Bryan Kohberger has pleaded guilty to all counts.
A judge sentenced Bryan Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students nearly three years ago.
In Wednesday's hearing, families of Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Kaylee Goncalves described the anguish they've felt since their loved ones were killed in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.
MORE | Judge sentences Bryan Kohberger to life in prison for murdering 4 University of Idaho students
The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.
Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen addressed Bryan Kohberger in court, calling him a "hollow vessel, something less than human -- a body without empathy, without remorse."
"He tried to take everything from me: my friends, my safety, my identity, my future," she said. "He took their lives, but I will continue trying to be like them, to make them proud. Living is how I honor them."
Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen spoke in court through tears, saying, "He didn't just take their lives, he took the light they carried into every room."
"He took away my ability to trust the world around me" and "shattered me in places I didn't know could break," she said.
"I was barely 19 when he did this. We had just celebrated my birthday at the end of September. I should've been figuring out who I was. I should've been figuring out the college experience ... instead I was forced to learn how to survive the unimaginable. I couldn't be left alone. I had to sleep in my mom's room because I was too terrified to close my eyes," she said.
Mortensen recalled intense panic attacks and flinching at sudden sounds. "Sometimes I drop to the floor with my heart racing convinced something is very wrong. ... It's my body reliving everything over and over again," she said.
Much of her statement was devoted to remembering her four close friends who died: recounting the nights they spent binge watching reality television, making dinner together, going to parties at their university and the love that they had for each other.
Through a statement read in court by friend Emily Alandt, one of the surviving roommates, Bethany Funke, said she's still scared to go out in public but forces herself to do so because she knows her friends would want her to live her life to the fullest.
Funke recounted her memories of her friends at their off-campus home.
"Our house was not just a house, it was a home," Funke said.
She said Xana Kerndole was the life of the party and "kindest and funniest person," and that Ethan Chapin and Kerndole "were absolute soulmates."
Kaylee Goncalves "had the most beautiful, radiant smile" and could have ruled the world, she said.
Maddie Mogen, Funke's big sister in their sorority, was the "older sister I would've always wanted. There was no one I looked up to or admired more than Maddie."
"I wish more than anything I could hug them one last time," she said.
"I still tell them every night I will keep living for them," she said.
