OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
12:44 PM – Friday, January 16, 2026
Tyler Robinson, the man accused of fatally shooting Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in the neck at a campus event in September, is returning to court seeking to disqualify prosecutors in the case over a potential conflict of interest.
The 22-year-old alleged assassin is set to reappear in court on Friday afternoon, facing charges of aggravated murder, for which prosecutors seek the death penalty, felony discharge of a firearm, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a minor.
Robinson’s defense team is arguing that the child of one of the deputy county attorneys from the Utah County Attorney’s Office was in attendance at the Utah Valley University event where Kirk was shot, according to the Associated Press. As a result, the defense team plans to push for the entire office to be disqualified from prosecuting the case.
The 18-year-old, whose name was redacted from court documents, sent messages to his father describing the scene.
“While the second person in line was speaking with Charlie, I was looking around the crowd when I heard a loud sound, like a pop. Someone yelled, ‘he’s been shot,’” the attendee recounted in the affidavit, obtained by the Associated Press.
“CHARLIE GOT SHOT,” the individual, known as “adult child (AC),” later sent to a family group chat.
The message thread “raises serious concerns about past and future prosecutorial decision-making in this case,” Robinson’s lawyers said, according to court documents.
The county attorney’s office will argue that neither the office, nor deputy attorney has any conflict of interest because AC “did not see Charlie get shot” and “did not see anyone [in the crowd or elsewhere] with a gun. Furthermore, “nearly everything [AC] knows about the actual homicide is hearsay,” according to a document filed by the office.
The defense, however, argued in its motion that the pursuit of the death penalty right away reflects a possible conflict of interest.
“The rush to seek death in this case evidences strong emotional reactions” by the prosecution, the motion says.
The attorney’s office pushed back, however, asserting that “there is nothing unusual or untoward about filing a death penalty notice before a preliminary hearing.”
Robinson’s preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin on May 18th and will last three days. He will not be arraigned until its completion, and he has not entered a plea.
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