Prosecutors Monday began laying out their case against accused Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson in a Utah courtroom, where they played graphic videos of the shooting and heard testimony from a police officer who witnessed it and later discovered a sniper’s nest on the roof of a Utah Valley University building.
Read more Soccer’s culture clashes with America’s values
Judge Tony Graf will rule whether the multi-day preliminary hearing provides enough evidence to proceed to a trial. Mr. Robinson, 23, is charged with aggravated murder and faces the death penalty. He has not entered a plea.
The hearing for the first time gathered Kirk’s family and the accused shooter in the same room.
Kirk’s widow, Erika, who succeeded him after his death as the head of Turning Point USA, attended the proceedings along with Kirk’s parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk. Donald Trump Jr. was also in attendance.
They sat across the room from Mr. Robinson, who was shackled at the ankles and dressed in a gray suit.
Erika Kirk, dressed in black, dabbed her eyes during the hearing and abruptly exited the courtroom when a police officer testified about witnessing the shooting.
SEE ALSO: ‘I heard a gunshot’: Police officer describes Kirk shooting at probable cause hearing
Prosecutors say Mr. Robinson killed Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025, with a single bullet fired from the rooftop of a university building while Kirk was holding a forum with students at the campus’s outdoor amphitheater.
Members of Mr. Robinson’s family told police and the FBI that Mr. Robinson despised Kirk, a popular conservative influencer who enraged the left by questioning the repercussions of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, opposing abortion and feminism, and calling for the deportation of illegal immigrants.
Mr. Robinson told his family that Kirk “was full of hate and spreading hate,” according to law enforcement.
Prosecutors Monday played three videos taken by audience members at the Utah Valley University event and by TPUSA organizers that showed the conservative influencer being hit by the bullet.
Judge Graf prohibited the courtroom camera from recording the videos and restricted viewing to the lawyers, witnesses, Mr. Robinson and himself.
The sound was left on, however, and when the audio played, attendees at Kirk’s event could be heard erupting in screams and chaos after Kirk was fatally struck in the neck by a bullet. Judge Graf winced as he watched a video of the shooting taken from behind where Kirk was seated.
Prosecutors also submitted the medical examiner’s report, which concluded Kirk’s death was a homicide.
“It was stated as a murder,” Sgt. David Hull with the Utah State Bureau of Investigations testified, adding that the manner of death was caused by “a gunshot wound to the neck.”
Read more Mamdani’s twisted view of America
Mr. Robinson, seated next to defense attorney Kathy Nester, viewed the videos and other evidence. He took notes with a red pen and was expressionless as he examined all of the exhibits presented by the prosecution.
The high-profile case was heavily guarded by law enforcement. At least a dozen uniformed officers were in the courtroom and two who stood off camera behind Judge Graf were decked out in SWAT gear, local reporters who attended the hearing said.
Prosecutors called a former Utah Valley University police officer who testified he heard a gunshot and saw Kirk fall to the ground.
Officer Chris Bagley also described the pandemonium in the immediate aftermath. Police incorrectly believed they had quickly apprehended the shooter in the crowd when, in fact, the shot had come from a campus building across from the tent where Kirk was sitting.
Officer Bagley went up to the roof of the building and discovered what he said appeared to be a sniper’s nest positioned in the direct line of sight to where Kirk was seated under a white tent when he was fatally shot.
“When I got up there, and I could see this disturbance to gravel. To me it looks like a sniper pad, a person that has been laid in a prone position, and you’ve got markings of elbows, knees and feet, which was in the line of sight of where Charlie’s tent was,” Officer Bagley said.
Officer Bagley said he saw Kirk arrive earlier on Sept. 10 and watched him as he was seated under a white tent engaging in a question-and-answer session with students.
He said he was watching Kirk as a student was asking him questions, then “heard a shot fired,” then saw Kirk “go to the left.”
The students and audience members who crowded on the grass “were screaming, standing up and started to run in all different directions from the center of the tent.”
Officer Bagley is among several witnesses expected to testify at the hearing, which prosecutors warned would involve exhibits that are “graphic in nature.”
Kirk’s murder was recorded on cell phones by those in attendance, and the graphic videos were posted all over social media.
Prosecutors plan to put forward dozens of exhibits this week that they say link Mr. Robinson to the murder. They plan to introduce a recorded statement from Lance Twiggs, who was Mr. Robinson’s romantic partner and to whom prosecutors say Mr. Robinson confessed to shooting Kirk.
Prosecutors also say they will show photos of the rifle used in the shooting, DNA evidence tying the weapon and ammunition to Mr. Robinson, and surveillance footage from Utah Valley University and other locations.
Sgt. Hull testified he viewed 16 hours of surveillance video that showed Mr. Robinson or his gray Dodge Challenger on the Utah Valley University campus on Sept. 10 and the early morning hours of Sept. 11. Mr. Robinson made four visits to the campus before and after the shooting, Mr. Hull said, and he identified the defendant, sitting in the courtroom, as the man in the surveillance video.
About the Author
