Prosecutors map Tyler Robinson's campus movements in Charlie Kirk killing case

Prosecutors opened Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing in Provo by laying out a campus-by-campus account of how they say the 23-year-old moved through Utah Valley University before Charlie Kirk was shot dead. The five-day proceeding, presided over by Judge Tony Graf, Jr. in Fourth District Court, is being livestreamed as the judge decides whether the state has enough evidence to send the aggravated murder case to trial and pursue the death penalty.

Robinson is charged in the Sept. 10, 2025, killing of Kirk, 31, while the conservative activist was speaking in Orem, Utah, before a large campus crowd. Prosecutors are using the hearing to show the backbone of their case now, not later: DNA evidence, witness testimony, investigators’ accounts, autopsy findings and video evidence. They also say the shooting endangered other people nearby, a fact that matters under Utah law because aggravating circumstances are required for a death sentence.

The first day of testimony included a former campus police officer who said he found an apparent “sniper pad” on a rooftop near the shooting site. Other testimony and courtroom accounts pointed to a timeline prosecutors say will help tie Robinson to the attack: he allegedly arrived on campus in shorts and a T-shirt, bought food at Chick-fil-A, made contact with Kirk’s staff, then returned in different clothes before the shooting. Prosecutors have also alleged that Robinson sent a text-message confession to his partner and left a note saying he had an opportunity to kill one of the nation’s leading conservative voices and was going to take it.

The hearing has taken on unusual public weight because Kirk was one of the country’s most visible conservative activists and co-founded Turning Point USA. In the courtroom gallery, Erika Kirk sat with her parents-in-law, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, alongside Donald Trump Jr., marking the first time Kirk’s family has faced Robinson in court. The family has said the proceedings are a painful reminder of their loss and that they remain grateful for public support.

That combination of legal threshold and public scrutiny has made the hearing feel like a minitrial, with prosecutors trying to show not just that Robinson is their suspect, but that the evidence already forms a coherent case. If Judge Graf finds probable cause, Robinson will move toward trial with the death-penalty case already framed around his movements, the rooftop firing position and the broader danger prosecutors say the attack created for everyone nearby.