The day after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at Utah Valley University, State Bureau of Investigation agent Brian Davis received an evening call telling him to get to St. George — a town more than 260 miles away from the school.
“We received information that an individual was turning himself in, or had turned himself in, was going to turn himself in to police in regard to his involvement with the incident, the shooting on the UVU campus,” Davis testified to a Provo courtroom.
On day three of the preliminary hearing to determine whether the case against Tyler Robinson should move to trial, the proceedings focused on evidence gathered in the hours after he turned himself in to the Washington County Sheriff. The defense and prosecution sparred over interviews given by Robinson, his family and friends at that time.
Robinson has yet to enter a plea to the charges against him, which include aggravated murder and six other counts. The previous hearing days focused on the state’s witnesses, along with previously unreleased campus surveillance video and DNA evidence.
Davis told the court he and other state and federal law enforcement officers arrived at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office around midnight. He said he was told a person arrived around 9 p.m. to turn themselves in.
“Did you get his name?” asked prosecutor Lauren Hunt.
“Yes, we obtained his name and date of birth,” Davis replied.
“What was his name?”
“Tyler Robinson,” the agent stated.
“Did he tell you that himself?”
“He did,” Davis confirmed.
Robinson was then formally arrested at around 4 a.m on Sept. 12.
Proceedings quickly hit a roadblock after the prosecution attempted to introduce an interview conducted by the State Bureau of Investigation with Robinson’s roommate and romantic partner, Lance Twiggs.
Prosecutors said Twiggs voluntarily spoke with federal agents in St. George shortly after Robinson was taken into custody. A second interview with Twiggs was conducted April 20 and recorded in place of bringing the roommate to the preliminary hearing as a witness, Davis told the court.
He said that Lance Twiggs was given “use immunity” for Twiggs’ statements, meaning a prosecutor has agreed not to use those statements against someone in a criminal case.
The prosecution wanted to play that second interview, but the defense wanted it heavily redacted and not public.
Prosecutors said the defense was suggesting redactions to approximately 11 of the 21 pages of the interview transcript. In their view, that was unnecessary at this point in the process where probable cause — not guilt — must be established. It will be up to Fourth District Judge Tony Graf to determine whether there is enough evidence to move the case to trial at the end of this hearing, which is scheduled through July 10.
”This is a preliminary hearing to the court. It's not to the jury,” said prosecutor Hunt. “The court is fully capable of disregarding any statement it determines exceeds the proper scope.”
The attorney representing the Kirk family, Jeffrey Neiman, spoke up for the first time during the hearing. He made it clear that the family favors releasing all evidence to the public without redactions. Not doing so, he said, would create “doubt and distrust in the judicial system.”
“This court has tools at its disposal to make sure the defendant receives a fair trial,” he said. “You'll use them if you find that you need to.”
Defense attorney Richard Novak pushed back on that assertion, telling Graf that publicly releasing the contents of the interview before an actual trial would seriously harm Robinson.
“With all due respect to the Kirk family, and with all due respect to the media, and with all due respect to the public, the number one concern in this proceeding is Mr. Robinson's right to a fair trial,” he said. “Which means a jury which has not been exposed before, under this court's supervision, with this court's guidance to pretrial information of this nature.”
The third day of the hearing at Fourth District Courthouse in Provo was scheduled for a half day, with the hour-long recess to examine the suggested redactions eating into that time. Judge Graf ultimately ruled that the prosecution should return the next day with an edited video to protect Robinson’s constitutional rights to a fair trial.
“I'm balancing all these competing rules, constitutional rights, as well as transparency,” Graf said of his decision. “And sometimes it is an imperfect balancing act, but I'm trying to act in the interest of justice in making this balancing act, and for transparency to actually be transparent.”
Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10 in the Fountain Courtyard of Utah Valley University in Orem. As he took questions from the crowd at approximately 12:20 p.m., a shot rang out, and Kirk clutched at his neck. The graphic moment was caught on video and quickly spread on social media.
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
