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Moscow, Idaho

H alf a mile away from Kohberger’s jail cell, in his office on Jackson Street, Christ Church pastor Doug Wilson closely follows developments in the Kohberger case and the implications for his family, especially his grandson Rory and his conviction for illegally affixing a sticker to a pole.

“This is just personal theory, connecting dots,” he said. “I think that the judge [Marshall] did not want to throw the Moscow officials under the bus by finding in favor of Rory… because that would make the cops look bad. That would make the city of Moscow look bad in the middle of this.”

His argument might not have gotten much traction with anyone other than his own congregants if it weren’t for the fact that, after Kohberger was arrested, Marshall played into his hands by imposing the controversial gag order on the victims’ families’ lawyers.

When thirty media organizations and the Goncalves attorney, Shanon Gray, filed appeals against Marshall’s gag order, Wilson felt deeply gratified. Now he isn’t the only one who thinks Marshall has obstructed people’s First Amendment rights.

This could be very helpful to Rory’s case, he thinks.

“Just, not to put too fine a point on it,” he said, but “Judge Marshall was the one who put the gag order on them, and she was the same person who excluded my grandson’s defense. So it’s the same. This is a small town. We’re talking about the same people.”

Wilson hoped that, given the public pressure, Marshall’s superior, district judge John Judge, would be sympathetic to Rory’s appeal. “We had heard rumors,” he said, that John Judge “was not happy with the city of Moscow.”

But it’s May, and suddenly the district judge is under pressure of his own, because following the grand jury indictment, he’s taking over Bryan Kohberger’s case. It’s by far the biggest one of his career, most of which he spent as a lawyer in private practice.

Later that spring, Judge John Judge denies Rory’s appeal.

Doug Wilson is annoyed but unsurprised. He thinks that Judge, like Marshall, has no interest in issuing a ruling that could further harm the reputation of the Moscow PD in the wake of the murders.

John Judge is from the same network as all the local judges and lawyers. He is a UI law school graduate, just like Bill Thompson, Megan Marshall, Anne Taylor, and even Cathy Mabbutt, the coroner.

Wilson, now clear in his own mind that whatever happens in this case has a direct bearing on Rory’s, intends to fight on.

The Wilsons will appeal Rory’s case all the way to the Idaho Supreme Court.

They will sue in federal court too. They will spend whatever it takes; they’ve already surpassed six figures.

“If Kohberger is acquitted, let’s say, and let’s say he’s acquitted because of a botched handling of evidence… then our allegation that the cops botched this case is… the second verse,” Wilson said.

But, he added, “If it comes out that he was caught and he’s convicted because of sterling police work—and we all would applaud it; including us, we would applaud it—then our allegation that the cops were Keystone Cops mishandling all of this becomes more of an uphill climb.

It is obviously related, either way you go. ”

So whatever happens, Wilson will be watching very closely.

The way he sees it, the fate of his grandson—and, to some degree, his church—hang in the balance.