Lawyers for Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused assassin of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, have asked a Utah judge to block video of the murder from being introduced as evidence at a hearing scheduled for Feb. 3.
Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two, suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the neck at Utah Valley University in September, when he was participating in a public speaking event sponsored by the campus chapter of Turning Point.
In a memorandum filed Tuesday, Robinson’s attorneys claimed the video is irrelevant to their motion to have the county prosecutor’s office disqualified from handling the case and would violate his right to a fair trial.
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Robinson’s lawyers have accused the Utah County Attorney‘s Office of having a conflict of interest because the adult child of a deputy prosecutor was present during the assassination. Prosecutors have denied a conflict and said they do not need or plan to rely on the adult child as a witness.
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Several videos of Kirk’s murder circulated widely online minutes after the shooting. It was not immediately clear from court filings if the video prosecutors planned to introduce as evidence has been publicly seen before.
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The defense described it as a color video taken “only a few feet away from Mr. Kirk.” It includes audio “including unidentified voices, immediately before, during and after the shooting.”
Read the filing:
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“This is a solid argument,” said Donna Rotunno, a Chicago-based criminal defense attorney and Fox News contributor.
She said prosecutors don’t need to actually play the clip to illustrate that they don’t need to rely on the adult child’s testimony or to argue that they don’t have a conflict.
“The video should not be played if it isn’t needed to prove any material issues in the hearing,” she said. “I do not see how it is needed to determine if the prosecution should be disqualified.”
Skye Lazaro, a Salt Lake City-based criminal defense attorney who is not connected to the case, said she wouldn’t want the video played either. However, she said, it’s unclear how the judge will rule.
“I’m not sure they’re going to be successful there,” she told Fox News Digital.
Also in the filing, the defense claimed news coverage of the case has been “highly biased” and told the court they planned to ask to have cameras kicked out once again at the start of the next hearing. They wrote that if the video of Kirk’s murder is played in court, it would be “subject to immediate publication nationwide and internationally.”
Many outlets, including Fox News Digital, have avoided republishing widely circulated video of the slaying due to its extremely graphic nature.
Robinson faces seven charges, including aggravated murder, which carries the potential death penalty.
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He has not yet entered a plea.
He is due back in court Tuesday for the second day of a hearing on his defense team’s motion to have prosecutors kicked off the case.
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray will return to the witness stand.
Also expected to testify are a deputy prosecutor in his office, the prosecutor’s adult child and a state investigator.
