This week in Utah, the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk faces his most consequential court hearing yet.
Prosecutors allege Tyler Robinson shot and killed Kirk shortly after the political influencer began a speaking event last year at Utah Valley University. Over the course of the week in a Provo courtroom, prosecutors from the Utah County Attorney’s Office will lay out evidence they say establishes probable cause that Robinson was the shooter.
The first time Robinson’s name was invoked was in the afternoon testimony of Utah Department of Public Safety Agent David Hull. He’s the lead investigator of the case and recounted the initial hours of the investigation after Kirk was killed.
“Eventually, on the evening of [Sept.] 11th, we received word from Washington County that an individual in that area had reached out to law enforcement and was wanting to turn themselves in for the incident at UVU,” Hull said.
When prosecutors asked whether Washington County authorities gave him a name, Hull said yes. He said that the name was Tyler Robinson and soon after identified him as the person sitting at the defense table.
Throughout the first day’s proceedings, prosecutors sought to establish the credibility of witnesses and determine whether the state’s evidence is admissible in court.
Robinson has yet to enter a plea to the charges against him, which include aggravated murder and six other counts. It will be Fourth District Judge Tony Graf who determines whether there is enough evidence to move the case to trial at the end of this week’s hearing, which is scheduled to last until Friday.
Members of Kirk’s family, including his widow Erika Kirk, were present in the courtroom. It was the first time they had been in the same room as Robinson and members of his family.
In a statement on Erika Kirk’s social media, Kirk’s family said the support they have received since last September has “sustained us during the darkest days of our lives.” Still, they wrote, “Every court proceeding serves as a painful reminder of his death and the loss that has irrevocably impacted our lives and the lives of his children.”
Kirk’s parents and widow stood up and left the courtroom shortly after former UVU police officer and state witness Chris Bagley began testifying about Kirk’s first moments on campus and the events leading up to and immediately after the gunshot.
Bagley was working the event that day and testified he was stationed on a rooftop walkway above the tent where Kirk was seated in the UVU courtyard.
“I heard an individual talking to Charlie, and I happened to kind of glance over the edge of the railing,” he said. “About that time, I could see the right side of Charlie's shoulder, so not his whole body, because he was underneath the tent, so I could only see probably the right side of his body. He was answering a question. A kid asked him a question, and then I heard a shot fired.”
Bagley testified that he then saw Kirk lean to the left and out of sight as the crowd of thousands that gathered to hear him speak turned into what he characterized as a “chaos kind of situation.”
“Everybody kind of got up; a lot of people were screaming, standing up and starting to run in all different directions away from the center of the tent,” he said.
Bagley then recounted hearing a radio call that a shooter was in custody before he reached the area where Kirk was shot, which he admitted he believed was “kind of fast.” Those initial reports of a shooter in custody proved to be incorrect. Someone from the crowd immediately in front of Kirk falsely claimed to have fired the shot.
Bagley testified that as he began to preserve the scene, he noticed a nearby building’s rooftop had a direct line of sight to where Kirk was seated and moved to investigate. It was there he found a red and black screwdriver and disturbed gravel, which, to him, indicated that someone had been lying there.
“To me, it looks like a sniper pad, a person that has been lying in a prone position, and you've got markings of elbows, knees, and feet to where somebody was in the line of sight of where Charlie's tent was,” he said.
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Much of the evidence submitted by the state on the first day was maps of the UVU campus, photographs of the courtyard and surrounding buildings where Kirk was shot and surveillance video taken on Sept. 10 and 11 on and near campus, which prosecutors allege shows Robinson escaping the scene.
Two cell phone video clips were also submitted to the court. One documenting the crowd in the moments before the shooting and the other recording Kirk the moment he was shot. The latter video was only shown to Judge Graf and the defense and prosecution and was not transmitted on the courtroom’s live feed due to its graphic nature.
A third video, recorded by a production company hired by Kirk’s Turning Point USA to document the event, showed an angle of the shooting from behind Kirk that has not been widely seen by the public. It was not shown publicly and was only played for the judge, defense and prosecution.
Robinson’s defense repeatedly objected to the admission of evidence on technical grounds, mostly due to the fact that the people who captured the images and video were not present and could not be cross-examined, something the defense repeatedly claimed was hearsay.
But the rules around a preliminary hearing like this are different from those at trial. Under Utah law, "reliable hearsay” is admissible in a preliminary examination to determine probable cause. Because the people who captured the images submitted them through official channels and vouched for their authenticity, Judge Graf overruled those objections.
Because of Kirk’s prominent public profile and closeness to the Trump administration, the case has attracted immense public attention. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was present in the courtroom.
The proceedings each day are open to the public, but seating is extremely limited. Security at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo was also very tight.
Hoping to secure a spot in the courtroom, West Valley City resident Selena Armitage had waited in front of the courthouse in Provo since 1 a.m, — hours before the first hearing started. She wanted to attend to hear for herself what evidence there is against Robinson.
“Because, for me, it's not black and white yet in my mind of what happened,” she said. “I was just mortified that that horrific thing would happen here in Utah, and so close to home. I don't want to see it happen anywhere.”
In the months since Kirk’s death, conspiracy theories have swirled. Everything from whether Kirk was actually killed by a gunshot to whether Robinson was the perpetrator to why Kirk was targeted has been questioned.
Armitage, along with Tremonton resident Corey Farnsworth — who also arrived at the courthouse in the early pre-dawn hours — both said getting clarity on what really happened that day was the main motivation to get into the hearing.
“It's just kind of a matter of what's presented and what's accepted and what isn't,” Farnsworth said. “And it might be a long road, but I'm here for it. I want to know what happened.”
Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10 in the Fountain Courtyard of Utah Valley University in Orem. As he took questions from the crowd at approximately 12:20, a shot rang out, and Kirk clutched at his neck. The graphic moment was caught on video and spread on social media in the wake of the shooting.
A massive statewide manhunt followed the next day, with authorities releasing photos and video of the suspect gathered on campus. That eventually culminated in Robinson’s mother recognizing him and his parents questioning him about the shooting. Robinson arranged through a family friend to turn himself in. Officials said on Sept. 12 that Robinson was in custody. Four days later, the Utah County Attorney announced the charges against him and indicated they would seek the death penalty if he is convicted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
