Bryan Kohberger Is Having Miserable Time Inside Prison as Inmates Are Making His Life Hell Even in Solitary Confinement: Report

Inmates at the high-security Idaho prison knew that quadruple murderer Bryan Kohberger was being transferred there and planned how to carry out a campaign of harassment, according to a report.

Kohberger was transferred from jail to Idaho’s only high-security prison last month after being sentenced to four life terms for the 2022 murders of four Idaho University students. Inmates at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna “were aware he was coming,” former homicide detective Chris McDonough told NewsNation Tuesday. “The inmates were apparently waiting for him,” said McDonough, who now works for the Cold Case Foundation. “And when he got there, they are now making his life absolutely miserable.”

Miserable Life Awaits Inside Jail

“They got together and said, ‘OK, well, you know, how do we harass this guy?” the former cop said. ‘”And apparently, they set this up long before he got there … the guards were unaware of it until it started happening.”

McDonough said that Kohberger is being held in solitary confinement within a highly restrictive section known as J Block, which contains only 32 other inmates, described as “the worst of the worst outside death row.”

The hostile fellow inmates launched a nonstop harassment campaign against Kohberger, taking shifts to shout into his cell through the vents at all hours of the day and night.

“They’re utilizing the vent system. They’re kicking the doors. They’re taunting him,” McDonough said. “And they’re basically, you know, torturing him through, you know, using psychology. And my goodness, he’s complaining.”

The 30-year-old former criminology PhD student has complained to prison guards that the ongoing harassment has kept him from sleeping at night.

“He’s extremely annoyed and frustrated,” McDonough told the Daily Mail.

Fate Still Unknown

McDonough said that Kohberger will probably be moved to the general prison population at some point, but until then, he will have to endure the ongoing harassment. “The inmates have come up with a creative idea in harassing him to the point where it’s basically driving him crazy,” McDonough said.

The former detective said that because Kohberger isn’t in danger of physical harm from other inmates, the guards are unlikely to do much to curb the harassment.

“The most they can do is write it down and, or, you know, tell him, ‘Hey, there’s nothing we can do. You’re not in physical harm,'” McDonough said of the guards.

Kohberger spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, locked in his cell and is allowed just one hour outdoors for recreation, during which he remains in restraints. He is allowed to shower only every other day. Kohberger’s lawyers have previously said that he suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

When he steps outside, the entire unit — or “pod” — erupts with jeers and taunts, with inmates even kicking their doors, McDonough said.

Last month, Kohberger unexpectedly pleaded guilty to the Nov. 13, 2022, murders of Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, and Ethan Chapin at their off-campus home in Moscow.

The controversial plea agreement he reached with prosecutors spared him from the death penalty and avoided a trial that might have revealed possible motives for the brutal stabbings — a decision that angered some of the victims’ families.