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Charlie Kirk judge denies Tyler Robinson's attempt to have potential death penalty removed
By Michael Ruiz
Published June 26, 2026
Charlie Kirk's accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, can still face the potential death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder, a Utah judge ruled Friday.
Judge Tony Graf Jr. found Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard was in contempt of a court order for statements he made about his opinion on the strength of evidence in the case — but he was not wrong for making other statements in which he disputed a misleading characterization about specific ballistic evidence from a defense court filing.
As a result, Graf denied Robinson's argument that the appropriate remedy would be to remove the potential death penalty — and instead he said he would expand the jury selection process to ensure a fair trial.
"The court finds that striking the death penalty is grossly disproportionate to the misconduct and legally unavailable in this civil contempt framework," Graf said in court.
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Tyler Robinson is accused of fatally shooting Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at a public speaking event at Utah Valley University in September. (Bethany Baker/Pool via REUTERS, Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
Prosecutors had countered that they did not violate the gag order or any other court rules when they "set the record straight" after what they call a misleading statement from a defense filing led to viral news coverage suggesting that the ATF could not match the bullet that killed Kirk to the suspected murder weapon, Robinson's grandfather's rifle.
The ATF could neither identify nor exclude Robinson's grandfather's rifle as the source of the bullet fragment recovered from Kirk, describing the tool mark analysis as inconclusive, according to court records. But the caliber was consistent, and a spent casing was also a match.
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Charlie Kirk throws a "Make America Great Again" hat to the crowd at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10, 2025. Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was speaking at his "American Comeback Tour" when he was shot in the neck and killed. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
Neither the gag order in Robinson's case nor state court rules prohibited prosecutors from correcting what they saw as the defense's misleading court filing, according to prosecutors. But Ballard went further in at least one interview, Graf said, where he expressed confidence in the totality of the evidence against Robinson.
By doing so, Graf said he improperly shared an opinion about Robinson's guilty, which was improper and the basis for the civil contempt ruling.
Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty if Robinson is convicted of assassinating Kirk during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025.
Investigators search a taped-off area in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 11, 2025, related to the hunt for evidence in the assassination of Charlie Kirk during a rally at UVU. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
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The back-and-forth has evolved into a war of words, with prosecutors accusing the defense of releasing misleading information through court filings, and the defense accusing prosecutors of "hubris" when responding in a string of media interviews they claim violate a gag order.
Robinson will attend remotely from jail. He has not yet entered a plea and is not expected to until after his preliminary hearing, which is scheduled to take place over a week in early July.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/charlie-kirk-judge-rule-tyler-robinson-attempt-potential-death-penalty-removed