Alivea Goncalves was not going to hold back when she was given the chance to address her sister’s killer — no matter what happened.
On July 23, Bryan Kohberger was convicted in a Boise, Idaho, courtroom of killing Goncalves’ 21-year-old sister, Kaylee, as well as three other University of Idaho students, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle and 21-year-old Madison Mogen, in Nov. 2022. For his crimes, Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Alivea Goncalves, along with a number of other relatives of the victims, gave victim impact statements directly to Kohberger the same day as his sentencing. “You’re as dumb as they come,” Alivea Goncalves told her sister’s killer. “Stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak [and] dirty.”
During a Monday appearance on “Good Morning America,” Alivea Goncalves said that she was prepared to face any and all consequences that might come her way for giving her searing remarks. “I was prepared to be arrested that day. Really, I’m not joking. I think that every single one of us were,” she revealed.
“I stalked the stalker,” Alivea Goncalves told “GMA” in regards to how she prepared for her impactful courtroom statement. “I found everything that I could [about] him online from the beginning of time to now. It fueled me to know that … I got you pegged. I had one shot at it and I was going to make the most of it.”
“You want the truth? Here’s the one you’ll hate the most,” Alivea Goncalves told Kohberger during his sentencing hearing. “If you had not attacked them in their sleep in the middle of the night like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your f—king ass.”
Alivea Goncalves earned a round of applause in the courtroom after her statement. “Man, was he mad,” she recalled. “That was obviously a big point of why I did what I did — to make him feel small, because he is.”
“It actually makes me really emotional,” she continued. “I got up there knowing that my speech was not to Kaylee and Madi. It was for them.” Alivea Goncalves additionally told “GMA” that she and many of her family members have started to receive negative, hateful messages on their phones and social media accounts from people who apparently support Kohberger.
The Goncalves family have previously expressed their anger and disappointment over Kohberger’s plea deal, which involved the killer pleading guilty to four counts of murder, so long as he did not face the death penalty. “This is anything but justice,” Steve Goncalves, the father of Kaylee, told NewsNation in early July.
You can watch the full “Good Morning America” segment in the video above.
