The former criminal-justice doctoral student convicted in the 2022 stabbing deaths of four Idaho college students was formally sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison, but declined to make a statement in court that might have addressed the mystery of his motive for the killings.

Bryan Kohberger, 30, received four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole or appeal under a deal with prosecutors that spared him the death penalty in return for his guilty plea to four counts of first-degree murder.

Judge Steven Hippler gave Kohberger, dressed in orange jail garb, an opportunity to make a statement before sentence was pronounced.

The defendant, who sat expressionless beside his lawyers throughout the hearing, answered: “I respectfully decline,” the only words he uttered during the proceedings.

During the proceedings in Idaho’s Fourth District Court in Boise, the state capital, numerous family members and friends of the victims vented their anger and anguish directly at Kohberger through the presentation of victim impact statements.

But loved ones of the four slain University of Idaho students – Ethan Chapin, 20, his girlfriend Xana Kernodle, 20, and her roommates Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21 – were left still baffled by what precipitated the November 13, 2022, slayings.

In pleading guilty on July 2, Kohberger admitted to the underlying allegations that he had crept into an off-campus house under cover of pre-dawn darkness and stabbed the four students to death with a hunting knife, then slipped away. Two other women living at the house survived unharmed.

But the killer made no mention of motive. Authorities likewise have yet to offer an explanation for what might have driven Kohberger to commit the crime, and how or why he singled out his victims. Neither did the plea agreement require Kohberger to provide any such insights.

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(Reporting by Matt McKnight in Boise, Idaho; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Howard Goller)