Kristi Goncalves, Idaho 4 victim, Kaylee Goncalves‘ mother, threw Bryan Kohberger‘s academic record in his face in her emotional impact statement. Her remarks came at Kohberger’s sentencing hearing on July 23 in Boise, Idaho.
In her statement, Kristi quoted Aubrey, Kaylee’s younger sister. She said, “You may have received A’s in high school and college, but you’re gonna be getting big D’s in prison.”
In addition to Kristi, Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, and her sister, Alivea Goncalves, also spoke at the sentencing. Each delivered a powerful and emotionally charged rebuke of the man who will now spend the rest of his life in prison.
In a deal, Kohberger pleaded guilty to the brutal and senseless murders of Kaylee and her friends—Maddie Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle—in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022.
“Someone so devoid of humanity”
In her statement, Kristi addressed her daughter’s killer with raw grief and fury. “I never imagined having to speak to someone so devoid of humanity,” she said, explaining that the true cost of the crime was the lasting destruction it left in its wake.
She said the murder of her daughter shattered her sense of safety, trust, and joy. “The grief sits with me every day,” she said, describing a life now defined by sorrow, rage, sleepless nights, and birthdays that have become memorials. “I am forever changed,” she said.
Kristi turned her focus to the killer, mocking his failed aspirations and calling him a “pathetic” man who couldn’t find purpose or connection. “Now you’re a joke in this courtroom,” she said, adding that his future in prison would be marked by cruelty, humiliation, and erasure.
“You are entering a place where no one will care who you are,” she said. “You will always be remembered as a loser, an absolute failure.” Her final words left no doubt: “May you continue to live your life in misery… Hell will be waiting.”
“You picked the wrong families”
In his powerful victim impact statement, Kaylee’s father, Steve Goncalves, told the convicted killer that he had lost control and failed in his attempt to terrorize the community. “You picked the wrong families, the wrong state, the wrong police officers, the wrong community,” he said.
Rather than divide them, the crime united local police, federal agents, and the public in outrage and grief. Goncalves said the families even refused to speak the killer’s name, reducing him to just “BK,” and making it clear that the world’s focus remained on the victims not the man who took them.
Goncalves described the moment he learned of his daughter’s murder and how his family immediately began working with investigators. “Within hours, we had your white car on the camera,” he said, calling the killer sloppy, arrogant, and “a complete joke.”
He emphasized that the families turned tragedy into action by sharing the victims’ lives with the world. “Nobody cares about you,” he said, predicting the killer would die forgotten.
“Kaylee would have kicked your f—ing a—”
And finally, in her unflinching victim impact statement, Kaylee’s sister, Alivea Goncalves, addressed the court with anger and defiance. She spoke not just as a grieving sister, but as a fierce protector of both Kaylee and Madison Mogen, whom she considered a second sister. “They were not yours to take,” she said, emphasizing the killer’s failure to destroy what he could never possess: their love, joy, and power.
Alivea described herself as their “heavyweight,” always fighting their battles, and now, continuing that fight even after death. “Not even death could change that,” she said. She revealed how she wrote through her heartbreak, preparing to share her rawest thoughts aloud, but ultimately refused to “further victimize” herself in front of a remorseless defendant. “You promised you would never back down,” she said of herself.
Alivea delivered brutal, pointed questions and takedowns. She demanded answers: Why her sisters? What did he bring into the house? What were Kaylee’s last words? She mocked his ego, called out his mediocrity, and destroyed the illusion of power he tried to build.
“You didn’t win. You just exposed yourself as the coward you are,” she said, calling him a delusional “wannabe” who mistook his average mind for brilliance. She dismantled his self-image piece by piece. “You are not profound. You’re pathetic,” she declared.
Her closing words were searing: “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 a—.”
Emotional statements were delivered not only by the Goncalves family but also by surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, who spoke of their trauma and lasting fear, and by relatives of Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, expressing both grief and resilience.
Kohberger declined to speak, offering no remorse or comment. He was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without parole plus additional penalties, and has been transferred to the Idaho Department of Correction’s Reception and Diagnostic Unit, where he will be evaluated before placement in long-term maximum-security housing.
