Preliminary hearing for defendant in Charlie Kirk shooting in Provo

The preliminary hearing concluded on July 10 and a final decision will be made on September 1 at 10 a.m.

The preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson began on July 6, 2026. Robinson is accused of the aggravated murder of Charlie Kirk and several other felonies.

The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to determine whether there is probable cause a crime was committed and that the defendant committed it.

Judge Tony Graf Jr., who presided over the preliminary hearing, emphasized that all members of the court were to be treated with respect, along with victims of the events on September 10, 2025 and the accused. Several members of the Kirk and Robinson family were in attendance.

The first witness called to the stand was Chris Bagley, a former Utah Valley University police officer. He testified that he was present on September 10, 2025, as a UVU police officer working an overtime shift to cover the Turning Point USA event.

Notable evidence included photographs of a red and black screwdriver and a 'sniper pad' where Bagley testified indentations in the gravel appeared consistent with someone lying prone on the roof of the Losee building within range of Kirk while he was speaking at a Turning Point USA conference.

Robinsons defense attorney, Kathryn Nester, objected to the admission of multiple pieces of evidence on hearsay grounds, arguing that the witnesses presenting it were not the original authors of the statements.

Her objections were overruled by Judge Graf on all occasions.

David Hull was the second witness called to the stand. At the time of the shooting, he was a part of the Utah State Bureau of Investigation's Major Crimes. He was questioned extensively about several videos taken by members of the crowd.

Some of the videos contained graphic depictions of the shooting and the events following. The judge determined that, due to their graphic nature, they would not be played publicly in the courtroom or made available to the media, but would be admitted into evidence.

Privacy was an important issue as several documents and videos required redaction in order to protect the citizens who had provided the information. The judge made a distinction between admitting evidence, admitting evidence viewable by the court, and admitting evidence that was available to the media to be published.

One video was the subject of controversy, as a compilation of several videos that had been edited by the state to include zooms and red circles to draw attention to certain portions of the video.

It was not admitted into evidence, and the state requested the night to create an unaltered version of the video to present to the court the next day. The request was granted, and the court was dismissed early.

Tuesday

The court resumed the hearing at 9 a.m. on July 7 where David Hull continued his testimony.

The video compilation from the night prior had been re-edited to exclude the zooms, red circles, and blurred faces. The video was played for the court and media to view.

The video depicts an individual, who the prosecution believes to be Robinson, arriving and leaving from UVU campus on several occasions on the morning of September 10. On one occasion, that individual appears in different clothes and walks with a pronounced limp prior to the shooting.

The video also included footage from across the street of the Losee building where that same individual is seen getting into position on the roof and following a gunshot, dropping off of the roof and running across the street with an obscured object.

Prosecution asserted that this was Robinson and the object was a rifle. The defense argued that his face could not be seen in the footage and that it was unclear the individual jumping off of the roof was related to the shooting.

Jennifer Faumuina, a sergeant with the SBI, was then called to the stand. She stated that a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a dark towel had been discovered in a wooded area near campus.

DNA was taken from both the towel and the screwdriver and sent to an FBI lab for testing. The state presented evidence that DNA from both Robinson and his roommate, Lance Twiggs, were found on both items.

Faumuina paused her testimony in order for Amanda Bakker to take the stand and will testify again later in the hearing.

Bakker is an FBI DNA analyst and was called by the defense in order to testify about the veracity of the DNA evidence.

She was questioned for more than three hours by the defense about the processes that the FBI DNA lab uses to determine a DNA match. The defense argued that due to small discrepancies in the DNA matches, it was impossible to be 100% certain as to if the DNA belonged to Robinson and Twiggs.

Bakker explained that finding DNA did not necessarily mean that a person touched an object. She also attributed natural degradation to the inconsistent data.

Bakker also reaffirmed that the degradation on these samples had not impacted the DNA results she had received. When questioned about her qualifications and the accreditation of the FBI lab, Bakker responded by explaining the training and rigorous standards both she and the lab are expected to achieve.

The prosecution objected multiple times as to the relevance of this information stating that the purpose of a preliminary hearing was not to determine authenticity but probable cause.

When cross-examined by the state, Bakker said her report showed "very strong support" the DNA of Robinson and Twiggs was recovered from both the towel and the screwdriver.

Wednesday

The hearing continued on Wednesday, July 8 at 1 p.m.

Judge Graf began the hearing by addressing the schedule and asking both sides if they were able to conclude the hearing by the expected Friday at 5 p.m. Both parties agreed.

The prosecution called Special Agent Brian Davis of the SBI to testify after a lengthy discussion was made about several videos that were intended to be submitted into evidence by the prosecution.

Davis testified that he was present when Robinson arrived at the police station and took part in his interview following the events of September 10.

Robinson had turned himself in to the Washington County Sheriff's Department on the evening of September 11 with his parents and a family friend.

The court was shown a video of Robinson turning himself in at the police station. A separate video not played to the court included an interview with Twiggs, Robinson's roommate.

The attorneys then held a lengthy discussion outside the courtroom regarding the redaction and admission of Twiggs interview. The court took what was expected to be a 15-minute recess, which lasted more than 30 minutes.

Ultimately, Judge Graf ruled that certain portions of Twigg's interview would not be presented during the hearing. The attorneys then turned to arguments over whether Robinson's interview and other communications should be admitted into evidence.

The defense argued that the communications could be seen as a confession to the prosecution and deny Robinson the right to a fair trial.

Judge Graf did not determine whether Robinsons interview at the police station and communications, including a series of text messages and a group chat, would be admitted into evidence.

Court was adjourned for the evening after the judge requested Twiggs interview be edited before being admitted into evidence on Thursday morning.

Thursday

The hearing resumed at 9 a.m. with further discussion about Twiggs interview being played to the courtroom.

The judge and defense requested additional redactions before it was played to the court. The video interview that was conducted with Twiggs had been witnessed by Agent Brian Davis, who was on the stand.

Twiggs stated that he and Robinson met in 2023 and began dating about three months after living together in St. George. Twiggs said that Robinson was planning a hunting trip and asked him for a Dremel, a tool used for engraving on metal, in order to engrave something on the bullets he intended to take with him.

Twiggs recalled that they didnt often discuss politics and that it wasnt a focus of their conversations.

Twiggs was also shown a series of text messages, which were later displayed to the court, and a series of Discord messages which were not shown.

The texts were sent to Twiggs on the evening of September 10 and consist of Robinson instructing Twiggs to look underneath his keyboard. A note had been left for Twiggs that was not shown to the court. Then, when Twiggs asked you werent the one who did it right???? Robinson responded with I am, Im sorry.

Robinson, in the text messages, relays that he is attempting to retrieve the rifle that was dropped in a bush near UVU. The next day, Robinson texted Twiggs that he would be turning himself in to the police and to comply with law enforcement officers.

After the review of all of these exhibits the court took a break for lunch. The defense did not cross examine Davis.

Faumuina was called back to the stand to complete her testimony from Tuesday. She discussed several fingerprints and a palmprint that had been collected from nearby windows but none had matched Robinson.

Photos of the rifle, wrapped in a dark colored towel were shown to the court. The rifle and towel were sent to the FBI crime lab for investigation.

Faumunia stated that several bullets were found with engravings and these engravings were shown to the court.

The Dremel, along with shooting targets were seized from Robinsons house by law enforcement.

When the rifle was analyzed for DNA, Faumunia said, it was extremely likely that the DNA belonged to Robinson. She also spoke about the analysis of the bullet fragments from Kirks body. They also appeared to be engraved.

Faumunia was briefly cross-examined by the defense about the processes of handling the evidence and the decision making in why certain items were analyzed. She was then dismissed and the prosecution rested.

Following a brief break, the defense called Samantha Carner, a firearm and toolmark examiner, to the stand. She testified about the ballistic work that had been done with the rifle found and how she had examined the bullets and the discovered fragments.

The discussion went into the weeds as Burt, one of Robinsons defense attorneys, attempted to undermine Carners credentials and ballistic science as a field. He was redirected multiple times by both the judge and the prosecution.

The final twenty minutes of the day were devoted to cross-examination and redirect by the defense.

Friday

Following the events of Thursday, it was revealed that a camera mishap had occurred and accidentally captured evidence that was not released to the public.

A debate was had as to the consequences of the media filming evidence against a court order. The defense argued that the media should be removed from the courtroom and excluded from the follow-up hearing to take place on September 1.

Judge Graf denied the motion and refused to make a ruling on the media's presence in the courtroom for future hearings. He did exclude the media from filming any further evidence presented in the courtroom.

The defense called their final witness, Caitlin Oliver, a forensic biologist with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Oliver testified about the DNA evidence that had been found on the rifle.

She covered similar ground to Bakker's testimony from Tuesday by stating that they couldn't be 100% certain the DNA was from Robinson but that it was at least 1 trillion times more likely to have been contributed by Tyler Robinson and one other unrelated person, than they were to have been contributed by two unknown, unrelated people.

The hearing will resume on September 1 where both sides will be able to make their final arguments to the judge about whether Robinson should stand trial for the murder of Charlie Kirk.

The long break was intended to give both sides the time to write briefs.