BOISE, Idaho >> A man charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in 2022 pleaded guilty today to first-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors that spares the former graduate student in criminal justice the death sentence.

Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty at a hearing in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students to avoid the death penalty.

Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to the 2022 murders that shook the University of Idaho campus. Under a plea agreement, he avoids the death penalty.

Two families have slammed the deal for allowing him to avoid the death penalty, while the other two breathed a sigh of relief that the case never has to go to trial.

July 2 (UPI) -- Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students on Nov. 13, 2022, during a plea hearing on Wednesday.

Criminology student Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to killing four Idaho students in 2022. He avoided the death penalty and will receive four life sentences. A motive for the murders remains unknown.

The man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in 2022 has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.

Bryan Kohberger had initially denied the murders of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves before changing his plea.

Bryan Kohberger has pleaded guilty to murder in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students. He entered the plea Wednesday in a deal with prosecutors that will allow him to avoid the death penalty.

A man pursuing a doctorate in criminal justice when he was charged with the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students was due back in court on Wednesday, expected to plead guilty under a deal with prosecutors that avoids the threat of capital punishment.

Judge Steven Hippler revealed Wednesday his office had been inundated with calls and voicemails from furious members of the public.

The lead prosecutor tasked with finding justice for four University of Idaho students killed in a grisly quadruple stabbing more than two years ago laid out his key evidence Wednesday at a court hearing for Bryan Kohberger, who agreed to plead guilty earlier this week to avoid the death penalty. The evidentiary summary — recited by lead prosecutor Bill Thompson before Kohberger entered his pleas — spun a dramatic tale that included a DNA-laden Q-tip plucked from the garbage in the dead of the night, a getaway car stripped so clean of evidence that it was “essentially disassembled inside" and a fateful early-morning Door Dash order that may have put one of the victims in Kohberger's path.

After two and a half years of legal wrangling, prosecutors and lawyers for the defendant, Bryan Kohberger, reached a deal just weeks before his trial was set to begin.

Bryan Kohberger is expected to plead guilty in a bid to avoid the death penalty

The man charged with killing four University of Idaho students in 2022 pleaded guilty, capping a mystifying murder case that's long captured the nation's attention.