PROVO, Utah – Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin Tyler Robinson returned to court Friday as his attorneys push to exclude news cameras and delay next month’s preliminary hearing months after he allegedly killed the conservative icon in front of thousands at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
His attorneys said they have not had enough time to go over the evidence and prepare, while prosecutors said a delay is unnecessary and laid out four categories that the evidence will be broken into. The defense also argued that allowing cameras in the trial would hinder Robinson’s ability to receive a fair trial, while prosecutors combated that claim.
Following the lengthy hearing, Utah 4th District Court Judge Tony Graf did not provide a ruling. He plans to issue a response during a hearing on May 8 at 3 p.m. MT on whether cameras will be allowed in the courtroom during the trial and whether the preliminary hearing will be delayed.
Robinson was seen briefly smiling after Graf’s decision.
TYLER ROBINSON JUDGE UNSEALS ATF REPORT IN ASSASSINATION OF CHARLIE KIRK
Graf also addressed the gag order in the case after the defense filed a motion this week asking him to hold two Utah County prosecutors in civil contempt for allegedly violating the court’s gag order.
Graf warned attorneys that violating the court’s publicity order could bring sanctions ranging from fines to jail time to removal from the case.
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Robinson arrived at the courthouse on Friday morning in an armored vehicle with a police escort. Fourteen SWAT members also arrived as snipers set up on surrounding rooftops.
WATCH: Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer arrives in court
Robinson’s parents were in court, along with other family members. They were emotional at times as media coverage of the case played in court.
Defense attorney Richard Novak began the hearing by arguing that Robinson’s preliminary hearing must be delayed because the prosecution has failed to turn over critical digital DNA data held by the FBI and ATF. Novak said that proceeding without this “raw data” violates Robinson’s constitutional rights and prevents the defense from verifying the reliability of the state’s scientific evidence.
“We’re not asking somebody to go looking for a needle in a haystack,” Novak said. “We know that these data files exist because we have summary FBI and ATF reports summarizing the data analysis that go all the way back to September.”
During Novak’s opening statement, Robinson’s parents, Matt and Amber, listened quietly; his mother fidgeted in her seat directly behind him.
Prosecutor Ryan McBride laid out a massive “mountain of proof” against the suspected assassin, arguing that a six-month delay requested by the defense is unnecessary because the state’s evidence already far exceeds the legal bar for trial.
McBride identified four distinct pillars of evidence: surveillance from Utah Valley University, circumstantial evidence tying him to the rifle, confessions and DNA evidence.
The surveillance evidence includes footage of a “limping” Robinson with a rifle down his pants, McBride said, adding that it was “clearly him.” The evidence includes matching political “etchings” on ammunition found at both the scene and Robinson’s home, and multiple written confessions stating he “took the opportunity” to kill Kirk, McBride said.
He further detailed DNA matches from both the FBI and ATF on the weapon and a nearby screwdriver, arguing that these “astronomical odds” of a match create a mountain of proof that far exceeds the legal requirement for probable cause.
The prosecution’s narrative – including McBride saying that Robinson was spotted wearing shorts at UVU – met immediate resistance from the gallery, where Robinson’s mother, Amber, was seen leaning over to a family member to whisper, “He was not wearing shorts,” as McBride described surveillance video from the University of Utah that allegedly showed Robinson.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” McBride said, arguing that a lengthy continuance would infringe on the victim’s right to a speedy trial while witness memories fade.
Novak characterized the state’s production as “gigantic and voluminous,” telling the court that his team has not finished reading the thousands of pages of discovery already sitting on their desks.
“Have we had a reasonable time to do so? No,” Novak told the judge.
Graf questioned how the state’s proposal to use “forensic hearsay reports” without providing underlying data could satisfy the “heightened standard of reliability” required by the Eighth Amendment in a capital case.
“I don’t think that just because it’s a capital case, you throw, you know, the baby out with the bathwater here,” McBride said, arguing that while the court should be rigorous, the rules of evidence do not change because the death penalty is at stake.
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Following a short break, defense attorney Staci Visser told Graf that they need “at least four months to finish processing” the evidence that they’ve been given. During the defense’s bid for more time, Amber Robinson was nodding her head in agreement.
“We’re dealing with dozens of law enforcement agencies, hundreds of reports,” she said.
Robinson’s lead defense attorney, Nester, argued that she needs additional time, revealing that the defense has not yet seen the suspected murder weapon, and they have not been able to get into Robinson’s phone.
“We still have never seen the gun. The gun is at Quantico, so we’ve never been able to look at the gun. I actually think that’s really important,” she said. “I also have not been able to get into my client’s phone, the electronics that we have, required an expert to because they’re so massive, we had to all get these huge hard drives shipped to us from our digital expert. I have not looked at my client’s phone, and that concerns me, especially because the states indicated they may call individuals, uniquely connected to my client.”
Nester noted that she had been working on another trial, notably the recent trial for Kouri Richins, the Utah children’s book author accused of poisoning her husband with a fentanyl-laced drink before publishing a book about grief for their children. Richins was found guilty in March.
Graf has already allowed a news camera to be present for the hearing, under the condition that it does not record any private conversations or the faces of Robinson’s family, which is expected to sit in the front row of the courtroom.
Defense attorney Michael Burt informed the court that the defense would call two witnesses – social psychologist Bryan Edelman and psychology professor Christine Ruva – to support their motion, condensing the original plan for three witnesses to save time. Edelman has worked on a number of major cases, including playing a role in Bryan Kohberger‘s successful motion for a change of venue in the Idaho student murders and the trial of Buffalo supermarket mass shooter Payton Gendron.
Edelman said that the news coverage on the Kirk assassination and Robinson was widespread and included “sensationalized” media content.
During Edelman’s presentation, the court heard several clips from NBC News, ABC News, CNN, KSTU-TV and Fox News.
During the ABC News clip, Amber Robinson teared up and held a tissue. Tyler Robinson sat watching, with no visible reaction. As the court moved to watch the KSTU-TV segment, he appeared to begin fidgeting, with one of his hands moving and rubbing his fingers back and forth.
Burt presented several declarations from witnesses expressing privacy concerns, including a prosecution witness who objected to being televised.
“There are over 3,000 witnesses,” Burt said, noting the difficulty of surveying every individual. “We have not been able to survey any of them except the two that we’re providing to the court in terms of whether they have privacy concerns.”
Cole Christiansen, an investigator with the Utah County Attorney’s Office, testified that national media coverage of the case has not been one-sided. When asked by state prosecutors if the electronic coverage was generally negative toward Robinson, Christiansen replied that the tone “went both ways.”
“I think the tone of it went both ways. I think some of the tone of it was negative toward the prosecution and some of it was negative toward the defense as well. Some of it was negative toward Erika Kirk, and some of it was negative toward Charlie Kirk,” he said.
Next, Ruva, a professor and campus chair of psychology at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee who researches jury decision-making and pretrial publicity, discussed the impacts of negative pretrial publicity.
“What I reviewed was predominantly anti-defendant,” she said.
In their closing arguments, Burt argued that the defense is concerned about the media – whether it be news outlets or social media creators – being focused on profit, rather than on journalism.
“I think the court has to look at whether it serves an educational purpose. Is it? And that’s what journalism is – you’re reporting the news, you’re not creating it,” he said. “You are reporting on what’s happening in court. You’re not making arguments for the prosecution to show that Mr. Robinson is guilty. And one of the things we’ve tried to demonstrate in the hearing today is that, at least, the electronic media, the predominant theme there, is advancing the prosecution’s side of the case. It’s not educational in nature. It certainly is affected by profit motivation.”
The state argued that they “strongly support open and transparent proceedings” in Robinson’s pending trial.
“We strongly support open and transparent proceedings in this case, so that the public will trust the process here,” Grunander said in closing arguments. “There are conspiracy theories that abound. There are questions being raised, and the best antidote for falsehood is the truth in accuracy. It’s the actual real proceedings. And that’s why we favor opening this court and allowing the cameras in the courtroom.”
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Erika Kirk, Charlie’s 37-year-old widow and the designated victim’s representative, has asked the court to safeguard meaningful media access as the case plays out. Two groups of local and national media outlets, one of which includes Fox News, have also asked the court to allow cameras to remain.
Robinson is accused of shooting Kirk during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University in September 2025. He allegedly climbed to a rooftop across the courtyard from where Kirk was speaking and fired a single shot from his grandfather’s Mauser rifle.
Bystander video shows the bullet struck Kirk in the neck — in front of a crowd of roughly 3,000 people. He died from the injury. Surveillance video shows a man in dark clothing dropping down from the far side of the building running off campus.
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Prosecutors have said campus police found marks left behind on the gravel rooftop moments after the shooting “consistent with a sniper having lain [there] — impressions in the gravel potentially left by the elbows, knees and feet of a person in a prone shooting position.” They also found the suspected murder weapon in the woods in the direction the suspect ran.
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Prosecutors have said that text messages between Robinson and his romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, allegedly discuss wanting to retrieve the weapon.
“Stuck in Orem for a little while longer yet,” Robinson allegedly wrote in the hours after the murder. “Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still.”
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Twiggs is cooperating with investigators and has not been charged with a crime.
Robinson could face the death penalty if convicted of the top charge against him, aggravated murder. He is also accused of felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and committing a violent offense in the presence of a child.
Kirk, 31, was a married father of two.
A preliminary hearing, in which prosecutors will have to show probable cause for bringing the case, is scheduled for next month. It’s already been put off repeatedly in the wake of Robinson’s arrest in September 2025.
Fox News’ Nikki DiRico contributed to this report.
