PROVO, Utah — The judge overseeing the case against accused assassin Tyler Robinson set a trial date on Monday for June 21, 2028, after prosecutors and defense attorneys sought dramatically different start times for the trial of the man accused of gunning down Charlie Kirk last year.
Robinson, 22, is accused of assassinating the 31-year-old Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025, during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University in Orem by shooting him with a .30-06 hunting rifle from a rooftop on the other side of the campus courtyard.
Judge Tony Graf Jr. said Monday he reserved 105 days for the trial.
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“Today’s decision to delay the trial of the man accused of murdering our beloved Charlie until at least June 2028, is deeply disappointing,” Kirk’s family said in a statement. “While nothing will restore the time we have lost with Charlie, every additional day without justice prolongs our family’s pain and forces us to wait even longer for accountability.”
As the designated victim’s representative under Utah law, widow Erika Kirk has a right to see a speedy resolution to the case. That does not outweigh Robinson’s right to a fair trial, however.
Responding to Erika Kirk’s request for a trial by October 2027, Graf said that timeline would leave Robinson’s defense too little time to prepare and pointed to other scheduling hurdles such as the holidays and previously scheduled trial obligations in other cases for attorneys on both sides.
Graf said the June 2028 trial date leaves room for hearings after defense attorney Richard Novak’s expected January federal trial in San Jose, California, gives both sides seven weeks after juror questionnaires are due May 3, 2028, and sets a firm date for lining up witnesses and experts.
As Graf was discussing the victim representative’s right to object to future attempts to delay the trial, Novak showed Robinson something written on a yellow notepad.
The judge said a report from both the prosecution and defense is due by Dec. 14, requiring each party to “file an initial conflict and progress report addressing their ability to meet this order’s deadlines.”
Jeffrey Neiman, lawyer for the Kirk family, said during the hearing that the June 2028 trial “does not feel very speedy to the Kirk family.”
“The Kirk family strongly asks the court that the schedule will not move unless something truly significant requires it to be moved. The family has waited long enough already. They should not have to wait any longer for this. And with that, we will let the process play out,” Neiman said.
Utah County prosecutors asked in court documents and oral arguments for Jan. 31, 2028, as their preferred trial date but said they could be ready in October 2027. Robinson’s defense team has proposed late 2029 as a “soft target” trial date.
Staci Visser, one of Robinson’s defense lawyers, said at a hearing in October that the state’s timeline is “not practical” due to large amounts of discovery.
“Discovery review is foundational,” she said. “It impacts everything else.”
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The court was also attempting to work with both sides to avoid setting a date that conflicts with previously scheduled trials they have in other cases.
One directly conflicted with the prosecution’s desired start date, a federal racketeering case Novak has scheduled for Jan. 10, 2028.
“The reality is rushing to trial does not lead to closure. It does not lead to finality. It leads to mistakes,” he said at a hearing on Oct. 23.
Both sides agreed that setting a trial earlier, which would be interrupted for a break during the holidays, could put potential jurors and witnesses in a bind.
The case’s pace has even attracted criticism from President Donald Trump, who wrote on the Truth Social platform that the judge was doing “a terrible job” moving things along.
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“This case should be tried within a month, not three years — and it should be over with,” Trump wrote. “The judge is desecrating the memory of the Great Charlie Kirk, while taking forever to ask questions that people already know the answer to. The whole Country is mocking him and our ‘Legal’ System. JUSTICE FOR CHARLIE!”
Robinson’s lawyers used the president’s post to argue that news cameras should be kicked out of the courtroom. Graf denied the request, as he has done several times previously.
“He’s very slow — he’s very deliberate on making decisions,” Donna Rotunno, a criminal defense attorney and Fox News contributor, told “Fox & Friends” Monday. “I do hope he sets a trial date. The only reason he wouldn’t is if he says there are too many motions that are still outstanding and we need to get through those first.”
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“Justice delayed this long stops being justice for the Kirk family,” Neiman, an attorney for Kirk’s widow, Erika, told the court at the Oct. 23 hearing.
Robinson did not enter a plea until last month, nearly a year after being charged.
