- Tyler Robinson, accused of killing Charlie Kirk, argues contempt in court.
- Robinson claims Utah County Attorney violated a media statement court order.
- Judge Graf denies stay request despite high publicity concerns in the case.
PROVO — Tyler Robinson, accused of shooting and killing Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, is back in court to argue two issues before 4th District Judge Tony Graf.
Robinson and his attorneys believe the Utah County Attorney's Office should be held in contempt of court for violating Graf's order, which forbids attorneys from making additional public statements or comments to the media.
Robinson, 23, is accused of shooting and killing political activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025. He faces a potential death sentence if convicted.
Graf started Friday's hearing by issuing a ruling on Robinson's request for all state legal proceedings to be put on hold while the Utah Supreme Court decides whether it will hear their appeal regarding electronic media coverage. On Saturday, the Utah Supreme Court requested that the Utah County Attorney's Office and attorneys for the media each file a response to Robinson's petition within two weeks. Because of that, Robinson wants his legal proceedings to be stayed while the state's high court considers the defense's petition.
On Friday, Graf denied the motion, stating that Robinson "has not established a concrete threat of irreparable harm" if cameras are allowed to continue in the courtroom pending the high court's decision. While Graf says he is not minimizing Robinson's concerns regarding the high publicity the case has generated, he says "extensive publicity does not mean an impartial jury cannot be selected."
"Prominence does not produce prejudice," Graf stated in his ruling.
The judge stated that the case's continued progression outweighs the need for a stay.
In March, Robinson filed a motion to postpone his preliminary hearing. In that motion, they noted that an initial report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives "indicates that the ATF was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson." And the defense said it might offer the testimony of the ATF firearm analyst as "exculpatory evidence."
Prosecutors, however, contend that the defense put misleading information in its court filing, and say Robinson specifically left out a key part of the ATF report that said it could not identify "or exclude" that the bullet fragments recovered at autopsy matched the rifle found near the shooting that investigators believe Robinson used. In an effort to correct the alleged mischaracterization of evidence and prevent the potential jury pool in Utah County from being prejudiced by the misleading information, prosecutor Chris Ballard, the office's spokesman, appeared on several national news programs and sent a statement from the Utah County Attorney's Office to several outlets, which prosecutors argue simply corrected the misleading statements.
On June 1, Graf granted Robinson's motion for a full evidentiary hearing on the issue.
"The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether the evidence establishes the elements of contempt. Namely, whether (1) the Utah County Attorney's Office and its representatives knew what was required under the court's pretrial publicity order; (2) the respondents had the ability to comply with that order; and (3) the respondents, by making specific statements to various media outlets, intentionally failed or refused to comply with the pretrial publicity order," the judge said.
Each side will have 90 minutes on Friday to show why they believe the Utah County Attorney's Office did or did not violate the court order.
Also, Friday, Graf will hear arguments on whether hearsay from law enforcement expected to be called to the witness stand during Robinson's preliminary hearing, set for July 6-10, will be allowed.
Hearsay evidence is any statement that an officer might collect from another person and present at the preliminary hearing. That might include, for example, detectives who talked to Robinson's roommate, Lance Twiggs, although Twiggs is not scheduled to be called to the witness stand himself, or officers who talked to witnesses at Utah Valley University on the day of Kirk's shooting, but those witnesses aren't being called themselves to testify.
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