messages ahead of the hearing, during which Hippler can accept or reject the plea agreement.

He said the efforts by members of the public were inappropriate and also said that no external opinions would influence his decision.

Kohberger watched without reaction as the judge issued his warning.

The victims' families sit together as they wait for the hearing to begin

They waited with somber, quiet expressions.

At least 100 people were in attendance in the courtroom, and nearly 12,000 people tuned in to watch a livestream of the proceeding.

The victims' families arrive at court

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

Dozens of reporters gather outside the courthouse

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.

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.

Victims and their families have limited input on how crimes are prosecuted

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.

Locals share relief and anger over the plea deal

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.''

''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.''

Kohberger decided to ac

cept a plea deal only after failed efforts to strike the death penalty failed

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.