In a courtroom on Wednesday, the mother of Xana Kernodle, one of Bryan Kohberger’s murder victims, publicly forgave her daughter's killer and expressed hope that he would find Jesus Christ, saying she would be praying for him.
Kohberger, who admitted to killing four University of Idaho students in their home in November 2022, was handed four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole and ordered to pay a total of $200,000 in fines and $5,000 in civil penalties to the victims' families. Additionally, he received a 10-year sentence and a $50,000 fine related to a burglary charge connected to the crimes.
As Kohberger faced the families of the students he murdered at the Ada County Courthouse, Cara Northington—mother of murder victim Xana Kernodle—said, “Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, now has her in His loving arms in Heaven, where she can never be harmed ever again for eternity.”
She explained that her embrace of Christianity was due to her daughter, stating, “Because of her, I came to know my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” and added, “Because of her, many will come to Christ. That has filled me with joy, hope and peace that surpasses all understanding.”
Northington told Kohberger, “Jesus has allowed me to forgive you for murdering my daughter without you even being sorry or asking for this. This is only possible because He who lives in me is greater than any evil in this world.”
She also said, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind,” emphasizing that she no longer fears Kohberger or allows him space in her mind anymore. “This forgiveness has released me from any and all evil you have inflicted on me and my family. It has allowed me to let our Lord deal with you,” she added.
She pointed out that Kohberger had accepted a deal that prevented him from receiving the death penalty. “Nothing man can do to you can ever compare to the wrath of God,” she warned, asserting that “inevitably, you will stand before our Lord and will have to answer to Him over the sins you have committed in murdering our children.” She urged him, “I pray you come to the end of yourself before that day. Whether you like it or not, Heaven is for real and so is Hell.”
She concluded, “I am washing my hands of you and turning you over to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom vengeance belongs to.” Northington then read aloud from Ephesians 6 and urged Kohberger, “I do pray for you, I pray that you come to the end of yourself, I pray that before this life is over, that you ask our Lord and Savior in your heart … to forgive you.”
Kohberger’s sentencing and the emotional testimony from Kernodle’s surviving relatives come more than two-and-a-half years after his arrest in December 2022 for the murders of the college student and her roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, and Ethan Chapin.
The arrest of Kohberger, a Ph.D. student in criminal justice at Washington State University, occurred over a month-and-a-half after the brutal murders, which happened while the victims were sleeping in the home they shared.
