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Ashley Guillard.Credit : lordashleyg/TikTok
An influencer has been ordered to pay $10 million in damages to an Idaho professor for falsely claiming she was involved in the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students.
On Friday, Feb. 27, a federal jury ordered content creator Ashley Guillard — known online for theorizing about high-profile unsolved murders, sometimes by consulting tarot cards — to pay University of Idaho professor Rebecca Scofield $10 million in damages for her claims, per court documents obtained by PEOPLE.
According to the initial complaint, filed by Scofield against Guillard in December 2022, the content creator made a series of posts on TikTok in November 2022, claiming that Scofield was responsible for the murders of four University of Idaho students — the gripping case in which Bryan Kohberger later confessed to the killings and received four lifetime sentences.
In her videos, Guillard also allegedly implied or directly stated that Scofield had been involved in a romantic relationship with one of the murder victims, the complaint added.
The complaint went on to say that Scofield sent Guillard several cease and desist letters, though the content creator continued to post videos claiming that Scofield had orchestrated the murders after the student threatened to make their relationship public.
In a June 6, 2024, order, a federal judge sided with Scofield, ruling that the internet personality’s statements were defamatory and based “only” on her “spiritual intuition about the murders” — not “any objective basis.”
The judge also noted that Guillard’s social media posts continued even after the Moscow Police Department issued a press release in December 2022 stating that Scofield was not a suspect in the murder investigation.
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University of Idaho.Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty
During the federal trial last week, jurors heard testimony about how accusations made online can affect one’s reputation in the workforce, even when the allegations are later disproven, reported Idaho News 6.
On Friday, Feb. 27, the jury ordered Guillard to pay Scofield $6.5 million in damages for the allegations related to the University of Idaho murders and $3.5 million for false statements about an inappropriate relationship with a student, per court docs.
“The $10 million verdict reinforces the judge’s decision and sends the clear message that false statements online have consequences in the real world for real people and are unacceptable in our community,” said Scofield in a statement to PEOPLE after the verdict. “The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, was the darkest chapter in our university’s history. Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies.”
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In a 21-part series of TikToks posted on March 2 and March 3, Guillard responded to the verdict, disputing the jury’s ruling and calling it “unfair and ridiculous.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, Guillard claimed that the “verdict does not reflect the evidence” and disputed the impartiality of several members of the jury. She indicated she might try to appeal the ruling.



