Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole on Wednesday, just three weeks after pleading guilty to the November 2022 murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin as part of a controversial plea deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty.
But before Judge Stephen Hippler handed down his decision, the families of the deceased and the surviving roommates were given the floor to deliver victim impact statements. Each was powerful in its own right, but Kaylee’s older sister, Alivea Goncalves, electrified the Ada County Courthouse with her fiery remarks aimed directly at Kohberger.
On Wednesday, Megyn anchored live coverage of the sentencing hearing and was joined by legal experts Matt Murphy and Phil Holloway and journalist Howard Blum to discuss Goncalves’ approach and why it was perhaps the “most powerful” victim impact statement they have ever heard.
The Fiery Statement
Following in the footsteps of her father who chose to face and address Kohberger directly during his time at the podium, Goncalves introduced herself to the court as the “big sister of Kaylee Goncalves” who “was blessed to love Madison Mogen as a sister too.”
She said she not there to “speak in grief” but rather “in truth” and shared that she had decided against her initial plan to read journal entries she penned in the aftermath of her sister’s murder to avoid “further victimizing myself to a defendant who has shown no guilt, no remorse, no apprehension.”
“I won’t offer you tears. I won’t offer you trembling,” she said defiantly. “Disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power, and I won’t feed your beast. Instead, I will call you what you are, sociopath, psychopath, murderer.”
She then ordered Kohberger – who was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and shackled at the waist – to “sit up straight” as she read through “the questions that reverberate violently in my own head so loudly that I can’t think straight most any day.” She previewed that some of the inquiries “might be familiar” because, as it turns out, she adapted them from Kohberger’s very own chilling research project into the “emotions and psychological traits” of criminals.
Goncalves also took aim at the errors Kohberger made during his killing spree. “Did you truly think your Amazon purchase was untraceable because you used a gift card,” she asked in reference to how he bought the murder weapon. “If you were really smart, do you think you’d be here right now?”
“You worked so hard to seem dangerous, but real control doesn’t need proving,” she added. “The truth is you’re as dumb as they come – slow, sloppy, weak, dirty.”
She saved her most biting observation for last. “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-cking ass,” Goncalves told Kohberger as the courtroom erupted in applause.
‘Very Powerful’
Megyn called Goncalves’ words “the most powerful victim impact statement I’ve ever heard” and a “very satisfying” part of an otherwise “unsatisfying” day. She praised her for “completely flipping the narrative” by “refusing to talk about her pain” and instead going “on offense” and “diminishing him, mocking him, and laughing at him.”
Holloway agreed that Goncalves delivered “the most powerful thing that I have ever heard in terms of victim impact statements,” and he believes it will haunt Kohberger. “I hope that her words will echo in his despicable brain for the rest of his natural life,” he shared. “Because, look, he doesn’t have to sit there in prison and worry about ever facing the firing squad in Idaho, but… I hope that it haunts him for all of his days.”
Murphy, who prosecuted dozens of murder cases as a former senior deputy district attorney in the Orange County, California, homicide unit, said Goncalves’ statement “will stand out” because of how much of an impact he believes it will have on Kohberger.
“When it comes to the personality of the psychopath – and that really is what I think Bryan Kohberger is – they don’t really respond to things like a grandmother’s tears or the emotional impact on a mother who’s lost her child. They’re almost immune from that sort of thing,” he explained. “But when it comes to the narcissism that that is possessed by a lot of psychopaths, she cut deep… [with] ‘you’re a loser,’ ‘you’re basic, ‘you’re not profound,’ ‘you’re pathetic.'”
Murphy noted that it is not customary for someone giving a victim impact statement to address the defendant directly, but he praised the judge for permitting the “minor rebellion” that allowed for the gripping moment. “If he is going to go into prison with anybody’s words ringing in his head it is that woman just laying it out,” he concluded. “[She] spoke for a lot of people today, and that was very powerful.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,114 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.