Bryan Kohberger to plead guilty to all counts in Idaho college murders case

Good afternoon. We have some breaking news here on ABC News Live reports. I'm Alex for sharing Washington right now. We were following news out of Idaho. Brian Koberger accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022 has accepted a plea deal. ABC News has confirmed that he has agreed to plead guilty to all counts. ABC News Live anchor Kena Whitworth is on the phone with us. She has been following this case from the beginning and in Kena. What details can you share with us about how this deal came together? Yeah, Alex. I mean, this is simply a stunning turn of events in a case that has gripped this entire nation. Up until today, we were looking at an August 18th trial date with Brian Koberger's life on the line. What we know now from families who received a letter is that Brian Koberger has accepted a plea deal. In part of this plea deal, the defendant will plead guilty to all counts listed in the indictment. So that is four counts of murder as well as a burglary count as well. He will serve four life sentences consecutively with no possibility of parole and the defendant will waive all rights to appeal this conviction as well. It also sounds like they will be seeking some restitution for families. This is things like money for funeral expenses and, you know, victims compensation. The next thing that's happening, Alex, is there will be a change of plea hearing and that is this Wednesday, July 2nd. And so for some, this may be some finality and some closure. For others, you have to imagine, Alex, there are so many unanswered questions in this case, and I'm sure that there's fear that those questions will remain unanswered. But here we are. After more than two years, the one and only suspect in the Idaho College murders case, the man who stood accused of murdering Zanna Kernodle, Madison Mogan, Kaylee Gonsalves and Ethan Chapin. His name is Brian Koberger, and he has accepted a plea deal. Well, and listen, kind of all the trials. It feels like we've been keeping track of over the last the last several weeks. This was the one that we anticipated was at least going to have some sort of resolution later on in the year at the earliest. But for our viewers that are just kind of catching up, can you walk us through what the past several months have been like with this case? It's been tumultuous. There has been filing after filing and pushback from the defense initially trying to delay the trial. They have maintained their clients innocent this entire time. They wanted to have the death penalty taken off the table. They tried many times unsuccessfully for that to happen. In the meantime, this has been under a gag order, so people involved in this case have not been able to speak out about it, which is why so much of this case has been shrouded in secrecy. We thought that it was going to go to trial in Moscow, and then it got moved down to Boise, and then it got pushed back yet again. And so here we are now, about a month before this trial was supposed to start, and we have learned that instead of a trial, there will be a plea deal. And can it do? We know that in this plea deal, was there anything that was taken off the table? Was the death penalty taken off the table? Death penalties taken off the table. So exactly. In exchange for pleading guilty, the death penalty will be taken off the table. It's a pretty standard cut and dry. Uh, there weren't very many confessions, which you have to imagine. There may have been families out there that wanted confessions like that. Hmm. Well, and the other thing is because we just saw your interview earlier earlier today with with the friends of some of these victims. Um, I don't know if you've had a chance to speak with them since since this news. But, uh, for for for our viewers, you know, how how are they hoping to to remember to remember their best friends? You know, it's so important after speaking with Emily a lot and Hunter Johnson, the two that were the first to arrive at that King Road home that the world remember their friends for how they live their lives and not for their last day, not for how they died. I had a chance to speak with Ethan Chapin's entire family as well, and their family motto is to live like Ethan. He was a beaming, bright ray of sunshine. All of these kids were really described in that manner, and that's what's the most important here is that we remember these kids who remember how they live, and we don't lose sight of the families here. Maybe there's finality here, but they never get to wake up with their kids ever, ever again. Yeah, that's a great reminder. I remember in that interview hearing, uh, one of one of, uh, one of one of the friends talking about how they really kind of rejected this label of the Idaho four because you had four individuals, four individuals who had different personalities and in very much their own identities here, and that's something that we certainly don't want to lose.