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The mother of University of Idaho victim Xana Kernodle has broken her silence about a plea deal for the killer Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty last week to four counts of first-degree murder for killing the 20-year-old, her boyfriend and two other friends in a home invasion attack.
“At first I was upset. I felt like I will never get answers now, but now I really see The Lord’s hand in it,” Cara Northington told Fox News Digital. “I now can see that God is protecting us from further torment and trauma.”
While the plea deal didn’t require Kohberger to explain himself, it puts the case to rest, she said.
READ BRYAN KOHBERGER’S SIGNED CONFESSION
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
“It is truly a blessing,” she added. “The death penalty would give him the opportunity to appeal and drag this horror story out for the rest of our lives.”
Northington said she was on a church retreat with no cell service when the deal became official. Prosecutors had approached her a week earlier, she said, but she had not met with them.
“I am just thankful I had my church family around me to pray for me, and that I wasn’t back in town honestly,” she said. “God had me right where he wanted me to be when I found out the news.”
BRYAN KOHBERGER PLEADS GUILTY TO IDAHO MURDERS
University of Idaho student and stabbing victim Xana Kernodle in an undated photo. (Instagram @xanakernodle)
Kernodle’s birthday would have been Saturday.
Her father separately told the New York Times he disagreed with the deal because it didn’t require the killer to give any answers.
The other victims were Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
Chapin’s family said in a brief statement before the plea hearing that they would attend in support of the deal.
IDAHO MURDERS TIMELINE: BRYAN KOHBERGER PLEA CAPS YEARSLONG QUEST FOR JUSTICE
The victims of Nov. 13 University of Idaho massacre, from left to right: Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen. (Instagram @xanakernodle / @maddiemogen / @kayleegoncalves)
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Leander James, the attorney for Mogen’s mother and stepfather, said outside the court that they “support the plea agreement, 100%.”
Mogen’s father told CBS News he also supported the deal.
“We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don’t want to have to be at, that we shouldn’t have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person,” he told the network.
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WATCH: Mogen family attorney speaks after Kohberger pleads guilty to Idaho murders
The family of Kaylee Goncalves vocally opposed the deal and asked supporters to phone and email the judge and urge him to reject it. The judge called that an improper attempt to influence the court.
“At a bare minimum, please – require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, & the true facts of what happened that night,” her family wrote in a statement posted to Facebook. “We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was.”
Kohberger was supposed to go to trial next month.
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Prosecutors had his DNA at the crime scene – on the snap of a Ka-Bar knife sheath. They traced his phone around town and said he had repeatedly driven by the victims’ home before and after the murders.
Surveillance video showed the suspect vehicle speeding away after the murders. And two eyewitnesses survived the attack – a roommate who told police she had come within three feet of a masked intruder before he inexplicably left the home, and a DoorDash driver who dropped off food for Kernodle just minutes before Kohberger killed her.
Bryan Kohberger was arrested for four counts of alleged first-degree murder and one count of burglary in Monroe County, Pennsylvania in December 2022. Kohberger was granted a change of venue and rebooked in Ada County, Idaho in September 2024. He later pleaded guilty to the murders. (Ada County Sheriff’s Office)
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But juries can be unpredictable, and even a guilty verdict with or without a death sentence would have faced years of appeals.
Under the terms of the deal, Kohberger waived his right to appeal and forfeit his chance to move for a sentence reduction under Idaho law.