07 24 25 iHeartRadio's Rory O'Neill on Bryan Kohberger sentences to life in prison

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The scariest part about you, it's how painfully average you
turned out to be. The truth is as dumb as
they come.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
You're going to go to hell.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
I know people believe in other stuff.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
You're evil.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
There's no place for you in heaven.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
You took our children.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Gut wrenching testimony as Brian Coberger was sentenced to four
consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the
murders of four University of Bidah host students in twenty
twenty two.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yesterday, family and friends of the victims given the chance
to address him, and they didn't hold back. As you
heard some of that audio. Joining us now in the
Kae Commas Spirit of Health Hotline, iHeartRadio national correspondent Rory
O'Neil very emotional victim impact statements, Rory, from what we've
heard there in some other places as well, What did
we hear from the family and friends of the victims
beyond this.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, there's also a split feeling and reaction among the
family members about the decision not to pursue the death penalty. Here,
most of the relatives wanted the case to go to trial.
They wanted this suspect or this killer to be put
to death for his actions, but the prosecutor was there
in court explaining the reasoning, saying they didn't want to
have to rehash what happened back in twenty twenty two

(01:09):
and cause more trauma for not just these families, but
for the entire community. So they made the decision to
offer this man the option of avoiding the death penalty.
But he will be spending the rest of his life
in prison with no chance for parole.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
So when we heard from the family and friends, some
literally addressing and looking at Brian straight in the eyes,
did we hear or see any emotion from Coburger?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Not really. I think there was one moment where a
sister of one of the victims sort of made him
squirm in his chair a little bit, but for the
most part, he was there, cold face, very little reaction,
which is also what makes it a bit more frightening. Right,
you know, he looks pretty normal, but then you realize
what this man has done, and the fact that JA
may have been sitting next to him on a bus

(01:53):
or in a movie theater and probably not giving him
a second glance. But again, the crime here fix so
brutal and frustrating the families. We still don't know why
why these four were targeted, why that house was targeted,
what really motivated all this, And as the judge said,
we probably will never.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Know, and Rory, it doesn't bring the victims back. But
I am curious. Was that part of the plea deal
where Coburger didn't have to reveal his rationale for doing that?

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well, typically, you know, you don't have to make these
self incriminating statements, so they didn't require some elocution about
exactly what he did that day, and so perhaps it
was part of the negotiations, but more than likely it
was an option that he had under Idaho law to
waive his right to say anything. As he said, he
respectfully declined to address the families or the court before

(02:42):
the sentencing.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
So, Rory, is this it is?

Speaker 1 (02:45):
There really nothing else that will likely happen from here.
It's not like he would give any type of testimony
or statement in prison.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Correct, right, this should be it. But as we heard
from the judge, he said, maybe criminologists can go study
this guy and keep them low profile and try to
learn from it, maybe try to understand what happened. We
still know though that this case has been a real
attention grabber when it comes to things like podcasts and

(03:11):
true crime stories. So all the streaming services have done
some sort of a version of this story. But the
judge also wanted to make sure that if there is
some movie rights deal or book rights, that Coburger doesn't
get any of that money. It all goes to the
victims' families.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
And what's where's his final place of incarcerationing going to be, Well.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Right now, it's going to be Idaho, but I wouldn't
be surprised if the corrections department in Idaho moves him
to a different state. We see this a lot with
high profile cases because these people now become targets in
the prison and that can put prison staff in danger
as well. So what they try to do is, you know,
they'll move them to Kansas where they may not recognize

(03:51):
them and it can just serve out his days, you know.
And when it's a four time killer like this, oftentimes
they're already kept in isolation. But it's possible he stays
in Idaho, but for the safety of everyone involved, it's
more likely they'll move him out of state.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
iHeartRadio national correspondent it's Rory O'Neil,