Utah prosecutors on Thursday played redacted clips of authorities interviewing a roommate and former romantic partner of Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old man accused of assassinating conservative political activist Charlie Kirk on a university campus last fall.
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In the video and audio clips, Robinson’s former partner, Lance Twiggs, recalled that the accused assassin paced around their apartment after Kirk’s killing. Twiggs said Robinson told him he planned to confess to his parents or turn himself in to law enforcement.
Robinson said he wished “he hadn’t done it,” Twiggs told the law enforcement interviewer.
Twiggs, seen in the video dressed in a suit and tie, said he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk before the Sept. 10 shooting at Utah Valley University in front of a crowd of hundreds of spectators.
The audio was played on the fourth day of a five-day preliminary hearing to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring Robinson to trial. State District Judge Tony F. Graf Jr. will make that decision at the end of the proceedings.
Robinson is charged with aggravated murder and he has not entered a plea. He turned himself in to law enforcement the day after the shooting of Kirk, a co-founder of the influential conservative student organization Turning Point USA and an ally of President Donald Trump.
Prosecutors allege Robinson left a note for Twiggs that said: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.” The two later exchanged text messages that were detailed in a Utah County Attorney’s Office indictment.
“I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” Robinson told Twiggs in one text message, according to the indictment.
In another text message, Robinson alluded to engraving messages on bullets. Twiggs, in his interview with law enforcement, confirmed that Robinson had told him he wanted to engrave text on bullets ahead of what the accused assassin described as a hunting trip with his family.
The text message exchanges between Robinson and Twiggs were read aloud in court by a law enforcement investigator on the witness stand.
Robinson’s defense attorneys had argued against the public release of Twiggs’ statements, contending that prosecutors would label them a confession and harm their client’s right to a fair trial.
Erika Kirk, the slain activist’s widow, attended Thursday’s proceedings. It was not immediately clear whether she was inside the courtroom when the clips of Twiggs were played.
Kirk’s family released a statement ahead of the start of Monday’s hearing thanking supporters for their kindness in the wake of the 31-year-old activist’s killing.
“Charlie was a beloved husband, son, brother, friend, and father,” the family said. “Every court proceeding serves as a painful reminder of his death and the loss that has irrevocably impacted our lives and the lives of his children.”
The attorneys for Kirk’s family and representatives of the news media implored the judge to make Twiggs’ statements and other evidence in the case public.
“To not be transparent, to not be open and let the world see what happened will create doubt and distrust in the judicial system,” Kirk family lawyer Jeffrey Neiman told Graf.
