The Bryan Kohberger plea deal in Idaho is not the first contentious agreement reached by the same District Attorney’s Office… because the senior prosecutor secured a similar deal nearly 29 years ago to the day… which also featured murders and the death penalty.
TMZ investigated and discovered that in July 1996, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, who still holds the office today, negotiated a bargain to spare the life of a man who admitted to killing two people.
The connections here are unsettling… since in that case, two Chinese nationals were stabbed to death in their Moscow, Idaho residence… and a former University of Idaho student admitted to the crimes.
READ MORE: Bryan Kohberger’s First Court Appearance Of The Year Involved A Suit, Tie, And Clean Shave
Wenkai Li, the killer, was charged with first-degree murder, and capital punishment was on the table if he was found guilty… but he made a deal with Thompson to drop the death sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
The families of the deceased victims in that case were enraged, and they shredded Thompson in a letter to the judge, stating they were “extremely upset and dissatisfied with the plea bargain”… which they claimed belied the reality.
Kohberger was charged with first-degree murder in the savage stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students: Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves. The students were slain at their Moscow off-campus residence.
Prosecutors were seeking the death sentence, but they reached an agreement with Kohberger in which he will plead guilty in exchange for the removal of capital punishment from the equation… and the relatives of two of the victims are outraged.
Thompson is the common denominator here, which makes you ask… is this the D.A.’s strategy… dropping the death penalty and plea bargaining to avoid a trial?!?
He stated as much in 1996, claiming that the plea agreement resulted in a conviction without the risk or expense of a trial.
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