BREAKING: Bryan Kohberger avoids death penalty with plea deal for Idaho college murders

Bryan Kohberger, the man charged with the 2022 murders of four Idaho college students, is set to plead guilty to all counts to avoid the death penalty, per a letter sent to the victims’ family members viewed by ABC News. 

Sources told NewsNation that the prosecution proposed dropping the death penalty for Kohberger in exchange for him pleading guilty to committing the murders, as well as pleading guilty to a burglary charge. 

He will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, and waives all right to appeal. A hearing is set for July 2. His trial was set to begin in August.

Kohberger was charged with four counts of murder and one count of burglary for the killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin. The killings took place at an off-campus house, where the four were stabbed to death in the early hours of November 13, 2022. A manhunt was launched, and Kohberger was arrested seven weeks later at his parents' home in Pennsylvania. 

Two roommates who were inside the home at the time survived. One of the roommates told authorities that she had seen a man in black clothing and a black mask walking past her house in the middle of the night. 

In March, it was revealed that Kohberger’s defense attorneys were going to attempt to argue that a knife sheath found at the scene, on which Kohberger’s DNA was discovered, was planted in an attempt to frame him.

"The defense has not disclosed any experts to challenge the confirmatory STR comparison showing the DNA on the knife sheath matched Defendant’s DNA," prosecutors stated in their response to the defendant's motion. "On the contrary, the defense has disclosed that its Forensic Biology and DNA expert will testify that '[t]here is good support that Mr. Kohberger’s DNA was found on Item 1.1, a swab from the knife sheath.'"

"Instead of challenging the conclusion that the DNA on the knife sheath belonged to Defendant," the prosecutors continued, "the defense’s expert disclosures reveal that the defense plans to argue the DNA on the knife sheath does not prove Defendant was ever at the crime scene and the knife sheath itself could have been planted by the real perpetrator."