Bryan Kohberger has been ordered to pay additional money to the families of his victims on what marks the third anniversary of the University of Idaho student murders.
In a court order, handed down Thursday, Judge Steven Hippler ruled that the 30-year-old criminology student turned mass killer must pay the families of Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves additional restitution of around $3,000 to cover the cost of urns for their murdered daughters.
Judge Hippler dismissed Kohberger’s claim that he is simply unable to pay because he is serving life in prison – revealing that the killer received a staggering $28,360.96 in donations while held in the Latah County and Ada County jails awaiting trial.
Much of this money came from his own family so they could communicate with him in prison, his defense previously claimed.
‘He has received nearly enough through donations to cover the amount of restitution already ordered,’ the judge wrote.
‘While these funds may no longer be available to Defendant, it is foreseeable he will continue to receive donations in the future, particularly given that much of the donated amounts came from his family.’
The judge also pointed out that there is no reason why Kohberger cannot secure paid prison employment.
‘Given his limited needs in prison and his youth, it is foreseeable that through employment and donations, Defendant may receive sufficient amounts over his life to at least come close to meeting his financial restitution obligations,’ he said.
Bryan Kohberger (pictured in his prison cell) must pay the families of Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves additional restitution of about $3,000
The ruling came on the third anniversary of the murders. Left to right: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee’s shoulders) Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke
Agreeing to pay restitution to cover the victims’ funeral expenses was also part of the plea deal, when Kohberger pleaded guilty to the November 2022 murders of Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Goncalves and Mogen.
This deal – where he was spared the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole – is ‘contractual in nature and generally are examined by courts in accordance with contract law standards’, the judge wrote.
Kohberger has now been ordered to pay Mogen’s mother Karen Laramie $1,587.79 and Goncalves’s parents Steve and Kristi Goncalves $1,420, with interest of 9.125 percent per year.
The amount covers the costs of the urns containing the remains of the 21-year-old best friends.
It comes in addition to the $251,227.50 in criminal fines and fees to the state, $20,000 civil judgment for each of the families and $28,956.88 restitution to Kernodle and Chapin’s families and the state’s crime victim’s compensation fund Kohberger was previously ordered to pay.
However, despite ruling in favor of the victims’ families over the funeral expenses, the judge revealed that – legally – Kohberger could make money in future from selling his story.
In a court hearing on November 5, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson had argued that the victims’ families should be able to recover any outstanding money from any funds he makes from movies or books about the case.
Kohberger’s attorney Elissa Massoth pushed back insisting there is ‘no movie or book in the works’ by Kohberger or any member of his family, rubbishing the possibility as ‘speculation’.
The judge dismissed Kohberger’s (pictured departing court) claim that he is simply unable to pay because he is serving life in prison
She also argued that Kohberger can never profit from sharing his story due to Idaho’s ‘Son of Sam’-type law which ‘specifically precludes that’.
But, in the court order, Judge Hippler said that Idaho law ‘leaves open the potential for Defendant to receive money from media contracts in the future’ – and that such earnings would not be accessible to victims for restitution payments.
During this legal battle over additional compensation, Kohberger has also avoided paying around $24,000 in additional money to Goncalves’s and Mogen’s families after Thompson admitted he made a mistake in seeking travel and accommodation expenses.
The ruling came on what marks the third anniversary of the November 13, 2022, murders that rocked the college town of Moscow and tore four families apart.
In the early hours of November 13, 2022, Kohberger broke into an off-campus home and stabbed best friends Goncalves and Mogen and 20-year-old couple Kernodle and Chapin to death.
Two roommates – Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen – survived.
Kohberger – who lived just 10 minutes away across the state border in Pullman, Washington, at the time – was arrested around six weeks later at his parents’ home in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania.
He was tied to the murders after he left a brown leather Ka-Bar knife sheath behind at the crime scene.
Families of the victims paid tribute to the four students on social media Thursday to mark the heartbreaking anniversary.
Best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (left) and young couple Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle (right) were murdered by Kohberger
Kohberger broke into 1122 King Road and stabbed he four students to death back on November 13, 2022
‘There’s nothing quite like having a sister. You are forever loved and missed, Xana Alexia Kernodle,’ Jazzmin Kernodle posted on Instagram in memory of her younger sister.
The Goncalves Family Facebook page shared several photos and posts in memory of Goncalves and Mogen – who were described by their families as being so close they were like sisters.
The Chapin family marked the day with a scholarship auction for the Ethan’s Smile Foundation launched in his honor.
‘We made a choice to take the day that changed our lives forever and turn it into one that can positively impact the lives of others,’ his mother Stacy Chapin wrote on social media.
Speaking to the Daily Mail back in September, Stacy remembered her son as ‘an amazing kid’.
‘There’s nothing of those 20 years with Ethan that I would go back and change. He was that great of a kid. He was amazing,’ she said at the time. ‘I’m thankful to have had him for those 20 years.’
On Thursday evening in Moscow, where the four young adults were enjoying student life, members of Greek life will hold a vigil at the Memorial Garden to remember them.
Kohberger, meanwhile, is being held inside Idaho’s maximum security prison in Kuna, where he will live out his dying days.
He had no known connection to any of the victims and has refused to reveal his motive for the attack.
