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"I had one shot at it, and I was going to make the most of it," Alivea said of the emotional speech, which has since gone viral.
Alivea Goncalves is speaking out after delivering a scathing victim impact statement at Bryan Kohberger's sentencing -- one she said had her worried would end with her in handcuffs.
Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive life terms on Wednesday for the brutal 2022 murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Maddie Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20.
During the hearing, Alivea, Kaylee's sister, directly confronted Kohberger, calling out the suspected killer for what he did to her sister and her best friend Maddie.
"You want the truth? Here's the one you'll hate the most," she told Kohberger in court. "If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your f--king ass.”
Days later, Alivea opened up to Good Morning America about the powerful moment, and the risk she thought she was taking by speaking so boldly.
"I was prepared to be arrested that day," she admitted in the interview, adding, "I think that every single one of us were."
She revealed that she drew strength from Kohberger's reaction during her speech, saying, "I was fueled by the rage on his face. Man, was he mad."
"That was obviously a big point of why I did what I did. To make him feel small, because he is," Alivea added. "It actually makes me really emotional. I got up there knowing that my speech wasn't to Kaylee and Maddie. It was for them."
Alivea memorized the entire statement to keep her eyes locked on Kohberger the whole time.
"I had one shot at it, and I was going to make the most of it," she said, adding that she poured hours of preparation into her remarks -- which included deep research on the man who murdered her sister.
Alivea continued, "I mean, I stalked the stalker. I found everything that I could online from the beginning of time to now. It fueled me to know that I got you pegged.”
Kaylee Goncalves' Sister Opens Up About Bryan Kohberger's 'Raw Anger' in Court
View StoryKaylee reportedly expressed concerns about being watched before the murders. According to a police affidavit, Kaylee had told friends -- including surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen -- that "an individual was following her" and had also seen a shadow while walking her dog Murphy in the weeks before her death.
In court, Alivea didn't hold back when describing her sister and Maddie, and contrasting them with Kohberger.
"They were everything that you could never be -- loved, accepted, vibrant, accomplished, brave and powerful," she said, calling Kohberger "painfully average."
"You aren't profound, you're pathetic," she declared.
Later, in an interview with NewsNation, Alivea described what it felt like to be in the same courtroom with Kohberger, saying, "I'm not intimidated by him, truly, I'm not, but…there's a primal sense of alarm, like my body was telling me, 'Run, get out. This is a threat.'"
