Note: please disregard any typos as this was transcribed quickly from listening to the Goncalves family speak outside of the courthouse today. Kaylee's brother read his statement and really laid into Thompson's previous case history and how often he has offered up plea deals in similarly heinous cases. (They added even more cases to the small list of cases I shared of those already on WS).
"We won't stop now, we've crossed nearly every murder case prosecuted by Bill Thompson, including the killing of University of Idaho football player Eric McMillan. There is a clear and troubling pattern .Families are left feeling unheard. Justice is negotiated down through plea deals, and the public is left with unanswered questions. In the McMillan case, charges were reduced from first degree to second degree murder, prompting confusion and outrage from the victim's family and community. Same pattern emerged in the Silas Parks and John Lee cases, both of which prosecuted by Bill Thompson. Four capital eligible crimes were resolved through plea agreements, sidestepping trials and diminishing public accountability.
The most egregious of these crimes was the brutal killing of Whitney Parks, a young pregnant woman whose life was taken by her husband Silas Parks during a violent domestic assault. Whitney was only 22 years old when he was beaten and strangled in her own home, an act of cruelty that not only ended her life, but also the life of her unborn child. And yet despite the devastating nature of this crime, Bill Thompson reduced the charges from murder to voluntary manslaughter. Ultimately securing a sentence that allowed Parks the possibility of parole after just five years.
There was no trial, no full accounting of what Whitney endured, no acknowledgement in the legal outcomes of the child she was carrying. For Whitney's family, for anyone who believed that justice system should speak forcefully for victims, this wasn't justice. It was a deal, and it was like so many others under Thompson's watch.
It prioritized expedience over accountability. Now most predictably, we find ourselves reliving that pattern in the current case. Despite the magnitude and brutality of the crime, the prosecution chose to accept a plea deal behind closed doors, without trial, without ever consulting our family in any meaningful way.
In fact, we learned from the plea deal that had been finalized from an email from the prosecution team, not in person, not with warning, not with respect. That moment underscored what we feared all along, and that this case was following the same well-worn path toward expedience over justice. Sentencing once again fails to reflect the severity of the act, and the emotional fallout has landed again on the shoulders of the victim's families, who have been left out, unheard, and grieving.
Not just a horrific loss, but a system that continues to bypass them. The through line is undeniable. Whether it's 2004 or 2025..." (statement goes on but I am posting just a portion).
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I am really sorry the actions of the prosecution team has made them feel this way.
