Charlie Kirk murder: Suspect Tyler Robinson's lawyers question reliability of evidence

The week-long preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk concludes Friday. Prosecutors will continue to present evidence against Tyler Robinson to proceed to a trial.

Robinson’s lawyers plan 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.

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 arguing whether probable cause had been met for the case to proceed to trial. 

That will take weeks to play out. Graf set oral arguments on the evidence presented in the preliminary hearing for Sept. 1.

A look back at Thursday

Prosecutors played a video interview with Robinson's ex-roommate Lance Twiggs in open court for the first time.  In the video, Twiggs said Robinson began "engraving bullets" around a month before the alleged shooting.

In alleged text messages exchanged with Twiggs, following Charlie Kirk's shooting, Tyler Robinson said he "had enough of his hatred."

"Why did I do it?" Robinson allegedly said to Twiggs. "I had enough of his hatred, some hate can't be negotiated out."

"I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence, going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven't seen anything in the news about them finding It. will update you by midnight," Robinson allegedly said.

Robinson's defense attorney, Michael Burt, attempted to cast doubt on the state's case by challenging the reliability of DNA evidence and a bullet fragment ballistics test that an ATF expert conceded was inconclusive. 

However, prosecutors presented evidence of intent, including an alleged confession note shown in full for the first time when Robinson allegedly stated his plan to "take out" Kirk, alongside text messages sent Twiggs, regarding rifle fingerprints, bullet casing engravings, and targeting Kirk because of his "hatred." 

Because the shooting occurred at a crowded campus event, prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty under Utah law based on the endangerment of others and potential sentence enhancements for targeting Kirk's political views. 

Attorneys for the Kirks and the media urged the judge to make Twiggs' statements and other evidence public.

Kirk family lawyer Jeffrey Neiman said they had waited 10 months for the hearing but at times had been denied the chance "to meaningfully observe" it. Neiman asked that all evidence against Robinson be displayed openly and in real time during this week's hearing.

The judge responded that not all evidence would be openly displayed, and he needed to protect the rights of both victims and the defendant.

The backstory:

Robinson is charged with aggravated murder for the killing of Kirk. Kirk was speaking to a crowd of about 3,000 people on Sept. 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University in Orem when investigators say Robinson fired a single shot from a building about 140 yards away, striking Kirk, 31, and killing him. 

Crime and Public SafetyUtah