Bryan Kohberger's Refusal To Speak In Court Sparks Anguish In Victims' Families

Nearly three years after four young University of Idaho students were found slain in a gruesome killing, the man deemed responsible, Bryan Kohberger, said nothing at his sentencing, and the silence has only intensified the suffering of the victims' families.

On the day the voice of justice was supposed to be found, Kohberger decided to withhold his own. In court before Judge Steven Hippler, the 30-year-old, recently convicted by a Latah County jury of the murders of Kaylee A. Goncalves of Snohomish, Wash, Matthew T. "Ethan" Chapin of Edwall, Wash, Madison V. Mogen of Kennewick, Wash, and Christa D. Xana Kernodle of Marysville, Wash, said "no, respectfully" when was asked whether he had anything to say. The short, sharp statement sparked outrage in the court and prompted family members to visibly react.

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"Surprise, surprise," one family member said, four syllables loaded with disappointment, fury, and the anguish of unanswered questions. Judge Hippler also didn't mince words, calling Kohberger "the worst of the worst." His words reverberated in the courtroom, slicing through the killer's silence like a knife. "Even in pleading guilty, he has given nothing hinting at remorse or redemption," Hippler said. "Nothing suggesting a recognition, an understanding, or even a regret for the pain that he has caused." And just like that, Kohberger was handed four life sentences, one for each of those victims, without the possibility of parole. Each sentence also carries a $50,000 fine and $5,000 civil penalty payable to the grieving families. Additionally, he was given an extra 10 years for burglary and another $50,000 fine.

The incompleteness many have felt with the sentencing is not only the finality of the judgment, but the chilling lack of admission, apology, or human recognition from the man at the center of it. Kohberger's silence was a symbolic act of emotional abandonment of the lives he took and the families he left broken. And for the families, closure has yet to arrive. His decision not to speak may have kept him from a public confrontation, but it also deprived the victims' families of one last opportunity to hear a voice of responsibility. In a courtroom already swollen with grief, Kohberger's silence spoke loudest.