Report: How Bryan Kohberger can sell his story for cash

When four students making the most of college life were found stabbed to death in their home in a small, safe town in Idaho, the local police were stumped as to who could have committed such a violent crime. When a suspect was identified and arrested weeks later thanks to advanced DNA testing - and pleaded guilty to the murders two years later - that question was finally answered. But the why has never been revealed. Given the opportunity to speak at his sentencing in July - and share his motive for murdering four victims he had no known connection to - Bryan Kohberger refused.

Now, the prospect that he could make money out of spilling those secrets is one that beggars belief. On what marked the third anniversary of the November 13, 2022, murders of 21-year-old best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, and 20-year-old couple Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, a judge ordered the mass killer to pay additional money to the victims’ families. While this appeared to be a positive outcome for the victims, in a near-overlooked footnote in the court ruling came a warning.

Legally, Judge Steven Hippler revealed, Kohberger could profit from selling his story through a book, movie, TV deal or media interview in the future. ‘The statute leaves open the potential for Defendant to receive money from media contracts in the future,’ he wrote. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Dave Leroy - a trial lawyer in Boise, Idaho, who previously served as Ada County Prosecuting Attorney, Idaho Attorney General, Lt. Governor of Idaho and US Nuclear Waste Negotiator - confirmed that the laws in Idaho can’t stop Kohberger from selling his story.

But, he said the laws can be used to ensure the mass killer never manages to get his hands on the money himself. Many states have some sort of ‘Son of Sam law’, designed to stop killers profiting from their crimes through the likes of books or shows. The laws are named after ‘Son of Sam’ serial killer David Berkowitz who tried to sell his story about his reign of terror in New York in the late-1970s. The New York legislature passed a statute to outlaw it and over 40 states followed suit. However, these laws have frequently faced First Amendment challenges in courts, including all the way up to the US Supreme Court.

Idaho has its own version of the law. ‘Under code 19-5301, if a killer sells their story such as for a movie, book, TV show or interview, the money must be paid to the state treasurer who then deposits it in an escrow account,’ Leroy said. ‘The victims of the crime can then seize that money from the killer by taking civil action within five years of the escrow account being created.’ Under the statute, the state treasurer must make sure victims are aware of the money by publishing notices in newspapers in the county of the state where the crime was committed every six months during that five-year period, advising them they can take legal action.

This means, in Kohberger’s case, the victims’ families can take steps to stop him cashing in on their pain. They would have five years from the money being paid to pursue legal action, such as wrongful death lawsuits or seeking additional restitution. ‘The families could easily get a judgment that would be greater than for example a movie income, meaning there would be no money left to go to him,’ Leroy said. However, if no legal action is taken, there is no outstanding restitution owed, and there is leftover money in the escrow account after five years, that money must be paid to Kohberger, he said.

The way this law is set up means not only that Kohberger could make money from his crimes but also that the victims’ families must continue to fight their loved ones’ killer in the courtroom if they want to stop him. While that’s a prospect that could retraumatize victims, Leroy (pictured) said - from a legal standpoint - it should be an easy win for the families: ‘Given the facts of this case, it would be easy for the families to get such a judgment, without much difficulty or delay.’ Though concerning, Leroy doubts Kohberger is in any position to start contributing to a story anytime soon. The mass killer is being held in solitary confinement on J-Block inside Idaho’s maximum security prison in Kuna.

There, he remains inside his single cell for 23 hours a day and is kept away from other inmates for his safety. ‘He's not in a situation where he can meet with third-party visitors or be a significant collaborator,’ Leroy said. ‘He's in solitary confinement where his access to the outside world is largely prohibited. So I don’t think we will see his face on a movie poster anytime soon.’ However there are other legal loopholes through which he could come into some money - and use it to improve his life behind bars. Under Idaho law, Kohberger’s family members are not barred from making money from projects connected to his crimes. It’s a trend seen recently in New York where the wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann was reportedly paid $1 million to appear in a docuseries about life with the alleged murderer.

Since then, New York lawmakers have put forward a proposal to expand the state’s ‘Son of Sam law’ to include family members and former spouses. In a court hearing in November about the additional restitution for Kohberger’s victims’ families, his attorney Elissa Massoth rubbished ‘speculation’ that Kohberger or any member of his family has a ‘movie or book in the works.’ But, Leroy explained, it is something that legally they could do at some point. ‘Kohberger’s family members were not perpetrators or participants or accessories in his crimes, so they could be paid to appear in documentaries for example,’ Leroy said, adding: ‘The law would prohibit that person from passing those benefits directly to the perpetrator of the crime though.’

For example, if Kohberger’s father Michael, mother MaryAnn or one of his sisters Amanda and Melissa was paid $10,000 for an interview, and $10,000 showed up on Kohberger's commissary account in prison, that would be prohibited, he explained. ‘But, in my opinion, it does not prohibit them from giving their son money for ordinary incidentals over time,’ he said. ‘His family may continue to give him funds for his commissary such as extra food, drinks and sundries.’ Kohberger has already received a staggering $28,000 in donations while inside local jails between his arrest in December 2022 and his sentencing this July, the judge revealed. The defense claims a lot of the money came from Kohberger’s family so they could communicate with him in prison.

However, it costs only around 10 cents a message and 25 cents a minute for inmates to make calls from Ada County Jail, where he was housed while awaiting trial. Judge Hippler has said it is ‘foreseeable he will continue to receive donations in the future’ and pointed out that, due to his age, Kohberger could also secure paid work in prison. And, given Kohberger’s life sentence and his complaints to date, it seems likely he will want to make life behind bars more cushy one way or another. The Daily Mail exclusively revealed last week how he has been threatening to harm himself if prison guards don't move him to another block, away from inmates who are constantly tormenting him.

In his four short months behind bars, the man now known as inmate number 163214 has filed a string of complaints about his fellow inmates, who he claims are harassing him by shouting and allegedly making threats through the air vents. He has also complained about many other aspects of prison life, including his access to commissary and his food choices, most recently the type of bananas landing on his meal tray. While Kohberger spends his days complaining about the predicament he landed himself in, the victims’ families and the Idaho community continue to try to pick up the pieces left by his crimes. As an Idaho native who attended the same college as the four victims, lived in Moscow and has had a long career in law in the state, it’s a case that hits close to home for Leroy.

‘I was an Idaho kid who got my law degree at the University of Idaho, so it was very close to home as a UI graduate who spent six years living in Moscow with my fraternity house probably half a mile from that site,’ he said. ‘In fact, I'd been inside that house about two years before the homicide, because the son of one of my political supporters was one of the previous renters.’ ‘It was a shocking situation in a very small town in northern Idaho, a nice rural, agricultural town, with a college in the rolling hills. Parents send their children there to be safe. Not only was this totally out of the blue, it was also a very atypical homicide. The number of victims, the circumstances and the horror of it shocked the community.’ He added: ‘There could be no worse circumstance ever perpetrated in Moscow, Idaho, than the one Kohberger caused.’