In our era of instantaneous information sharing on social media, it’s possible to go from being unknown to a household name in a matter of days — or even hours. However, there’s a big difference between being famous and being notorious. If your origin story is based on hitting someone else in the head with a hatchet, you might well fall into the latter category.
The bizarre and somewhat tragic story of Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, known to millions as “Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker,” took another strange turn on September 30, 2025. The “Smash, smash, suh-MASH!” guy, who rocketed to prominence after defending others from the driver of a car he was in, had a federal judge in Georgia grant a dismissal of his misappropriation of likeness and defamation lawsuit against a group of YouTubers who had made comments while interpreting his body language from a KMPH news interview he’d given in the aftermath of the attack.
McGillvary filed the lawsuit in 2023 from his cell in a New Jersey prison. His internet fame was abruptly cut short after he was arrested and ultimately convicted of first-degree murder three months after his star-making incident. He’s currently serving a 57-year sentence and, fortunately, no longer has access to hatchets.
A Violent Three Months
Also known as Caleb “Kai” McGillvary, the Canadian hitchhiker was catapulted into the national zeitgeist for his involvement in a 2013 incident in Fresno, California. Picked up by Jett Simmons McBride, McGillvary claimed Simmons told him that he was Jesus Christ and that he’d raped a 14-year-old girl shortly before he deliberately crashed the vehicle the two were in into a utility truck, pinning someone against the truck’s front bumper. McGillvary got out to assist others in helping the victim. When Simmons, a man McGillvary estimated to weigh 300 pounds, attacked a young woman, he put his hatchet to work.
After the incident, McGillvary was taped giving an extremely animated interview to KMPH, a local news station. A police investigation determined that McGillvary had responded with “justifiable force,” and no charges were filed against him. The footage of McGillvary’s interview with the news reporter from KMPH quickly went viral. McGillvary was suddenly famous and found himself appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” However, it didn’t take long for the hitchhiker’s life to hit a pothole.
Three months later, McGillvary was arrested for the murder of lawyer Joseph Galfy in New Jersey. While McGillvary claims he acted in self-defense, he was convicted of first-degree murder in 2019 for beating the 73-year-old Galfy to death. His 2021 appeal failed.
McGillvary rose back to national attention with the 2023 true-crime documentary on the streaming service Netflix titled “The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker.” Five days before the show’s release, Greg Hartley, Scott Rouse, and Chase Hughes broadcast a video on their YouTube channel, “The Behavior Panel,” where they used the KMPH clip to offer analysis and speculation on McGillvary based on his statements and his body language. McGillvary responded by filing for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, defamation, and racketeering against the defendants and their associated companies, IdeaBang LLC and bodylanguagetactics.com.
Argument Suh-Mashed
In a lawsuit filed pro se, McGillvary accused the defendants of making 28 slanderous and libelous statements they knew to be untrue about him as they analyzed the KMPH footage. This included implying that he was a sociopath or a psychopath, and that perhaps he’d entered into the fray looking to be a hero, among a host of other claims.
McGillvary also claimed that he’d trademarked “Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker” and “Smash, smash, suh-MASH!” His lawsuit stated that this meant that the defendants had violated his intellectual property by using both of them in their video without his consent, along with his right of publicity.
U.S. District Senior Judge C. Ashley Royal didn’t agree that McGillvaey had an axe - or a hatchet - to grind. Because McGillvary had placed himself in the position of public notoriety, and the KMPH clip was a matter of public record, Senior Judge Royal ruled that there is no liability when the defendants merely gave him more of the same publicity. As for intellectual property theft, the judge noted that the defendants didn’t use any of McGillvary’s identity to sell a specific product.
McGillvary had no other facts to back up his claims, so Senior Judge Royal dismissed the suit without leave to amend. With his hitchhiking days on hold until at least 85% of his sentence has been served, McGillvary’s chances of needing to wield a hatchet again are slim indeed.
Related Resources
- Prisoner Rights (FindLaw’s Civil Rights Law)
- Should You Represent Yourself in Court? (FindLaw’s What To Expect When Going to Court)
- What Is a Trademark? (FindLaw’s Intellectual Property Law)
