Tarot TikToker must pay $10M to professor she accused in Moscow murder...

The seven-member jury, composed of four women and three men, ruled unanimously for the dollar figure directed to Scofield. The bulk of the sum — $7.5 million — is for punitive damages, which are intended to punish the defendant and deter her and others from similar behavior in the future.

The remainder of the damages were compensatory, meaning they covered actual losses, including economic costs, such as medical bills, and noneconomic costs, such as mental and emotional pain and suffering.

The financial total outstrips some other recent high-profile civil cases in Idaho. In 2024, a drag performer received $1.1 million in damages in a defamation case. Later that year, a jury awarded $4 million in damages to a coffee shop owner in a longstanding dispute with Boise State University.

In 2023, far-right activist Ammon Bundy and an associate were ordered to pay $52.5 million in damages to St. Luke’s Health System in a defamation case.

During closing arguments Friday, Scofield’s attorneys asked for an award of $1 million in compensatory damages and left the total for punitive damages for the jury to decide. Scofield had previously asked for more than $1.8 million.

In a statement provided to the Idaho Statesman via email, Scofield thanked the jury and said she hoped to return to a more normal life in Moscow. The professor, who appeared tearful following the verdict reading in court, said the jury’s decision “sends the clear message that false statements online have consequences in the real world for real people and are unacceptable in our community.”

“The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, was the darkest chapter in our university’s history,” Scofield added. “Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies.”

Bryan Kohberger, a Ph.D. student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman at the time of the murders in Moscow, was arrested in late December 2022. He pleaded guilty to the crimes in June 2025 in a deal to avoid the death penalty and is now serving four life sentences with no chance of parole at Idaho’s maximum security prison south of Boise.

In the professor’s civil suit, Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco for the District of Idaho already ruled for Scofield in June 2024. This week’s jury trial at the federal courthouse in Boise, also overseen by Patricco, was held solely to determine how much money Guillard was required to pay Scofield.

Guillard took the stand to explain ‘spiritual journey’

On the last day of trial Friday, Guillard presented her defense and called just one witness — herself. The unique situation played out similarly earlier in the trial when Scofield’s lead attorney, Wendy Olson, a former U.S. attorney for Idaho, presented the plaintiff’s case and called Guillard to the stand. Guillard then cross-examined herself in a question-and-answer format before jurors.

Guillard began her defense with a deep dive into her background as an Army veteran who later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fields related to business and human resources. She said she was working as an HR specialist for the federal government when she decided she wanted something different for herself and quit her job to begin a “spiritual journey.”

She said she decided to leave her husband and pursue spirituality full time, during which time she first learned about tarot as well as various religions and other beliefs, including numerology, which assigns relationships between numbers and life events.

Guillard said she watched YouTube videos to train herself to read tarot cards. She practiced on herself and by watching reality TV shows to predict their outcomes, she said.

Throughout her self-directed testimony, Guillard sought to convince the jury that she believed everything she said in her tarot-reading videos about the U of I professor was true. She said when she began making TikTok videos about the case and Scofield in November 2022, she expected to raise awareness about the murders and push authorities to investigate potential leads.