The sister of Idaho University student Kaylee Goncalves, whose life was taken in a fatal stabbing incident, has given an emotional statement in court.
In a now viral speech, Alivea Goncalves unleashed her raw emotion and directed her vitriol towards the man who took her sister’s life, Bryan Kohberger.
Her statement was one of many made by family and friends of the four students, whose lives were taken when Bryan Kohberger broke into their home and fatally stabbed them with a hunting knife in November of 2022.
Highlights
- The sister of one of the victims of a brutal and fatal stabbing incident in Idaho has given a powerful victim impact statement.
- She addressed the man who took her sister’s life, Bryan Kohberger, calling him weak, dirty and clumsy.
- In a now viral video, Alivea Goncalves’ passionate statement is drawing support from netizens.
Friends and family gave victim impact statements during Kohberger’s sentencing
Image credits: Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images
Image credits: Alivea Stevenson/Facebook
Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive years in prison for the crimes after taking a plea deal to avoid capital punishment.
During one portion of the proceeding at the Ada County District Court, the victims’ friends and family members were allowed to give what’s called a “victim impact statement.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, victim statements “provide an opportunity to express in your own words what you, your family, and others close to you have experienced as a result of the crime.”
Image credits: Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images
Experts say victim statements are also important in helping provide some measure of closure to the ordeal that has caused so much pain in their lives.
In the case of Kaylee Goncalves, her mother, father, and sister addressed Kohberger in court, but it was her sister Alivea’s statement that received the most attention.
“Sit up straight when I talk to you”: Alivea Goncalves ripped into Kohberger
Image credits: CBS 21 News
Kaylee’s father was the first to speak on her behalf. "You're not worth the time, the effort to be remembered,” he said.
Kaylee’s sister Alivea was next.
“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,” she said, according to a CNN transcript.
Image credits: CBS 21 News
She continued: “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.”
She asked him a series of rhetorical questions: “Why did you choose her? Why November 13th?” to which he did not answer.
Image credits: CBS 21 News
She criticized his apparent failed career as a rap artist: “How does it feel to know the only thing you failed more miserably at than being a murderer is trying to be a rapper?”
She continued: “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?”
“Sloppy, weak and dirty”: Some of Alivea’s most hate-filled comments came later
Image credits: CBS 21 News
“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,” she said.
“Let me be very clear. Don't ever try to convince yourself you mattered just because someone finally said your name out loud,” said Alivea.
And in closing, she dropped the f-bomb: “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 f*cking ass.”
“They don’t see what my new reality looks like”: One of the surviving roommates also spoke
Image credits: Forbes Breaking News
In recently unsealed documents from that fateful night, police detail how “pools of blood were on the bed and pillows” as well as splattered on the walls of the home.
Image credits: KTVB
On the night of November 13th, 2022, Kohberger snuck into an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, home to the University of Idaho, with a hunting knife and ski mask.
He brutally and fatally stabbed four people inside: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin.
Image credits: KTVB
Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke are two additional roommates who survived the ordeal.
Mortensen saw Kohberger in the house on that fateful night as he was slipping out the back door holding a package. Police now believe it was the fast food that Kernodle had just ordered.
Image credits: KTVB
Image credits: KTVB
During another impassioned victim impact statement, Mortensen described her extreme anxiety: “It’s my body reliving everything over and over again,” she said, noting that she cannot sleep alone.
“People call me strong, they say I’m a survivor, but they don’t see what my new reality looks like. They don’t see the panic attacks, the hypervigilance, the exhaustion.”
Other notable victim impact statements include one from Xana Kernodle’s aunt, Kim
Image credits: Law&Crime Network
While many of the statements attacked Kohberger, at least one person did not.
Kim Kernodle, Xana's aunt, described her niece as "fun, loving, high-spirited, beautiful person."
Image credits: KTVB
"I no longer get to get my nails done with her, have lunch with her," she said of Xana.
Addressing him directly, Kim said that she had “forgiven him.”
"Anytime you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number," Kim said. "I'm here, no judgment.”
Image credits: KTVB
Netizens are praising Alivea Goncalves’ emotional statement
