Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker

Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker is an internet viral video featuring a hitchhiking man who calls himself "Kai". It was released on February 2, 2013, by a reporter from a local news station in California. The video went viral and received national attention in the press. Kai Lawrence, later identified as Caleb Lawrence McGillvary from Canada, would cite the fall-out from the video as part of his defense against a homicide charge that was filed in New Jersey a few months after the video was released.
Viral video.
The video is by local Fox affiliate KMPH in Fresno, California. It is an eyewitness account by a man calling himself "Kai" who describes what happened (according to Kai) soon after the course of events and while still on the scene. Kai had been hitchhiking and was picked up by a man named Jett Simmons McBride who weighed 300 pounds and claimed to be Jesus Christ. McBride told Kai he once raped a 14-year-old girl in the Virgin Islands while on a business trip. McBride then crashed into a pedestrian, pinning the latter against a truck. Kai jumped out of the car to help the pinned pedestrian while the driver remained in the car. However, when a bystander arrived on the scene to help, McBride jumped out and attacked her in a bear hug. Sensing the woman's life may be in danger, and believing the man could snap her neck "like a pencil stick", Kai removed a hatchet from his backpack and began to repeatedly strike McBride in the back of the head. Kai described the hatchet-wielding attack as a "Smash, Smash, SUH-MASH" while he reenacted the over-head swings. Kai was interrogated by police and set free.
The video was uploaded to YouTube on February 2, 2013, by Jessob Reisbeck who also conducted the interview for KMPH. As of October 27, 2019, the video had over 7 million views. The Gregory Brothers sampled the interview and turned it into a song; as of October 27, 2019, the video garnered over 10 million views. In January 2020, Kai was interviewed on "Inside Edition" where scenes from viral video were replayed; this video segment uploaded to YouTube had over 5.5 million views as of November 2020.
Murder conviction.
Kai was arrested on murder charges in May 2013 for the death of New Jersey attorney Joseph Galfy. Kai maintained he fought against Galfy in self-defense. According to Kai, he had been drugged and raped by Galfy after he offered Kai a place to stay for the night. Kai stated that the police claimed the sexual encounter was consensual and the murder premeditated; however, Kai said that after the viral video in California, he had no need to have sex with men like Galfy, whom Kai described as unattractive, stating "Do you know how many hot chicks—never mind. Even if I was gay, do you know how many hot guys wanted to fuck me after that shit in California? I'm not even being vain. It's just a fact, like—no offense, but he [Galfy] was not a looker".
After the murder charges, the video views increased substantially increasing its viral reach. Fans of the video, who considered Kai a hero for saving the woman, raised a legal fund. Kai was imprisoned for over five years awaiting trial which began April 1, 2019. Kai took the stand in his own defense and was combative during cross examination; he made an outburst during his defense lawyer’s closing arguments nearly leading to his expulsion from the court room. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to 57 years in prison. He will serve 85 percent of that term before the possibility of parole, with the judge telling McGillvary, "when you become eligible for parole, you will still be younger than Mr. Galfy was when you murdered him," who was 73 at the time. Kai said he plans to appeal the conviction.