Story by Emily Blumenthal
Prosecutors can seek the death penalty if the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk is found guilty, a judge has ruled.
Tyler Robinson, 23, pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder at a preliminary court hearing in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday.
Kirk, a Right-wing activist popular with young Maga supporters, was shot in the neck as he spoke to students at Utah Valley University on Sept 10 last year.
Prosecutors said a “mountain of evidence” suggested Mr Robinson had committed the crime, including DNA traces; posts on the Discord messaging platform, and a note to his reported romantic partner that read: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I took it.”
They plan to argue that Mr Robinson murdered Mr Kirk, an ally of Donald Trump and the former leader of Turning Point USA, because of his conservative political positions on gay marriage and transgender rights.
Charlie Kirk speaks at Utah Valley University on the day he was shot dead
Ryan McBride, a prosecutor with the Utah County attorney’s office, told the court: “Tyler James Robinson shot and killed Charlie Kirk because he disagreed with him, and he did it by firing a high-powered rifle into a crowd of over 3,000 people, which created a great risk of death that anyone would know about.”
Mr Robinson faces seven charges in total, including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, two counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering and committing a violent offence in the presence of a child.
He turned himself in to police a day after the fatal shooting following a high-profile manhunt.
Mr Robinson did not react when his lawyers entered the not guilty plea on his behalf, as Kirk’s parents, Kathryn and Robert, and his widow, Erika Kirk, embraced in the heavily secured courtroom.
Tyler Robinson speaks with his defence attorney during a preliminary hearing in Utah on Tuesday – Getty Images / Francisco Kjolseth-Pool
Tony Graf, the Utah district judge presiding over the case, approved the aggravated murder charge based on “the documented position of several individuals in and around the canopy area” where Mr Kirk had been standing when he was killed.
Under Utah law, the presence of others in the vicinity who could have been killed if the gunman had missed his target makes Mr Robinson eligible for the death penalty.
The judge opted for the harsher capital charge instead of the lesser count of murder, siding with prosecutors who said Mr Robinson shot Mr Kirk from a rooftop more than 400ft away, “knowing he could have missed and killed others”.
Instead of offering alternative theories about the killing, Mr Robinson’s lawyers have focused on preventing the case from going to trial and attempting to keep the death penalty off the table.
Chad Grunander, chief deputy Utah County attorney, points to where the shooting unfolded during closing arguments in the hearing – Reuters / Francisco Kjolseth
His lawyers claimed the state was trying to “shoehorn” the case into the aggravated murder statute, even though Kirk was seated on an elevated stage far away from other people when he was killed.
Staci Visser, a defence lawyer for Mr Mr Robinson, said: “There is one shot. There is one bullet. There is one victim. There is zero evidence that there was any action taken towards other people.”
If prosecutors can prove that Kirk was killed because of his political opinions, Mr Robinson could also face sentencing enhancements if he is found guilty.
A court heard in July that Kirk’s conservative beliefs about gender and sexuality provided a motive for Mr Robinson to target him, because the defendant was “on the other side of those views”, Mr McBride said.
Charlie Kirk’s parents, Robert W Kirk and Kathryn Kirk, arrive for the court hearing – Reuters
The district attorneys have alleged that he wrote in a text message to his reported romantic partner, Lance Twiggs: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
An engraved bullet found in the bolt-action rifle suspected to be the murder weapon constitutes a substantial part of the prosecution’s argument about the defendant’s intent.
The round was inscribed with “Hey Fascist! CATCH!”, which district attorneys claimed was an “overt political reference”. Prosecutors alleged that an hour before turning himself in to police, Mr Robinson posted in a chatroom that “it was me at UVU yesterday”.
