Goncalves family to testify against Bryan Kohberger

Prosecutors said they plan to call members of Kaylee Goncalves’ family to testify against accused killer Bryan Kohberger, and filed a motion to challenge an opposition to a judge’s gag order.

“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,” Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson wrote in the brief affidavit filed Wednesday.

Judge Megan Marshall imposed a gag order on Jan. 3 for attorneys on both sides, which limited what they could share with media. The judge later expanded that order to attorneys representing victims’ families and witnesses.

Gray filed an appeal against the gag order last week, arguing it was unconstitutional and “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 affidavit.

Anne Taylor, Kohberher’s public defender, also filed an opposition to Gray’s objection against the gag order.

“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 — Mr. Gray’s clients may voice these thoughts and opinions themselves as they have been clearly doing,” Taylor wrote in her opposition.

“The sole effect of maintaining the Court’s Order in present form is continued operation of a remedial measure that prevents prejudice at its inception.”

Kohberger remains in Latah County Jail in Moscow, Idaho, under a no-bail hold and is scheduled to appear back in front of the judge on June 26. He is facing four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge.

The 28-year-old is accused of murdering Goncalves and three other University of Idaho students — Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — on Nov. 13 while they slept at an off-campus home on King Road where the women lived.

The former Washington State University graduate student was arrested at his family’s home in Pennsylvania in late December.