Bryan Kohberger was convicted of brutally killing Idaho college students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin and was consequently sentenced to four consecutive life prison sentences, plus another 10 years. Kohberger accepted a plea deal to avoid a possible death sentence.
As part of the plea deal that he accepted, Kohberger agreed to pay restitution to the parents of each of his victims. This included a whopping $250,000 in criminal fines and an additional $20,000 in civil judgment fees.
However, Kohberger is now fighting to avoid paying some of those funds to two of the families. This includes the Mogen and Goncalves family. Kohberger’s legal team is asking a judge to relieve him of having to pay $20,000 to the Goncalves family and $7,000 to Mogen’s mother. They are requesting this on the grounds that these families both received funds from public GoFundMe pages, and that the funds they already received should suffice.
"The additional funds sought do not qualify as an economic loss under Idaho Code 19-5304 because Steve and Kristi Goncalves and Karen Larmie (sic) received extensive funds through multiple GoFundMe campaigns that specifically asked for and covered the expenses sought," Kohberger’s lawyers stated in a recent court filing.
Part of this filing by Koghberger’s legal team is based on the fact that they claim he has no way of ever paying the family members the funds because he’ll never be getting out of prison as part of his sentence.
The Goncalves family has been particularly outspoken about the case, as well as the fact that they did not approve of the plea deal that Kohberger was offered and ultimately accepted.