Tyler Robinson, the accused killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has been formally charged with multiple serious offenses, including one count each of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, and committing a violent crime in the presence of a child. Prosecutors also filed two counts of obstruction of justice and two counts of witness tampering. Robinson, who will be held without bail, faces the death penalty. Utah County prosecutors announced Tuesday that they would pursue capital punishment and disclosed new evidence, including text messages in which Robinson allegedly admitted to the shooting. \u201cI had enough of his hatred,\u201d the 22-year-old suspect reportedly told his roommate and partner, according to transcripts filed in court. Investigators say Robinson fired a single rifle shot from a rooftop at Utah Valley University in Orem, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. The bullet struck Kirk in the neck, killing him instantly. District Attorney Jeffrey Gray confirmed seven criminal counts, including aggravated murder, obstruction of justice for destroying evidence, and witness tampering for urging his roommate to delete messages. The case has drawn national attention, with political figures including U.S. President Donald Trump calling for capital punishment. At a press conference, DA Gray emphasized that the decision to seek the death penalty was made \u201cindependently, based solely on the evidence and the nature of the crime.\u201d Robinson appeared via video from jail for his initial hearing, unshaven and wearing a suicide-prevention smock. He remained expressionless while the judge read the charges and informed him of the potential death sentence. The defendant spoke only once, when asked to state his name. Finding Robinson unable to afford legal counsel, Utah Fourth District Judge Tony Graf said he would appoint a defense attorney before the next court hearing, set for September 29. In the meantime, he was ordered to remain held without bond in the Washington County Jail, where, according to a sheriff\u2019s spokesperson, he has been placed under a \u201cspecial watch protocol\u201d that includes increased supervision. Kirk\u2019s killing, captured in graphic video clips that went viral online, sparked denunciations of political violence, opens new tab across the ideological spectrum but also unleashed a wave of partisan blame-casting and concerns that the murder might beget more bloodshed. In court filings, prosecutors highlighted some of their evidence against Tyler Robinson, who was at large for more than 30 hours before eventually turning himself in. Shortly after the shooting, prosecutors said, Robinson sent a text message telling his roommate to \u201cdrop what you\u2019re doing, look under my keyboard.\u201d The roommate, whom officials have also described as Robinson\u2019s romantic partner and transitioning from male to female, then found a physical note from Robinson that read: \u201cI had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I\u2019m going to take it.\u201d The roommate then asked Robinson in a text reply, \u201cyou weren\u2019t the one who did it right????\u201d Robinson responded: \u201cI am, I\u2019m sorry,\u201d according to a transcript of the alleged dialogue. When the roommate asked why he had shot Kirk, Tyler Robinson wrote back: \u201cI had enough of his hatred. Some hate can\u2019t be negotiated out.\u201d He also asserted he had planned the attack for more than a week, prosecutors said. In later text messages, Robinson said he wished he had gone back and grabbed the rifle that he left in a bush immediately following the killing, noting it had belonged to his grandfather. \u201cI\u2019m worried what my old man would do if I didn\u2019t bring back grandpas rifle,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI might have to abandon it and hope they don\u2019t find prints.\u201d DNA found on the trigger of the alleged murder weapon was linked to Robinson, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyler Robinson, the accused killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has been formally charged with multiple serious offenses, including one count each of aggravated murder,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27558,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}