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Kaylee Goncalves' Father Speaks Before Murderer's Sentencing; Kaylee Goncalves' Sister Speaks Before Murderer's Sentencing; Now: Victim Impact Statements Before Kohberger Sentencing; Bryan Kohberger Sentencing Hearing Underway. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 23, 2025 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

STEVE GONCALVES, FATHER OF KAYLEE GONCALVES: Looking back, when the police officers knocked on my door. He told me what happened to my child, told me what happened to Maddie May. I don't think he was even out of the driveway before my kids turned around, looked at me and said, what do we do, dad? I told them, you get to work. You get your ass to work. And we started calling, we started texting, we started emailing. And you know what? Within hours -- within hours, we had your white car on the camera. We knew. We knew from the very beginning we had you.

Police officers tell us, within minutes, they had your DNA, like a calling card. You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid, master degree. You're a joke, complete joke. But we took this disaster, and we did what we could. We put everything online. We took our kids. We took our images. We took everything that they did, their videos, their photos, the girls' pranks, Ethan singing.

We put it out there. We shared it with the world, and the world united. And all they ended up when they talked about this case is they talked about Kaylee Jade, Maddie May, Xana, and Ethan. Everything with these people meant to us, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister. We shared that with our community. Then we shared it with our state. We shared it with the country, and eventually we shared it with the world. The world's watching because of the kids, not because of you. Nobody cares about you.

You're not worth the time, the effort to be remembered. In time, you will be nothing but two initials, forgotten to the wind, no visitors, nothing more than initials on an otherwise unmarked tombstone. From this moment, we've all started -- from this moment, we will forget you. We want to -- I'll leave in closing one last thing. You picked the wrong family, and we're laughing at you on your trip to Penn. I will be today or tomorrow.

I'll close with, God bless all the men and women that worked on this case, and all the hard work that you guys did. You guys allowed us to grieve and allowed us to get through this. The amount of work that you guys put together and the way that you guys put it together was beautiful. There was hard times to be expected, but thank you all, and God bless you. Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your Honor. Next is Steven Goncalves, Kaylee's brother. Steven is actually going to pass. I'm going to go, Alivea Goncalves, Kaylee's sister.

ALIVEA GONCALVES, SISTER OF KAYLEE GONCALVES: Hello. I'd like to start by thanking the court for allowing me the time and opportunity to speak today. My name is Alivea, and I'm the big sister of Kaylee Goncalves, and I was blessed to have Madison Mogen as a sister too. I'm not here today to speak in grief. I'm here to speak in truth. Because the truth is my sister Kaylee and her best friend Maddie were not yours to take.

They were not yours to study, to stalk or to silence. They were two pieces of a whole, the perfect yin and yang. They are everything that you could never be, loved, accepted, vibrant, accomplished, brave and powerful. Because the truth about Kaylee and Maddie is they would have been kind to you.

If you would approach them in their everyday lives, they would have given you directions, thanked you for the compliment, or awkwardly giggled to make your own words less uncomfortable for you. In a world that rejected you, they would have shown mercy. Because the truth is, I'm angry. Every day I'm angry. I'm left shouting at the inside of my own head, everything I wish I could say to you.

The truth about me is, when I heard the news, I didn't cry. I listened for them. I promised them I would, that I would fight for them, that I would show up, no matter what it cost me. I swore I'd never let them feel alone, because you see, I've always been their heavy weight. I've always been the one to fight the battles they didn't feel ready to fight themselves.

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All it ever took was a call and they knew I would handle it for them, no matter the time, no matter the cost. They could wave their white flag because they knew I would never back it down, not for them and not even death could change that.

Somewhere along the line, I started to think about what I would say to them if I was given just one last chance. If I could gather enough heartbreak or love or sacrifice or whatever it took to get just one message across. What would I say? Throughout this entire process, I've written my feelings down at every moment, my wishes, my love, my denial, my anger, and as one final act of love.

I'd planned to read these thoughts even jarring and discombobulating and not even making sense, because for me, that was true love, as bare and as naked as it could be, not laced in pretty words or dressed for the occasion but written through bleary eyes at 2 am with clenched fists, angry at this reality. My true final act of love was to continue on without them for them. That dream to love, to read aloud my love to them to bring meaning through pain, was the latest blow in realizing, you don't deserve it.

And Kaylee and Maddie don't need it. Kaylee and Maddie have always known my love. And they would never ask me to prove it by further victimizing myself to a defendant who has shown no guilt, no remorse, no apprehension. They would say to me, why would you give the satisfaction of showing vulnerability now. You promised you would never back down.

And for that clarity, I'm thankful. I won't stand here and give you what you want. I won't offer you tears. I won't offer you trembling, disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear and on the illusion of power, and I won't feed your beast.

Instead, I will call you what you are, sociopath, psychopath, murderer. I will ask the questions that reverberate violently in my own head so loudly that I can't think straight most any day. Some of these might be familiar, so sit up straight when I talk to you.

How was your life right before you murdered my sisters? Did you prepare for the crime before leaving your apartment? Please detail what you were thinking and feeling at this time. Why did you choose my sisters? Before making your move, did you approach my sisters? Detail what you were thinking and feeling. Before leaving their home, is there anything else you did? How does it feel to know the only thing you failed more miserably at than being a murderer is trying to be a rapper.

Did you recently start shaving or manually pulling out your eyebrows? Why November 13? Did you truly think your Amazon purchase was untraceable because you used a gift card? How do you find it enjoyable to stargaze with such a severe case of visual snow? Where is the murder weapon, the clothes you wore that night? What did you bring into the house with you? What was the second weapon you used on Kaylee? What were Kaylee's last words?

Please describe in detail the level of anxiety you must have felt when you heard the bear cat pull up to your family home on December 30, 2022, which do you regret more, returning to the crime scene five hours later or never, ever going back to Moscow, not even once after stalking them there for months.

If you were really smart, do you think you'd be here right now? What's it like needing this much attention just to feel real? You're terrified of being ordinary, aren't you? Do you feel anything at all? Or are you exactly what you always feared, nothing? If you're so powerful, then why are you still hiding, defendant? You see, I'm here today as me. But who are you?

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Let's try to take off your mask and see. You didn't create devastation. You revealed it, and it's in yourself, and that darkness you carry, that emptiness, you'll sit with it long after this is over. That is your sentence. And it was written on the wall long before you ever pled guilty. You didn't win. You just exposed yourself as the coward you are. You're a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser, who thought you were so much smarter than everybody else.

Constantly scolding, turning your nose up to grammar mistakes, nitpicking and criticizing others. You wanted so badly to be different, to be special, to be better, to be deep, to be mysterious. You found yourself thinking you were better than everyone else, and you thought you could figure out the human psyche and see through it, all while tweaked out on heroin. Lurking in the shadows made you feel powerful because no one ever paid you any attention in the light.

You thought you were exceptional, all because of a grade on a paper. You thought you were elite because your online IQ test from 2010 told you so. All of that effort just to seem important, it's desperate. There is a name for your condition though, your inflated ego just didn't allow you to see it, want to be.

You act like no one could ever understand your mind. But the truth is, you're basic, you're a textbook case of insecurity disguised as control. Your patterns are predictable. Your motives are shallow. You are not profound, you're pathetic. You aren't special or deep, not mysterious or exceptional. Don't ever get it twisted again.

No one is scared of you today. No one is intimidated by you. No one is impressed by you. No one thinks that you are important. You orchestrated this like you thought you were God. Now look at you, begging a courtroom for scraps. You spent months preparing and still, all it took was my sister and a sheath.

You worked so hard to seem dangerous, but real control doesn't have to prove itself. The truth is. The scariest part about you is how painfully average you turned out to be. The truth is, as dumb as they come, stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak, dirty. Let me be very clear. Don't ever try to convince yourself you mattered just because someone finally said your name out loud.

I see through you. You want the truth. Here's the one you'll hate the most. If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night, like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your fucking ass. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Next is Kristi Goncalves, Kaylee Goncalves' mother.

KRISTI GONCALVES, MOTHER OF KAYLEE GONCALVES: Thank you, Your Honor. I never imagined having to speak to someone so devoid of humanity. For a long time, I didn't think I'd find the words low enough to meet you where you are. But now I realize this isn't about you. It's about what you've done to me, and I need you to hear it.

When you murdered my daughter, Kaylee Jade Goncalves. You didn't just take her life. You shattered others. You attacked what you could never be, and in doing so, you left a trail of devastation far beyond that house.

[12:15:00]

You stole my peace. You've altered my every waking moment, every sleepless night, the way I view the world, people, safety, trust, it's all been changed by your cruelty. I no longer recognize parts of myself. Joy is harder to find. Laughter feels foreign. The world moves forward, but I'm suspended in places sorrow and rage. You've taken from me something that can never be restored.

The grief sits with me every day, some days quietly and other days so loud it drowns out everything else. The emotional toll you've inflicted on me is immeasurable. I live with a constant ache, with birthdays that are now memorials, with holidays that feel hollow, with empty chairs that scream louder than words ever could.

I am forever changed. But for you, as a person working on a PhD in criminal justice, you really didn't think this one through. You're not that good. In fact, you're not that good at anything. You couldn't secure a job. You couldn't get along with others. You couldn't even get a female to look in your direction, all because you are pathetic.

Now you're a joke in this courtroom. I wish I could have crowned -- I wish I could crown you with a jester hat to complete your orange jumpsuit, clown look. A dead killer doesn't kill again. So, while I'm disappointed the firing shot won't get to take their shots at you. I'm confident that the men in prison will have their way with you in more ways than one.

You will finally get what you wanted, physical touch, just probably not how you were expecting it. So, you haven't beat the system. You've simply entered a new one where the rules are cruel and the consequences will never end. You are entering a place where no one will care who you are, and no one will ever respect you. You will be forgotten, discarded, used and erased. You will always be remembered as an -- as a loser, an absolute failure.

And when those prison doors slam shut behind you, I hope that sound echoes in your heart for the rest of your meaningless days. I hope I remind you of what we all already know, you're nothing. May you continue to live your life in misery. You are officially the property of the state of Idaho, where your fellow inmates are anxiously awaiting your arrival, but it's OK, because they're there to help you. Hell will be waiting.

Quick message from our youngest daughter. Aubrie wanted to say, you may have received A's in high school and college, but you're going to be getting big D's in prison.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Do we have more from the Goncalves' family or you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Next would be Shannon Gray, the Goncalves' family attorney, who will be reading statements from Kaylee Goncalves' grandmothers.

SHANNON GRAY, ATTORNEY FOR KAYLEE GONCALVES: Morning, Your Honor. Shannon Gray, the attorney for the Goncalves' family, actually I have three statements, one from her aunt and two from her grandparents. This is from her aunt, Tami Buttz. You and the cloak of darkness made a decision to turn our whole family's world upside down forever. You and the cloak of darkness took our Kaylee Jade Goncalves away from us all without hesitation.

Never have you shown any remorse or regret. We just get creepy, non- expressive -- non expressive stares as you have your team of women defend you. Kaylee was a strong, kind, fun loving, caring person, and she will greatly be missed by all her family and friends for the rest of our lives.

She had goals in life that you took from her and us. We lose on watching her enjoying her life, working hard and building the future she wanted. She was ready to start that after college life. You and the cloak of darkness took it all away.

You left us without her future wedding, her future children that she would have added to our family. No more talking to her on the phone, going for a coffee, celebrating holidays, it's all gone. You and the cloak of darkness gave each and every one of Kaylee's family members, their own lifetime sentence.

[12:20:00]

You and the cloak of darkness also took our Maddie May from all of us. She was so genuine, caring, polite, she was part of our family. You came in harmed our children that were younger women than you in their own beds. You're nothing. You're a coward. It's not right that you have received life. I pray that you meet your end in the cloak of darkness, burn in hell.

I have two other statements, Your Honor. This is Linda Lukens' statement. This is Kaylee's grandmother. I really don't know how to address something so inhumane, but I will try. Nothing in the past two and a half years has made any sense. All I get is you cowardly went into a home at night, filled with what I'm sure you thought was all sleeping girls, and went on a vicious killing spree for no other reason but to appease your demonic urges.

You took my granddaughter Kaylee from us, plus three other beautiful lives. You took my granddaughter, Kaylee, beautiful, sweet, souled doll face, Kaylee, who was getting ready to start her amazing life, who had such a bright future, who was loved by so many, who you were so envious of.

She had a life you could never have. You are so beyond human. You're definitely a demon from hell. I truly wish your punishment would be the same death you inflicted on our kids, but I think you will meet some new friends in prison who will be there just to help you. Thumbs up.

And I have one last statement, Your Honor. This is from Cheryl Goncalves, Kaylee's other grandmother.

Cheryl Goncalves: John 1:5 says, light shines in the darkness, and the darkness overcomes, it not. Somewhere in your life, something, some jealousy, envy, ego, something went dark. It pushed out all light until you became dark and evil. And when you saw my granddaughter and her friends their light, because they have such a light, you couldn't stand it, because the darkness in you could not stand the light in them, and so you decided to destroy it.

Cowardly, you walked into their rooms in the dark and took their lives, hoping to get rid of your darkness. But you didn't. You failed. Because you know, what was once a light shown only to their friends, families and loved ones, is now all over the world. Everyone sees it, their smile, their beauty, their plans, everything they were and had.

And you think you put a close to it, even that, but you didn't, because they still exist. They are still light. They are still beautiful. You can never take that away. They will always be in the light of all eternity. And you will be in the darkness because you could not overcome it. You failed. I want you to be gone, more than gone. I want you to be cast out. Cast out from my life, from my family, from this earth.

I will not allow your hatred to penetrate into my own soul. You did not get that power. You are evil, and in the end, evil is eradicated. You didn't take Kaylee's light. You spread it into the world. Thank you, Your Honor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. All right. Are you moving to a different family now? Why don't we take a 10-minute recess? All right.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Mana Raju in for Dana Bash. You've been listening to heartbroken families of the victims brutally murdered by Bryan Kohberger, delivering powerful, emotional testimony about their loved ones and offering up some very pointed comments directed to Kohberger himself, who appeared emotionless while in court.

He, of course, is the man responsible for stabbing four University of Idaho students to death back in 2022. At the beginning of the month, weeks before his trial was set to begin, Kohberger pleaded guilty to all counts in a deal to take the death penalty off the table. And as he faces four consecutive life sentences, now we're standing by to hear if Kohberger himself addresses the court.

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CNN's Jean Casarez has been following the case since it began and joins us now. So, Jean, talk us through, what just happened and whether Kohberger reacted to any of the very, very powerful statements made by the family members of the victims.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The emotion in this courtroom is, I think, beyond anything I have ever seen before. It is a packed courtroom, wall to wall. This is the time that the victim's family members are able to speak through these impact statements, and we really haven't heard from them for going on three years now. So, this is their moment to pour out their heart, but here they are face to face with Bryan Kohberger.

You know, there was a shift in this courtroom, because I do want to tell you about the surviving roommates. Because we heard words from them, but the Goncalves family, and it was Kaylee Goncalves, one of the victims here, when her father, Steve, took the stand and he moves his podium to speak directly to Bryan Kohberger.

That changed a lot in that courtroom because the judge didn't stop him. Everyone else was directing the court, and he started talking to him about him, and so did the rest of his family, his one surviving daughter, his wife, and they spoke directly to this defendant.

Now, what I saw with the defendant just was that he's focused. He's watching. I don't see any emotion. I saw a little bit. His eyes were shifting a little bit at certain points of time during the testimony, but for the most part, he's taking it all in, and with the Goncalves' family, I mean, they said it like it was. They said, you're a nothing.

His sister had written down all these thoughts in the middle of the night, and she said, I'm just going to read them. She said, you're nothing. You're just -- you want to be somebody, and you think you are but you're not. And he had to sit there and take it. And you know, when the Goncalves' family did it, they started clapping in that courtroom and I have never seen that in a courtroom before.

But let's start from the beginning, because of that burglary conviction, the breaking and entering of a home with the intent to commit a felony inside, which would be the murders. That meant that the two surviving roommates, they are victims under the law. And so, they were able to go up to that podium, and the first Bethany Funk had her closest friend read it for her, because she did not have the emotional strength to do it, and the emotions of what they have gone through as victims because they were the ones that lived, and they have guilt.

They think about it every night. Both of them -- both of these statements, said that they slept in their parents' bedroom for a year, and they now double-bolt their door at night. When are they going to be next? And it was just really, really the impact of this. Of course, everything is said and done, because he will be serving four consecutive life terms, but the words from these families, they're finally able to speak.

And now the question is, will Bryan Kohberger explain what he did, why he did it, why he went up to that third floor? Because according to the prosecutor in open court, there was no direct connection with the victims, and there was no sexual assault. So why did he do this? Why did he select those four? Let's see if we get those answers.

RAJU: Yeah. That's a big, big question. The motive in all of this. All right, Jean Casarez had a very powerful and emotional testimony. We just heard from inside the courtroom and we're going to continue to follow the proceedings there in Idaho. Stay with us as we take a very quick break.

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