Tyler Robinson defense asks judge to strike death penalty in ATF report fight
Tyler Robinson defense seeks delay, fights with cameras in Utah court
Legal battles are intensifying as prosecutors plan the death penalty as Tyler Robinson’s defense tries to limit evidence and delay the Charlie Kirk murder trial in Utah. Meanwhile, Karmelo Anthony’s family is challenging his murder conviction in Texas, citing an unfair jury. The episode also highlighted growing parental rights concerns over the Virginia school’s gender policies, prompting a congressional hearing.
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Defense attorneys for Tyler Robinson are asking a Utah judge to throw out their latest filing challenging prosecutors’ request to vacate the death penalty for allegedly violating a gag order.
Robinson’s team argued in a filing Thursday that this would be an appropriate sanction after prosecutors discussed the case out of court.
“The only way this Court can demonstrate that its orders and the rules of ethics that counsel must follow are not optional on the part of state attorneys, even in this case, is to impose the sanction that the undersigned attorney has recommended to this Court: striking the State’s obituary,” says the filing signed by defense attorneys Kathryn Nester, Richard Novak, Michael Burt and Staci Visser.
Prosecutors countered that they did not violate the gag order or other court rules in “correcting the record” after what they called misleading testimony in a defense brief sparked viral news suggesting the ATF failed to match the bullet that killed Charlie Kirk to Robinson’s grandfather’s rifle, the suspected murder weapon.
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Tyler Robinson 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)
The ATF was neither able to identify nor exclude Robinson’s grandfather’s rifle as the source of the bullet fragment found on Kirk, calling the toolmark analysis inconclusive, according to court records. However, the caliber was consistent and the cartridge case was also consistent.
Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty if Robinson is convicted of assassinating Kirk during the Turning USA event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025.
The back-and-forth escalated into a war of words, with prosecutors accusing the defense of providing misleading information through court filings, while the defense accused prosecutors of “arrogance” in responding to a series of media interviews in which they claimed violated a gag order.
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Tyler Robinson appeared for a hearing in the Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, on December 11, 2025. He is accused of murdering Charlie Kirk. (Rick Egan/Salt Lake Tribune)
Robinson’s lawyers want the prosecutor’s written objection to be punished because the judge did not specifically make such a request. Robinson’s attorneys wrote that at the hearing Friday, the court instructed the parties to orally address the defense’s defamation allegations and its implications, but did not require the parties to submit written briefings.
They argued that prosecutors failed to coordinate with the defense before submitting their objections earlier this week.
The defense wants prosecutors to be punished for talking about the case outside the courtroom, and Robinson’s lawyers argue that taking the potential death penalty off the table as a result would be an appropriate response.
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Assistant Utah County Prosecutor Christopher Ballard and Assistant Utah County Prosecutor Ryan McBride appear in 4th District Court in Provo during the trial of Tyler Robinson, who is charged with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk on May 19, 2026. (Trent Nelson/Pool)
Prosecutors say that would be an overreaction.
“The reduction of the aggravated murder charge from a capital crime to a first-degree felony is dramatically disproportionate to the alleged misconduct,” Acting Utah District Attorney Ryan McBride wrote.
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Robinson argued that neither the gag order nor state court rules on Robinson’s case prevented prosecutors from redacting what they viewed as the defense’s misleading court filing.
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Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, tosses a hat to the crowd shortly before he was shot and killed at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on September 10, 2025. (Trent Nelson/Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
State law “expressly permits lawyers to make ‘disclosures that a reasonable lawyer would believe are necessary to protect the client from the significant, unduly prejudicial effect of recent publicity not initiated by the lawyer,'” he wrote.
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Prosecutors denied wrongdoing and insisted they were allowed to “set the record straight.”
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The allegation, which prosecutor Christopher Ballard described as misleading and “misstated”, generated millions of views from a single report and inspired further local and national media coverage.
This also strengthened unsubstantiated claims that other people may have been responsible for Kirk’s murder.
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But in another filing, the defense left out a crucial piece of context, according to Ballard.
“ATF could not detect it” or exclude “The bullet appears to have been fired from a rifle,” he wrote, emphasizing the missing information in italics.
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“Defendant reinforced this misleading inference by stating that ‘the defense may well decide to introduce the ATF firearms analyst’s testimony as exculpatory evidence,'” he added.
Judge Tony Graf Jr. is expected to announce his decision on the matter at a virtual hearing on Monday.
