Bryan Kohberger, the former criminal-justice doctoral student accused of stabbing four University of Idaho undergraduates to death in 2022, pleaded guilty on Wednesday under a deal that spares him the death penalty. He admitted four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary before Judge Steven Hippler in Boise, clearing the way for four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. The plea brings an abrupt end to one of the most closely watched U.S. homicide cases in recent years. Prosecutors say Kohberger, now 30, broke into a rental home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, around 4 a.m. on 13 November 2022 and fatally stabbed roommates Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s visiting boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20. Under the agreement accepted on 30 June, Kohberger waived his rights to appeal or seek a sentence reduction. In addition to the life terms for murder he is expected to receive 10 years for burglary when he returns to court for formal sentencing on 23 July. The plea came days after an Idaho judge rejected defence efforts to delay the trial and to argue that unnamed “alternate perpetrators” were responsible. At Wednesday’s hearing, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson outlined the evidence that tied Kohberger to the crime. Investigators recovered a knife sheath bearing the victims’ blood and DNA from a single male, later matched to Kohberger through a used Q-tip retrieved from his parents’ trash in Pennsylvania. Cell-tower records showed his phone near the victims’ home on at least 23 occasions before the attack, and security cameras captured his white Hyundai speeding away minutes after the killings. When police searched his Pullman, Washington, apartment weeks later, it had been scrubbed clean and the vehicle had been partially dismantled. Prosecutors said they have found no evidence Kohberger knew the victims, and his signed confession offers no explanation for the motive, leaving families divided over the plea. Relatives of two victims supported the life-without-parole outcome, while others complained the deal denies them a full public trial. The sealed case file is expected to remain under court gag order until after sentencing.