After months of pretrial legal wrangling and delays pushed by defense attorneys, the man accused of fatally shooting Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk will appear in court for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to justify a trial.
Prosecutors will present witness testimony, DNA analyses and other evidence against Tyler Robinson at a preliminary hearing scheduled for Monday through Friday in Utah County, Utah.
The case proceeded despite the defense team seeking to postpone the hearing to give them more time to review mountains of evidence prosecutors say proves Mr. Robinson’s guilt.
Mr. Robinson, 23, of Washington, Utah, is charged with aggravated murder and could face the death penalty. He has not yet entered a plea.
Prosecutors say he shot and killed Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025, with a single bullet fired from the rooftop of Utah Valley University while Kirk was holding a forum with students on the campus lawn.
Members of his family told police and the FBI that Mr. Robinson despised Kirk, a popular conservative influencer who enraged the left by questioning the repercussions of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, opposing abortion and feminism, and calling for the deportation of illegal immigrants.
Mr. Robinson told his family Kirk “was full of hate and spreading hate.”
The preliminary hearing will provide a taste of what prosecutors would present at trial in their case against Mr. Robinson.
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and his parents, Robert and Katheryn Kirk, plan to attend the preliminary hearing, marking their first appearance in the Utah courtroom where pre-trial arguments have been taking place for several months.
The preliminary hearing is slated to begin after a series of moves by defense attorneys to postpone the case and get the death penalty taken off the table.
Mr. Robinson’s legal team, paid for with public funds, includes some of the nation’s top death penalty defense attorneys.
Judge Tony Graf last month ruled against their motion to toss out death penalty eligibility in the case. Defense lawyers argued it should be taken off the table because, they said, one of the prosecutors had defied a gag order by giving media interviews about evidence tied to Mr. Robinson.
Judge Graf rejected their request and instead found prosecutor Christopher Ballard in contempt of court for telling several media outlets that “inconclusive” ballistics in the case did not exonerate Mr. Robinson and that the state had “ample evidence” to prove his guilt.
Striking the death penalty, the judge ruled, “is grossly disproportionate to the misconduct and legally unavailable,” in the contempt charge.
Judge Graf said Mr. Ballard was allowed under the gag order to discuss misreporting in the media that claimed the ballistics evidence did not match the rifle recovered by law enforcement and linked to Mr. Robinson. An analysis by Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives experts found the bullet fragments were too small to conclusively tie them to the weapon. Experts say this finding is common and does not rule out a match.
The defense filed a motion to block the FBI from further testing of the bullet pieces, arguing it could damage the remaining fragments.
Prosecutors said they have plenty of other evidence against Mr. Robinson and plan to present a sample of it at the preliminary hearing.
They told the court they provided defense lawyers with a witness list and 35 exhibits, including DNA evidence tying Mr. Robinson to the rifle.
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