Alivea Goncalves showed no fear as she addressed her sister Kaylee Goncalves’ killer, Bryan Kohberger, at his sentencing hearing after he admitted to fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in 2022.
“No one is scared of you today. No one is intimidated by you. No one is impressed by you,” Alivea said toward the end of her lengthy statement to Kohberger, 30, in court on Wednesday, July 23. “No one thinks that you are important. You orchestrated this like you thought you were God. Now look at you, begging a courtroom for scraps.”
Alivea continued, “You spent months preparing and still all it took was my sister and a sheath. You worked so hard to seem dangerous, but real control doesn’t have to prove itself. The truth is, the scariest part about you is how painfully average you turned out to be. The truth is, you’re as dumb as they come, stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak, dirty.”
“Let me be very clear. Don’t ever try to convince yourself you mattered just because someone finally said your name out loud,” she told Kohberger. “I see through you.”
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Alivea concluded her statement with a message about her late sister’s strength.
“You want the truth? Here’s the one you’ll hate the most. If you hadn’t attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night, like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your f***ing ass,” she said.
Elsewhere in her statement, Alivea called Kohberger a “sociopath, psychopath and murderer” and told him to “sit up straight when I talk to you.”
“What’s it like needing this much attention just to feel real? You’re terrified of being ordinary, aren’t you? Do you feel anything at all, or are you exactly what you always feared? Nothing. If you’re so powerful, then why are you still hiding? Defendant, you see, I’m here today as me, but who are you?” she later said.
Alivea added, “You act like none can ever understand your mind. But the truth is, you’re basic. You’re a textbook case of insecurity disguised as control. Your patterns are predictable. Your motives are shallow. You are not profound. You’re pathetic.”
After Alivea finished speaking, the courtroom erupted in applause. Kohberger remained stoic throughout the speech, according to video footage shared by CBS News via TikTok.
Kohberger was sentenced to four lifetimes in prison for the murders of Kaylee, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. He stabbed the four college students to death in their home in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke also lived in the home at the time and were present for the murders, but they survived the attack.
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Kohberger, who was pursuing a PhD in criminology at Washington State University at the time of the murders, was arrested in December 2022. He initially pleaded not guilty but ultimately took a plea deal that removed the possibility of receiving the death penalty. He signed a confession admitting to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
“This unfathomable and senseless act of evil has caused immeasurable pain and loss. No parent should ever have to bury their child,” Ada County District Court Judge Steven Hippler said at the sentencing hearing. “This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person.”
