Bryan Kohberger—charged with the chilling murder of four Idaho students—appeared in court Friday for a hearing that spanned over five hours. But it was Kaylee Goncalves’ aunt turning heads with her shirt demanding the suspected killer face a firing squad.
As Your Content readers know, Kohberger’s legal eagles made their second plea to halt the trial. Judge John Judge, true to his name, wasn’t having any of it and kept the trial on its tracks for an October 2 showdown.
After Friday’s court hearing, a new shirt began circulating online. Available just after midnight on Saturday, the black tee carries a powerful message.
At the top, it reads “#JUSTICEFORKAYLEE” in vibrant yellow with the scales of justice in the middle. Directly below: “Idaho House Bill 186 Shots Fired” is emblazoned in white, referencing the state’s recent legislation concerning death penalty executions.
The defense paraded expert witnesses in genetic genealogy, forensic law, and DNA, hoping to pry more evidence out of the prosecution.
Bill Thompson, the Latah County prosecutor, was confident in the prosecution’s preparations, stating that they had provided all available discovery items. The cornerstone of the prosecution’s case hinges on DNA evidence found on a knife sheath, which seemingly matches Kohberger’s own DNA.
The prosecution has pinned the November 13, 2022, murders of Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Kaylee Goncalves on Kohberger.
They allege that Kohberger broke into an off-campus residence, leading to the tragic events. Critical to their case is the DNA evidence recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene. Court documents reveal this DNA exhibited a “statistical match” with a sample taken from Kohberger.
CORRECTION NOTICE: This post was updated on August 19, 2023 at 1:15 p.m. to rectify a mistake in our previous report. In our initial article, we inaccurately stated that Kaylee Goncalves’ mother wore a t-shirt advocating the firing squad death penalty during Bryan Kohberger’s court hearing. It has since been clarified that the t-shirt was worn by Kaylee Goncalves’ aunt, not her mother. During a break in the proceedings, one of Goncalves’ family members was observed with the said t-shirt. We sincerely apologize for the error made in our earlier publication.