Steve Goncalves, the father of murdered Idaho college student Kaylee Goncalves, has publicly condemned the plea agreement reached with his daughter’s accused killer, Bryan Kohberger, telling NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield, “This is anything but justice.”
Kohberger was arrested in December 2022 for the fatal stabbings a month earlier of four University of Idaho students in their off-campus home. Goncalves was killed along with Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Following his arrest, Kohberger, a former PhD criminology student, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
Jury selection for Kohberger’s murder trial was set to begin on Aug. 4. However, it was announced Monday that he had reached a plea deal with prosecutors. Per CNN, the agreement entails Kohberger pleading guilty to four counts of murder, so long as prosecutors drops the potential of him facing the death penalty.
During a Monday interview with NewsNation, Steve Goncalves reacted to the update with anger and frustration. “This is anything but justice. This is the opposite of our will. There was no majority [of victims’ family members] believing that this was acceptable,” he told Banfield. “I want to honor all the police officers, the FBI and all the people that worked their tail off. The failure is at the court level. 100%.”
“He’s guilty. We all know he’s guilty. There’s more than enough evidence [to prove it]. It’s tough. It’s tough to put a community through this,” Goncalves added. “This isn’t the will of the victims. This is just one person making a decision. It doesn’t reflect what we were asking for.”
On the Goncalves family’s official Facebook page, 18-year-old Aubrie Goncalves, the family’s youngest member, similarly condemned the prosecution’s plea deal.
“I refuse to stay silent about a situation that should never have required this kind of gathering in the first place,” she wrote on Monday. “The justice system has placed heavy burdens on those already carrying unimaginable grief. Through it all, we have tried to hold on to hope. We’ve believed in the process. We’ve had faith in the system. But at this point, it is impossible not to acknowledge the truth: the system has failed these four innocent victims and their families.”
“The introduction of this plea deal, just weeks before the scheduled trial, is both shocking and cruel,” she continued. “Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world. Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever. That reality stings more deeply when it feels like the system is protecting his future more than honoring the victims’ pasts.”
“The justice system was created to serve and protect — not to retraumatize grieving families,” her Facebook post concluded. “This last-minute plea deal feels less like an act of justice and more like an afterthought. We are not asking for vengeance. We are asking for accountability. We are asking for dignity for our loved ones. And we are asking — pleading — for a justice system that truly lives up to its name.”
“After more than two years, this is how it concludes — with a secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims’ families on the plea’s details,” the entire Goncalves family said in a separate statement.
A hearing for the case is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
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