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Tyler Robinson’s new defense attorney has an uphill battle representing the accused assassin of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, experts say.
“The goal for his new high-profile defense attorneys in the Tyler Robinson case is going to be keep him off of death row,” said Maryland attorney and legal analyst Randolph Rice, who is following the case. “And that’s probably their goal right now, or at least that’s what they’re thinking about.”
One option would be to seek a plea deal that spares Robinson from the potential death penalty, like Bryan Kohberger’s defense in the Idaho student murders. That could be months or even years down the line.
TIMELINE OF CHARLIE KIRK’S ALLEGED ASSASSIN FROM CAMPUS SHOOTING TO SHERIFF’S OFFICE SURRENDER
Tyler Robinson appears virtually in Utah court on Sept. 16, 2025, to face charges in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. (Utah State Courts)
If the case does go to trial, prosecutors will have to prove that Kirk’s murder included aggravating factors that warrant execution if the suspect is found guilty.
“What the defense may be able to argue is to say, this was a single sniper bullet that had a single intended target — and therefore it posed no other danger to anyone else,” Rice told Fox News Digital. “And if they can prove that to a jury or they can convince a jury of that, then they won’t get the aggravating murder, and therefore they won’t have the death penalty on the table.”
Robinson, like all criminal defendants in the U.S., is considered innocent until proven guilty. But prosecutors are expected to unveil a mountain of evidence in court, and the politically charged case is being closely watched around the country.
CHARLIE KIRK’S ACCUSED ASSASSIN ENCOUNTERED BY POLICE DURING RETURN TO CRIME SCENE: LAW ENFORCEMENT SOURCES
Charlie Kirk was a conservative activist who led Turning Point USA. (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)
Kirk, an outspoken conservative whose organization sought to promote right-of-center thinking on traditionally liberal campuses, was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. Robinson allegedly told his roommate and romantic partner that he did it because he “had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
The partner, who was identified as trans, is cooperating with investigators.
“Obviously they’ve got the concern about defending their client, they’ve got concerns about the media attention, but I also think that they may have concerns about their personal safety,” Rice said. “This certainly is a political assassination. It’s something that has been in the headlines. There are a lot of individuals who are emotional about this. And certainly people on the left are certainly emotional about it. People on the right are certainly emotional about it. And so there are concerns from the defense team’s perspective. About their personal safety and that’s something they’re going to have to consider throughout this entire trial.”
CHARLIE KIRK’S ASSASSINATION LEAVES UNANSWERED QUESTIONS AS INVESTIGATORS PIECE TOGETHER GAPS IN CASE
Charlie Kirk throws hats to the crowd after arriving at Utah Valley University on Sept.10, 2025 in Orem, Utah. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
Authorities say they’ve recovered messages to his romantic partner and other friends taking responsibility for the shooting. According to a probable cause affidavit, he had “confessed…or implied” guilt to a close family friend. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office later said his parents convinced him to surrender peacefully rather than take his own life.
Police recovered a rifle at the scene that investigators allege had Robinson’s DNA on it. They also have surveillance video on the campus and nearby roads and a footprint on the rooftop where a sniper fired the bullet that killed Kirk.
According to court documents, the suspect used his phone on school grounds at least once, on video. That could provide police with additional evidence. They also identified a suspect vehicle, a gray Dodge Challenger, like the one Robinson drives.
UTAH PROSECUTORS PREPARE POTENTIAL DEATH PENALTY CASE AGAINST CHARLIE KIRK SUSPECT TYLER JAMES ROBINSON
A grey Dodge Challenger parked in the driveway of Tyler Robinson’s family home in Washington, Utah, Friday, Sept.12, 2025. Robinson reportedly drove a grey Dodge Challenger to UVU on the day he is alleged to have assassinated Charlie Kirk. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
And as Fox News Digital reported Thursday, an officer guarding the campus perimeter “made contact” with Robinson near where police recovered the suspected murder weapon as he was allegedly texting his roommate about wanting to retrieve it before skipping town, according to law enforcement sources.
Defending a death penalty case will require Robinson’s legal team to hire forensic specialists, mental health evaluators and jury consultants, among other measures, Rice said, but his lawyers may have to fight for funding or risk being “hamstrung” before the case goes to trial.
Kirk’s family may also weigh in before prosecutors decide to offer a plea deal. His widow, Erika Kirk, said during her husband’s memorial service Sunday said she has already forgiven Robinson “because it was what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do.”
Separately, she said she did not want to get involved in the decision to seek capital punishment in an interview with the New York Times.
“I’ll be honest,” she told the paper. “I told our lawyer, I want the government to decide this. I do not want that man’s blood on my ledger. Because when I get to heaven, and Jesus is like: ‘Uh, eye for an eye? Is that how we do it?’ And that keeps me from being in heaven, from being with Charlie?”
Erika Kirk speaks during the memorial service for her husband, political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025, in Glendale, Arizona. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WHO IS KATHRYN NESTER, CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION SUSPECT TYLER ROBINSON’S ATTORNEY?
If prosecutors decide to offer a plea deal, it may not look like the recent plea for Bryan Kohberger in the Idaho student murders case, according to Louis Gelormino, a Staten Island defense attorney who is following the case.
“One of the things that surprised me out there in Kohberger was they didn’t let him allocute to the crimes,” he told Fox News Digital. “Usually, when you take a plea, you have to confess to your crimes. I would imagine here, if they do take that off the table and they do get a plea out of him, that he’ll have to allocute and explain his crime in public.”
He said he expects Robinson’s team to explore a potential insanity defense, but his alleged escape from Orem and week spent plotting the crime could complicate that argument. He also expects defense attorneys to challenge as much evidence as possible in case prosecutors or police failed to “cross all their Ts and dot all their Is,” he said.
Tyler Robinson, 22, is shown in an undated photo from his mother’s Facebook page. Police have named Robinson a suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk. (Amber Robinson via Facebook)
“It’s an incredibly tough case,” he added. “I don’t envy the defense attorney at all…They’ve got all the evidence in the world.”
Robinson is accused of shooting Kirk in the neck with a hunting rifle from a rooftop at Utah Valley University while the victim was speaking to students and other attendees at a Turning Point USA-sponsored event.
Robinson’s lead defense counsel, veteran lawyer Kathy Nester, was formally appointed to the case Wednesday.
CHARLIE KIRK’S ALLEGED ASSASSIN TYLER ROBINSON FACES DEATH PENALTY AS CHARGES FORMALLY ANNOUNCED
In Nester’s 30 years of experience, she’s defended capital cases in California and Utah, and recent high-profile clients include Kouri Richins, a Utah mother of three accused of killing her husband and then writing a children’s book about dealing with grief.
She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Utah criminal defense attorney Kathryn Nester, pictured on the left of this combined photo, has been appointed to represent Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, right. (University of Texas School of Law/Utah Governor’s Office)
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray’s office announced the prosecution’s trial team would include six attorneys on Monday.
They include Gray, who spent 23 years with the state attorney general’s office and has appeared before both the U.S. and Utah Supreme Courts; Chad Grunander, who prosecuted Utah’s first-ever televised trial and has put cold case and cop killers behind bars; Christopher Ballard, who has argued more than 175 appellate cases; Ryan McBride, last year’s Utah Prosecutor of the Year; David Sturgill, a veteran prosecutor who is an adjunct professor at UVU, and Lauren Hunt, whose role in the case against double murder suspect Christopher Poulson garnered recognition from the FBI.
Judge Tony Graf enters the courtroom as Tyler Robinson, accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, attends a virtual court hearing from prison on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Provo, Utah. (Scott G Winterton/The Deseret News via AP, Pool)
Robinson is due back in court on Monday for a waiver hearing, which will determine whether the defense forces prosecutors to present probable cause before the case proceeds.
Declining to waive is a defensive strategy that would give his attorneys access to additional discovery materials and a chance to cross-examine state witnesses early on, Rice said.
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Prosecutors have charged Robinson with seven counts, including aggravated murder, which carries the potential death penalty, felony firearms charges, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and committing violence in the presence of a child.
He has not yet entered a plea.