Charlie Kirk murder suspect faces hearing on excluding news cameras
Kirk’s alleged assassin wants to ban murder video
Tyler Robinson’s attorneys do not want the video of Charlie Kirk’s murder at Utah Valley University to be played at next week’s hearing on prosecutors’ motion to open the case over an alleged conflict of interest.
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Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin, Tyler Robinson, is due in court Friday for a hearing on his defense team’s request to block news cameras and has still not entered a plea more than seven months after the shooting, which took place in front of a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
One of the main aspects of the trial is expected to include arguments weighing the public’s First Amendment right to access the trial and the 22-year-old defendant’s constitutional rights to a fair trial.
Erika Kirk, Charlie’s 37-year-old widow and designated victim representative, asked the court to preserve meaningful media access while the case continues. Two groups of local and national media outlets, including Fox News, also asked the court to allow the cameras to remain.
TYLER ROBINSON JUDGE ANNOUNCES ATF REPORT ON CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION
Tyler Robinson, left, is accused of fatally shooting Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at a public speaking event at Utah Valley University in September. (Bethany Baker/Pool via REUTERS, Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
Judge Tony Graf has already allowed a news camera to be present at the hearing, provided it does not record any private conversations or the faces of Robinson’s family, who are expected to sit in the front row of the courtroom.
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Tyler Robinson (left), accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, sits next to defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a hearing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Fourth District Court in Provo. (Bethany Baker/Salt Lake Tribune via Pool)
At least one expert witness is expected to testify about the potential impact of social media and widespread news coverage on the jury pool; Robinson’s defense brings a well-known social psychologist named Bryan Edelman.
Edelman has worked on a number of landmark cases, including playing a role in Bryan Kohberger’s successful motion to change venue in the Idaho student murders and the prosecution of Payton Gendron, the Buffalo supermarket mass shooter.
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Assistant Utah District Attorney Ryan McBride addresses the court during the arraignment of Tyler Robinson on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Fourth District Court in Provo. (Bethany Baker/Salt Lake Tribune)
Robinson is accused of shooting Kirk during an incident Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University in September 2025. He allegedly climbed onto the roof across the courtyard where Kirk was talking and fired a single shot from his grandfather’s Mauser rifle.
In the video taken by eyewitnesses, the bullet can be seen hitting Kirk’s neck in front of a crowd of approximately 3,000 people. He died due to injury.
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4th District Court Judge Tony Graf speaks during the waiver hearing for Tyler Robinson, accused of murdering Charlie Kirk, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, at Utah Valley University. (Laura Seitz/Deseret News)
Surveillance video shows a man in dark clothing running across campus and down the far side of the building.
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Campus police found marks “consistent with a sniper lying on the shingle roof” moments after the attack, prosecutors said. [there] – marks potentially left on the gravel by the elbows, knees and feet of a prone shooting person.” They also found the suspected murder weapon in the woods in the direction the suspect ran.
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Text messages between Robinson and her romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, allegedly discussed wanting to get the gun back, prosecutors said.
Erika Kirk looks emotional after President Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to her late husband Charlie Kirk in the Rose Garden of the White House on Tuesday, October 14, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
“We’re stuck in Orem for a while longer,” Robinson allegedly wrote in the hours after the murder. “It won’t be long before I get home, but I still need to get my rifle.”
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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 aggravated murder, the top charge against him. He is also charged with use of a firearm causing great bodily injury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and committing a violent crime in front of a child.
People run after shots were fired during Charlie Kirk’s performance at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025 in Orem, Utah. Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was shot in the neck and killed while speaking on his “American Comeback Tour.” (Trent Nelson/Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
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Kirk, 31, was married and had two children.
A preliminary hearing, where prosecutors will have to show probable cause to file the case, is scheduled for next month. It had already been postponed multiple times following Robinson’s arrest in September 2025.
