(NewsNation) — The mother, father and brother of University of Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves want the trial of the alleged killer, Bryan Kohberger, to stay in Moscow, Idaho.
“I have total faith in the people of this community. They’re not biased. They’re gonna figure it out,” Steve Goncalves told NewsNation’s Brian Entin on Thursday.
After a long hearing Thursday, Latah County Judge John Judge did not make a decision about whether to move the trial. He said it would be one of the hardest decisions he has to make. Kristi Goncalves doesn’t agree.
“There’s definitely people here in this county, in this town, that I would think don’t know much about it,” she said. “There’s a lot of people that don’t watch TV. They don’t come into town a lot. They have farms. They kinda stick to their own.”
Steve Golcalves said he understands the arguments behind moving the trial away from Moscow and appreciates the prosecution’s arguments “to keep it here, and to keep people from … pre-judging. And I think they’ve done a good job.”
He’s also trying to make peace with Kohberger appearing in court each day in a jacket and tie instead of a county jail jumpsuit.
“They’ve done everything they can possibly do to treat him as … I call it a white-collar crime. This person’s killed four people. He should be shackled. This person’s done the most horrendous thing … and they’re getting treated better than a normal criminal would be, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Kaylee Golcalves and three other University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their Moscow apartment in November of 2022. A few weeks later, police arrested Kohberger at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania. His trial, be it in Moscow or Boise, is scheduled for next summer. And Kristi Golcalves said the stress is mounting — especially spending so much time in the courtroom sitting so close to Kohberger.
“I hate it. It is just really hard for me, mentally. (It’s) becoming more and more real every court date. It gets harder for me.”
But she also said the proximity makes it easy for her to silently confront Kohberger every day they’re in court.
“I look at him, especially when he walks in. I’ll look right at him. I’m just dying for him to look over, make eye contact.”
Kaylee’s brother, Steven Goncalves, also participated in the NewsNation interview, and spoke for his parents when Entin asked how the family would react if there was a plea agreement that would spare Kohberger a possible death sentence.
“Absolutely not. No,” he said.