Tyler Robinson lawyers seek to block Charlie Kirk assassination video
Erika Kirk demands Robinson case be expedited
Criminal defense attorney Donna Rotunno joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss TPUSA CEO Erika Kirk’s call to expedite the case against Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin Tyler Robinson after multiple delays.
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Lawyers for Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused assassin of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, asked a Utah judge to block video of the killing from being introduced as evidence at a trial scheduled for Feb. 3.
Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two, suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the neck in September while attending a public speaking event sponsored by the Turning Point campus chapter at Utah Valley University.
In a memorandum filed Tuesday, Robinson’s attorneys argued that the video was irrelevant to their motion to bar the district attorney’s office from handling the case and would violate his right to a fair trial.
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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)
Robinson’s attorneys accused the Utah District Attorney’s Office of having a conflict of interest because the adult child of an assistant prosecutor was present at the time of the assassination. Prosecutors denied there was a conflict and said they did not need or plan to rely on the adult child as a witness.
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Several videos of Kirk’s murder spread widely online within minutes of the shooting. It was not immediately clear from court records whether the videos that prosecutors plan to present as evidence were previously publicly available.
JUDGE PRESIDING TYLER ROBINSON’S CASE CALLED TO REGULATE DEFENSE DELAY TACTICS
Tyler Robinson, accused of murdering Charlie Kirk, attends a hearing in Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, on Thursday, December 11, 2025. (Rick Egan/Salt Lake Tribune via Pool)
The defense described it as a color video shot “just a few feet away from Mr. Kirk.” It contains sound “including unidentified sounds immediately before, during and after shooting.”
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“It’s a solid argument,” said Donna Rotunno, a Chicago-based criminal defense attorney and Fox News contributor.
Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk is seen on stage at Fiserv Forum during preparations for the Republican National Convention on July 14, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
He said prosecutors didn’t actually need to play the clip to show they didn’t need to rely on the adult child’s testimony or to argue there was no disagreement between them.
CHARLIE KIRK’S WIDOW ERIKA KIRK REQUESTED A QUICK TRIAL FROM TYLER ROBINSON DEFENSE, ALLEGING ‘UNNECESSARY DELAY’
“Unless any material issue needs to be proven at the hearing, the video should not be played,” he said. “I do not see how it is necessary to determine whether the prosecution should be disqualified.”
Salt Lake City-based criminal defense attorney Skye Lazaro, who is not connected to the case, also said she would not want the video played. However, he said, it is not clear how the judge will decide.
“I’m not sure they’ll be successful there,” he told Fox News Digital.
UVU students pause and think as they look toward Orem, Utah, where Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (Matthew Finn/Fox News)
In the application, the defense also claimed that news coverage of the case was “highly biased” and told the court they planned to ask for the cameras to be disabled once again at the start of the next hearing. They wrote that if the video of Kirk’s murder is played in court, it “will be broadcast immediately nationwide and internationally.”
Many publications, including Fox News Digital, refrained from rebroadcasting the widely circulated video of the murder due to its extremely sensational nature.
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Robinson faces seven charges, including aggravated murder, potentially carrying the death penalty.
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A rough estimate of the suspicious movements of Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin Tyler Robinson, based on court documents, videos from the scene, and interviews with law enforcement. (Google Maps, Fox News Digital)
He has not yet made a defence.
He is due back in court Tuesday for the second day of a hearing on his defense team’s request that prosecutors begin the trial.
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Utah District Attorney Jeff Gray will return to the witness stand.
Also expected to testify are an assistant prosecutor from his office, the prosecutor’s adult child and a state investigator.
