BOISE, Idaho – A man charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in 2022 returned to court on Wednesday to plead guilty under a deal with prosecutors that enables the former graduate student in criminal justice to avoid the threat of capital punishment.

Bryan Kohberger, 30, previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and burglary charges in a gruesome multiple homicide in 2022 that stunned the small college town of Moscow in northwestern Idaho and drew national media attention.

Relatives of at least two of the victims attended Wednesday’s court hearing, which begin at 11 a.m. MT (1 p.m. ET/1700 GMT) in Boise, the Idaho state capital. According to news media accounts, the families are divided on the plea deal.

At the time of the killings, Kohberger was pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, a short distance from Moscow, where the four victims were enrolled as undergraduates at the University of Idaho.

The murders occurred during the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in an off-campus group house shared by five women.

Three of the roommates – Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho – were found slain inside the house along with Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington.

All suffered multiple stab wounds, according to authorities.

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(Reporting by Matt McKnight and Eric Cox in Boise, Idaho; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)