The man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk sat through a hearing Friday that was not about whether he did it. It was about what the prosecutors said afterward.
Tyler Robinson's defense wants the Utah County Attorney's Office held in contempt for talking to the press. As a sanction, it seeks to bar the state from seeking Robinson's execution. Fourth District Judge Tony Graf Jr. will rule June 22.
The question Graf set is narrow. In a June 1 order, he found the defense had shown enough to warrant a hearing and said plainly that this was not a finding of contempt. Friday's hearing existed to test three things: whether the prosecutors knew what the court's publicity order required, whether they could have complied, and whether they refused.
The defense called Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard to the stand. Ballard prosecutes the case and speaks for the office. He testified that he knew the rules and that prosecutors could not discuss forensic testing, the evidence, or anyone's guilt. He said that when the requests came in, he and Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray talked it over, decided that the rules allowed them to answer misleading coverage they had not created, and went ahead. He said he first took a call from Turning Point USA, the group Kirk founded, asking about the reports. He said his interview with TMZ ran under ten minutes. Then came Fox News, USA Today, NBC News, and an appearance on Fox & Friends.
His stated purpose was to blunt "the substantial undue prejudicial effect of the media stories." He said he never discussed specific evidence.
The coverage Ballard set out to answer started with his opponents. On March 27, Robinson's lawyers moved to postpone the preliminary hearing. The motion disclosed that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could not identify the bullet from Kirk's autopsy as a match to the rifle tied to Robinson. The defense named the ATF analyst as a possible source of exculpatory testimony. National outlets ran with it. Some treated the finding as proof that the state had the wrong man.
Prosecutors say the reading was false and that the defense omitted the rest of the ATF's conclusion. The agency also could not exclude the rifle. Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride told the court the defense had reported the most prejudicial line it could find, and called the filing "absolutely misleading." The state's case does not rest on the bullet. Investigators have said DNA consistent with Robinson's was found on the rifle's trigger and on the spent and unspent cartridges.
The defense sees a campaign. Its April contempt motion asks the court to punish the office for the statements, which it says broke the publicity order, and to turn over every communication the office had with the press. Richard Novak argued the appearances were built to move the jury pool before one is seated. If Graf finds contempt, Novak said, the first remedy "should preclude the state from seeking death." The lesser options he offered were a continuing education course or a referral to the state bar.
McBride defended his colleague. He told the court Ballard's statements were measured and not an effort to prejudice anyone.
Graf ruled from the bench on one request and denied it. Robinson had asked to freeze the case while the Utah Supreme Court weighs his appeal over cameras in the courtroom. The high court had just asked the state and the media's lawyers to brief the question within two weeks. Graf would not wait. Robinson had not shown a concrete threat of irreparable harm, he wrote, and a well-known case can still draw a fair jury. "Prominence does not produce prejudice," he wrote.
The hearing's other half drew less notice. At the preliminary hearing, the state plans to prove much of its case by having police officers testify to what other people told them. The defense wants that hearsay barred. The example in the filings is Robinson's roommate, Lance Twiggs, whose account would reach the court through detectives rather than from Twiggs himself. Ballard said the bar at this stage is low and that the state needs only to show probable cause. The defense answered that a low burden is not no burden. Utah has let prosecutors use reliable hearsay at preliminary hearings for decades. Graf will rule on the hearsay question on June 22 as well.
The preliminary hearing runs from July 6 through 10. It has been pushed once already. Prosecutors will lay out their evidence, and Graf will decide whether the case goes to trial. It will be the first substantial account of what the state has.
Robinson, 23, comes from Washington County, in Utah's southwest corner. He is charged with aggravated murder, a capital offense, and has not entered a plea. Prosecutors intend to seek his execution. Kirk founded Turning Point USA and built it into a force in Republican politics. He was shot in the neck on September 10 while speaking to a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University in Orem.
