A University of Idaho professor has won a $10 million judgment after a TikTok influencer publicly spread false claims that she was behind the brutal quadruple killings of four college students.
A Boise District Court jury ordered Texas TikToker Ashley Gillard on Friday to pay $10 million after concluding that she falsely accused professor Rebecca Scofield of having a secret love affair with one of the four victims and orchestrating their killings. The Idaho Statesman reported.
After the verdict, Schofield thanked the jury and said she hoped the case would send a clear warning that making “false statements online has real-world consequences.”
“The killing of the four students on November 13, 2022 was the darkest chapter in the history of our university.” Schofield told Fox News.
“Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be given to the victims during these tragedies. I hope that this difficult chapter of my life is over, and that I can return to a more normal life with my family and the wonderful Moscow community.”
Schofield, chair of the university’s history department, filed the lawsuit in December 2022 — just weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Moggin, Zana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death in an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.
Gillard began uploading videos to her more than 100,000 TikTok followers in late November 2022, accusing Schofield of having a secret relationship with a student and claiming she “ordered” the killing, garnering millions of views across the social media platform.
The complaint states that Schofield had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.
Even after receiving cease-and-desist letters and after police publicly confirmed that Scofield had no connection to the murders, the Houston-based tarot reader continued to post the videos, the history professor’s legal team argued.
Gillard doubled down on her accusations against Schofield after she was sued, posting a defiant video saying, “I’m not going to stop,” and challenging why Schofield needed three lawyers to prosecute her “if she’s so innocent.”
The professor’s legal team said the defamatory accusations portrayed her as a criminal and accused her of professional misconduct that could derail her career.
Brian Kohberger, who taught criminology at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the quadruple murders in a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences in Idaho.
In June 2024, US Chief Justice Raymond Patrico found Gillard’s statements legally defamatory, leaving damages to be decided by a jury.
During the damages trial, Schofield described the pain of seeing her name linked to the murders online, the Idaho Statesman reported.
However, Gillard, acting as her own attorney, insisted that her comments were merely beliefs based on tarot card readings.
She claimed to have psychic powers and testified that she relied on tarot cards to try to solve the grisly murders that rocked the rural university town and sparked worldwide interest.
The newspaper reported that the jury took less than two hours to render their verdict.
The jury awarded Schofield $7.5 million in punitive damages plus $2.5 million in compensatory damages.
With mail wires