Idaho
Idaho student murders: Bryan Kohberger's family could be asked to testify against him, court docs reveal
Idaho prosecutors asked a judge to reject, at least partially, student murder suspect Bryan Kohberger’s request to give his family priority seating at his upcoming trial — arguing in part that relatives may be called as witnesses.
Deputy Latah County Prosecutor Ashley Jennings wrote in a court filing asking Judge Steven Hippler to exclude any potential witnesses in Kohberger’s family from attending the trial prior to giving their own testimony.
“The State may call member(s) of the Kohberger family to testify at trial,” she wrote. “Prior to start of the trial, the State anticipates it will motion the Court, or the Court will on its own accord, generally exclude testifying witnesses from the courtroom so that they cannot hear other witnesses’ testimony.”
BRYAN KOHBERGER’S AMAZON RECORDS ARE ‘CATASTROPHIC’ FOR DEFENSE, ‘SMOKING GUN’ FOR PROSECUTORS, EXPERTS SAY
Idaho student murders suspect Bryan Kohberger and his father are pulled over in Indiana during a drove home to Pennsylvania in December 2022. (Indiana State Police)
While victims’ relatives have guaranteed legal rights, there is nothing that gives the same to an accused killer’s family, Jennings argued.
“Defendant requests that members of his family be granted the same rights as the victim’s families,” Jennings continued. “However, the ‘immediate families of homicide victims’ have constitutional and statutory rights to attend pursuant to [the] Idaho Constitution…There is no comparable constitutional or statutory provisions affording a defendant’s family these same rights.”
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Amanda Kohberger, sister of Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger, is spotted exiting Monroe County Court House in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Kohberger’s defense lawyers asked for his family to be included in a list of people to receive priority seating earlier this month, after prosecutors submitted a list of the victims’ relatives to the court.
Defense attorney Elisa Massoth claimed that excluding them would violate his Sixth Amendment rights. But Jennings shot down that logic.
PROSECUTORS CLAP BACK AT BRYAN KOHBERGER’S ‘BUSHY EYEBROWS’ DENIAL BY SHARING ALLEGED SELFIE FROM DAY OF MURDERS
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
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“The Defendant has a constitutional and statutory right to a ‘public trial,’ but that does not extend to Defendant’s choosing whom sits in the courtroom,” she wrote.
The 30-year-old former criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University is accused of driving to the neighboring University of Idaho and killing four students.
IDAHO COURT RELEASES SURVIVING ROOMMATES’ TEXT MESSAGES FROM NIGHT OF STUDENT MURDERS
Prosecutors allege Bryan Kohberger took this selfie photo at 10:31 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022 – about 6 hours after the murders of four University of Idaho students he is accused of committing. (Ada County Court)
The victims were identified as Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. At least two were incapacitated and unable to react at the start of the 4 a.m. home invasion stabbings, according to court documents.
Police found a Ka-Bar knife sheath under Mogen’s body that allegedly had Kohberger’s DNA on it. Prosecutors have also alleged that surveillance video of a suspect vehicle and Kohberger’s phone records help place him at the scene.
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University of Idaho students from left to right: Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21. All four were stabbed to death in an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. (Jazzmin Kernodle via AP/Instagram/ @kayleegoncalves)
The defense did not object to the presence of the victim families in court, but Kohberger’s lawyers took a swipe at the Goncalves family by asking the judge to ban people from wearing clothing with the victims’ faces on it in court.
Another judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger’s behalf at his arraignment in May 2023, to four counts of first-degree murder and one of burglary.
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Trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 11 in Boise after a change of venue.
Kohberger could face the death penalty if convicted.
Idaho
Gov. Little signs bill ending license plate registration stickers in Idaho
Gov. Brad Little has signed House Bill 533, which would remove the need for license plate stickers on Idaho vehicles.
The legislation, introduced earlier this session by Rep. Jon Weber (R) of Boise, eliminates the requirement for registration stickers on Idaho license plates. Weber stated during the bills intorduction that officers can verify the status of license plates without the stickers, potentially saving the state around $300,000.
During the bill’s introduction, some lawmakers argued that it could increase the workload for law enforcement.
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The new law is set to take effect in July.
Idaho
Idaho resolution opposing same-sex marriage advances
For the second year in a row, House lawmakers will consider urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
The nonbinding resolution, which carries no legal weight, says the decision in Obergefel v. Hodges violates the longstanding religious definition of marriage between one man and one woman.
“The current definition of marriage that allows for same-sex marriages is a defilement of the word marriage,” said Rep. Tony Wisniewski (R-Post Falls), who sponsors the measure.
The resolution further states that the Obergefel decision “arbitrarily and unjustly” rejects the historical definition of marriage.
Idaho voters passed a constitution amendment in 2006 that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, which was invalidated by the Obergefel ruling.
Wisniewski said regulating marriages should be a power left to the states.
Rep. Brent Crane (R-Nampa) agrees.
“If you want to get things … closer to the people with respect to some of these more complex social issues, I think the best place for those things to happen is in the states,” Crane said.
Doing so is a risk, he said.
“You may have states that choose to acknowledge [polyamorous relationships]. You may have states that choose to have relationships between adults and younger children,” Crane said.
Cities in neighboring Oregon and Washington, for example, are considering giving those in polyamorous relationships legal recognition.
But he said that risk is worth it to allow other states that choose to only recognize traditional marriages.
Four lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee opposed the resolution.
Rep. Erin Bingham (R-Idaho Falls) said she’s tried to balance her own religious beliefs with those of others while considering the measure.
“I do feel like that it is important for us to work together, to find ways to compromise and to live together in peace and mutual respect,” Bingham said.
The resolution now goes to the House floor for consideration.
House lawmakers last year passed a similar measure, but it never received a hearing in a Senate committee.
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Idaho
University of Idaho professor awarded $10M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders
A University of Idaho professor won a $10 million judgment after a tarot TikTok influencer publicly pushed false claims that she was behind the savage quadruple slayings of four college students.
A Boise jury in US District Court ordered fortune-telling Texas TikToker Ashley Guillard on Friday to pay $10 million after concluding she falsely accused professor Rebecca Scofield of having a secret romance with one of the four victims and orchestrating their killings, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Following the verdict, Scofield thanked the jury and said she hopes the case sends a clear warning that making “false statements online have consequences in the real world.”
“The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, were the darkest chapter in our university’s history,” Scofield told Fox News.
“Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies. I am hopeful that this difficult chapter in my life is over, and I can return to a more normal life with my family and the wonderful Moscow community.”
Scofield, the university’s history department chair, filed the lawsuit in December 2022 — just weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.
Guillard began uploading videos to her more than 100,000 TikTok followers in late November 2022, accusing Scofield of a secret relationship with one of the students and claiming she had “ordered” the killings, garnering millions of views across the social media platform.
The complaint states that Scofield had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.
Even after being served with cease-and-desist letters and after police publicly confirmed Scofield had no connection to the murders, the Houston-based tarot reader continued posting videos, the history professor’s legal team argued.
Guillard doubled down on her accusations against Scofield after being sued, posting a defiant video saying, “I am not stopping,” and challenging why Scofield needed three lawyers to sue her “if she’s so innocent.”
The professor’s legal team argued the defamatory accusations painted her as a criminal and accused her of professional misconduct that could derail her career.
Bryan Kohberger, then studying criminology at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the quadruple murders in a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences in Idaho.
In June 2024, Chief US Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco found Guillard’s statements legally defamatory, leaving damages to be decided by a jury.
During the damages trial, Scofield described the anguish of seeing her name tied to the murders online, the Idaho Statesman reported.
However, Guillard, acting as her own attorney, insisted her comments were simply beliefs based on tarot card readings.
She claimed to have psychic powers and testified that she relied on tarot cards to try to solve the shocking homicides that shook the rural college town and sparked global attention.
It took jurors less than two hours to return their verdict, the outlet reported.
The jury awarded Scofield $7.5 million in punitive damages in addition to $2.5 million in compensatory damages.
With Post wires
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