THE family of Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves could be called upon as potential witnesses against suspected killer Bryan Kohberger, new filings have revealed.
Meanwhile, prosecutors filed a motion to challenge the gag order so they can speak to media while the defense is working to maintain the restriction.
4
4
“The members of the Goncalves family, who are represented by Mr Shanon Gray, are potential witnesses in this case, including at trial and/or sentencing,” wrote Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson in a short affidavit filed Wednesday.
This comes days after a gag order imposed by Judge Megan Marshall on January 3 was challenged by Gray who was immediately blasted by the defense.
The order limits what prosecutors and the defense can say to the media and was later expanded to also apply to attorneys representing the victim’s families and witnesses.
Gray argued in an appeal that the decision violated their first amendment rights and deemed it “vague.”
“As attorney for the victim’s families, I am allowed to relay to the media any of the opinions, views, or statements of those family members regarding any part of the case,” he said in the filing obtained by local Fox News affiliate Fox 11.
Meanwhile, Kohberger’s public defender Anne Taylor filed an opposition to Gray’s appeal where she pointed out that gag orders have been upheld against potential witnesses before.
“If Mr. Gray truly intends only to voice his clients’ thoughts and opinions, then the Court’s previous exemption has already cured the supposed First Amendment infirmity,” wrote attorney with Taylors office Jay Weston Logsdon.
“Mr. Gray’s clients may voice these thoughts and opinions themselves – as they have clearly been doing.”
Kohberger is being held under no bail in the Latah County Jail in Moscow, Idaho, for the alleged killings of Goncalves and her roommate Madison Mogen, both 21, and couple Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle, both 20.
The suspected killer was a graduated student at a nearby college and allegedly visited the house of horrors multiple times leading up to the killing, according to a bombshell affidavit.
The deaths of the four students are still being investigated and more details surrounding the devastating November 13 killings are coming to light.
Sources close to the investigation reportedly revealed the chilling last moments of victim Xana Kernodle.
Kernodle was allegedly the last of the four students killed in the bloody rampage, and she fought until the very end.
The unnamed source told NewsNation: “Xana Kernodle put up a fierce fight when the attacker set upon her, repeatedly grabbing the attacker’s knife.
“So much so that she sustained deep cuts to her fingers and that her fingers were nearly severed.”
Best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were killed first by the assailant, before the noise alerted others to the intruder, reports said.
Ethan Chapin, Kernodle’s boyfriend, was struck down in her doorway after going out to see what the noise was.
Kernodle’s father Jeffrey said in November that his late daughter was a “tough kid”.
He said: “Bruises, torn by the knife. She’s a tough kid. Whatever she wanted to do, she could do it.”
Kohberger is facing four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge.
He was arrested at his parent’s home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last December after police investigated the killings for over a month.
His next court date is set for June 26.
4
