{"id":1523557,"date":"2026-07-10T22:26:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1523557"},"modified":"2026-07-10T22:33:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:33:34","slug":"defense-tries-to-sow-doubt-about-evidence-in-charlie-kirks-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1523557","title":{"rendered":"Defense tries to sow doubt about evidence in Charlie Kirk’s killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
Defense attorney Michael Burt speaks during a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, at the 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, Friday, July 10, 2026. (Tess Crowley\/The Deseret News via AP, Pool)<\/figcaption><\/figure>PROVO, Utah (AP) \u2014 Lawyers for the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk tried to sow doubt about the case on Friday, while a prosecutor countered that authorities have \u201coverwhelming\u201d evidence including DNA tests and apparent confessions by the defendant.<\/p>\n

Judge Tony Graf said he will decide if the case against Tyler Robinson should advance to trial after hearing again from the two sides on Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

Kirk, a 31-year-old confidant of President Donald Trump, was killed as he spoke to a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. Robinson is charged with aggravated murder and could face the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Friday’s proceedings capped a week of preliminary testimony and brought an emotional moment for Kirk’s family: The court played surveillance video that prosecutors said showed Robinson on the rooftop where he allegedly fired a single bullet that hit Kirk in the neck.<\/p>\n

Kirk’s widow, Erika, clutched a tissue and watched intently as a person said to be Robinson ran across the roof. When the figure dropped to a crawl near the roof’s edge, she turned and embraced Kirk’s mother, Kathryn, who was crying. They held each other and kept their heads down until the video was almost over.<\/p>\n

Defense questions reliability of evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prosecutors this week presented a recorded interview with Robinson’s former roommate, who said the 23-year-old defendant expressed remorse for the shooting before turning himself in. Lawyers from the Utah County Attorney’s Office also offered DNA analysis that investigators said linked Robinson to both the suspected murder weapon and a tool he allegedly used to etch messages onto bullet cartridges.<\/p>\n

Robinson’s team did not offer alternative theories for Kirk’s death. But one of his attorneys, Michael Burt, repeatedly questioned the reliability of DNA tests and other evidence from prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had a lot of DNA on your hand, we shook hands and I went to pick up an exhibit, a gun, and I touched the trigger of it, your DNA could be on that trigger, right?\u201d Burt asked Caitlin Oliver, a forensic biologist with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal law enforcement agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible. Yes,\u201d Oliver replied.<\/p>\n

The defense attorney noted that government policies don\u2019t allow analysts to say that DNA evidence is \u201cinfallible\u201d or that it has a \u201czero error rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts say the science behind DNA testing is sound.<\/p>\n

Chief Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander questioned the relevance of bringing in Oliver as a witness. He suggested prosecutors met the burden of proof needed to advance the case to trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour honor’s heard four days of testimony now. The evidence is overwhelming. It\u2019s devastating,” Grunander said.<\/p>\n

Robinson did not testify at the hearing. One of his attorneys told the judge they had advised him not to. He has not entered a plea.<\/p>\n

Kirk family thanks supporters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kirk\u2019s family released a statement Friday expressing gratitude for the support and prayers they’ve received.<\/p>\n

“We pray that truth will continue to be heard through a process that is fair, transparent, and grounded in the facts,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The video that prosecutors said showed Robinson running across a roof at Utah Valley University was played for the court gallery at the request of Kirk’s family. Portions of the recording were zoomed in to better show the figure on the roof, and red circles were added to some images to direct the viewer’s attention.<\/p>\n

An unaltered version of that video was shown earlier.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors on Thursday aired portions of an April 20 interview with Robinson’s roommate, Lance Twiggs, who also was his reported romantic partner. The day after Kirk was shot in the neck, Robinson allegedly cried and told Twiggs \u201che wishes he hadn\u2019t done it,\u201d a recording played in court revealed.<\/p>\n

Later that same day \u2014 and only about an hour before turning himself in \u2014 Robinson posted \u201cit was me at UVU yesterday,\u201d in a chat room on the Discord instant messaging platform, according to investigators and messages shown by prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys unsuccessfully fought the public release of Twiggs’ statements and the chat room messages. They argued prosecutors would characterize the material as a confession, undermining Robinson\u2019s right to a fair trial.<\/p>\n

Roommate: Robinson never talked about Kirk<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prosecutors contend the shooting endangered others at Kirk\u2019s campus event \u2014 an aggravating circumstance that could make the crime punishable by death under Utah law. Robinson also faces possible sentence enhancements based on claims by prosecutors that he targeted Kirk because of his political views.<\/p>\n

Twiggs said in the April interview with prosecutors and investigators that Robinson sometimes talked about politics, including Trump. But Twiggs said he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk before the shooting. The defendant also did not talk much about gender issues or LGBTQ rights, Twiggs said.<\/p>\n

The weeklong preliminary hearing attracted intense media coverage and spectators who lined up \u2014 sometimes overnight \u2014 for one of 14 seats in the courtroom reserved for the public.<\/p>\n

Preliminary hearings typically don\u2019t last so long. Legal experts said the slow pace reflects a cautious approach by Graf and the large volume of evidence.<\/p>\n

Conjecture over that evidence has fueled unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that there might have been a second shooter or that Kirk’s death was staged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the prosecution wanted to dispel those theories by putting out into the public record the overwhelming case that it possesses against Robinson,\u201d said Paul Cassell, a law professor at the University of Utah and former federal judge.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyers for the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk tried to sow doubt about the case on Friday, while a prosecutor countered that authorities have \u201coverwhelming\u201d evidence including DNA tests and apparent confessions by the defendant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1523558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1502,1447],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1523557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-heads","category-abc-national-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-12 22:24:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1523557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1523559,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523557\/revisions\/1523559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1523558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1523557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1523557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1523557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}