Charlie Kirk murder suspect faces hearing on excluding news cameras
Accused Kirk Killer Wants Murder Video Banned
Tyler Robinson’s lawyers don’t want video of Charlie Kirk’s killing at Utah Valley University played next week during a hearing on their request that prosecutors drop the case over an alleged conflict of interest.
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Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, is due in court Friday for a hearing on his defense team’s motion to exclude news cameras, and he still has not pleaded guilty more than seven months after a shooting in front of a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
A central aspect of the hearing is expected to include arguments balancing the public’s First Amendment right to have access to the proceedings against 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 ensure meaningful media access while the case unfolds. Two local and national media groups, including Fox News, also asked the court to allow the cameras to remain in place.
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Tyler Robinson, left, is accused of fatally shooting Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, right, during a public lecture 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 in the hearing, provided it does not record any private conversations or the faces of Robinson’s family, who are expected to be seated in the front row of the courtroom.
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Tyler Robinson, left, charged in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, sits next to defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a hearing in Fourth District Court in Provo, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via Pool)
At least one expert witness is expected to testify about the potential impact of social media and widespread media coverage on the jury, with Robinson’s defense bringing in a prominent social psychologist named Bryan Edelman.
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 killings and the trial of Buffalo supermarket mass shooter Payton Gendron.
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Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride addresses the court during a hearing for Tyler Robinson in Fourth District Court in Provo, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Robinson is accused of shooting Kirk during a Turning Point event in the United States at Utah Valley University in September 2025. He reportedly climbed onto a roof across the courtyard from where Kirk was speaking and fired a single shot from his grandfather’s Mauser rifle.
Bystander video shows the bullet hitting Kirk in the neck, in front of a crowd of about 3,000 people. He died from his injury.
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4th District Court Judge Tony Graf speaks during a waiver hearing for Tyler Robinson, the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, at Utah County Court in Provo, Utah, Monday, September 29, 2025. (Laura Seitz/The Deseret News)
Surveillance video shows a man dressed in dark clothing coming down the other side of the building, running off campus.
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Prosecutors said campus police found marks left on the gravel roof moments after the shooting, “consistent with a sniper having laid down.” [there] — imprints 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 was running.
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Prosecutors said text messages between Robinson and his romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, allegedly discussed wanting to get the gun back.
Erika Kirk appears emotional after President Donald Trump posthumously awarded her late husband Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
“Stuck in Orem for a while longer,” Robinson reportedly wrote in the hours after the murder. “I should be home soon, but I still have to take my rifle.”
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Twiggs is cooperating with investigators and has not been charged with any crimes.
Robinson could face the death penalty if convicted of the main charge against him, aggravated murder. He is also charged with misdemeanor discharge of a firearm resulting in serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and committing a violent crime in the presence of a child.
People run after gunfire during a Charlie Kirk appearance at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025 in Orem, Utah. Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was speaking on his “American Comeback Tour” when he was shot in the neck and killed. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
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Kirk, 31, was married with two children.
A preliminary hearing, during which prosecutors will have to show probable cause to bring the case, is scheduled for next month. This has already been postponed several times following Robinson’s arrest in September 2025.
