A weeklong preliminary hearing concludes Friday for the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Prosecutors aim to show they have enough evidence against Tyler Robinson to proceed to a trial.
The 23-year-old Robinson is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 assassination of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. State District Judge Tony Graf is not expected to rule immediately.
The hearing resumed Friday with Robinson’s lawyers planning to call a final witness as they try to raise doubts about the prosecution’s case. The defense has previously challenged the reliability of ballistics tests on a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body and fought the release of a recorded interview with Robinson’s roommate, Lance Twiggs, as well as chat room messages Robinson wrote on Discord.
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Zoomed-in version of ‘sniper’s perch’ video to be shown in court
The judge said at the close of Thursday’s hearing that at the request of Kirk’s family, he would allow to be shown inside the courtroom an altered version of a campus surveillance video that prosecutors said shows Robinson crawling out to a rooftop “sniper’s perch” before shooting Kirk.
The unaltered video was previously shown. The altered version includes footage that zooms in on a figure that prosecutors said was Robinson and red marks that were added to the video.
Court is in session
Graf is again reminding attendees of his courtroom rules, including restrictions on electronic devices for many attendees.
Court security director says courtroom visitors shouldn’t look at the parents
Chris Palmer, Court Security Director at Utah State Courts, spoke outside the courthouse as people lined up again hoping for a spot in the courtroom. He warned them that people in the gallery should not make the parents of Charlie Kirk or Tyler Robinson feel uncomfortable by looking at them during the hearing.
“These people come here to get justice, and they don’t need to feel like they’re under a microscope from somebody sitting behind them or ahead of them,” Palmer said.
Joshua Carr of Provo, Utah, was among those in the gallery and said “People were pretty respectful.”
“I wasn’t seeing people turning their heads. Again, we have the — the public was there. We had the Robinson family in front of us, we had the Kirk family behind us.”
Would-be court watchers hope persistence will pay off
Billie Webb of Salt Lake City was among the people who slept outside the courthouse all night hoping to get one of the few public seats inside the hearing.
“I’ve tried to go every single day,” Webb said Thursday night. “Today I wasn’t able to get in once again. I did get in yesterday for the first time. I did get in yesterday for the first time and I am absolutely determined to be there tomorrow.”
“Showed up at 3 a.m. Today for this one. Still did not get in. I was 16th and there’s 14 spots. So I will be camping all night here today. Probably 12 hours. 9 p.m to 9 a.m.,” she said.
Score. Friday morning, Webb got the pink wristband she needed for a spot inside.
There are only 14 seats for the public in the courtroom
People have been lining up early — sometimes sleeping outside the doors overnight — in hopes of getting a wristband for a seat in the courthouse this week. Only 14 wristbands are given out each day, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Chris Palmer, the court’s director of security, warned Thursday morning that tents and other camping supplies won’t be allowed as people seek a seat for the final day of the hearing Friday. He also warned against jumping in line or saving spots for someone else.
Earlier in the week, court security said it discovered some people had bought colored wristbands to try to sneak in.
Defense tries to sow doubt about ballistics evidence
One of Tyler Robinson’s attorneys, Michael Burt, tried to inject doubt into the prosecution’s case by challenging the reliability of ballistics tests on a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body.
Authorities sought to tie the fragment to the suspected murder weapon, but the results were inconclusive.
“Saying anything but inconclusive was inappropriate,” said Samantha Karner with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The defense earlier in the week had questioned the reliability of DNA evidence that investigators said linked Robinson to the scene. Experts say the science behind DNA testing is sound.
Robinson’s attorneys plan to have a second person from ATF testify Friday.
The prosecution ended its presentation Thursday afternoon.
Testimony in five-day preliminary hearing wraps Friday
After testimony in the preliminary hearing ends Friday, State District Judge Tony Graf will rule whether prosecutors have shown enough evidence to proceed to trial. But a decision from Graf won’t come immediately.
Attorneys on both sides say they’d like the benefit of seeing the court transcript of the preliminary hearing and want to submit written briefs before Graf weighs in.
That will take weeks to play out. Graf set oral arguments on the evidence presented in the preliminary hearing for Sept. 1.
Graf tends not to make immediate rulings.
