Tyler Robinson — Charlie Kirk assassination

Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed on September 10, 2025 while speaking to a crowd of about 3,000 people at Utah Valley University in Orem. Investigators say a single shot was fired from a building roughly 140 yards away. Tyler Robinson was arrested and charged with capital aggravated murder and six other counts. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

A five-day preliminary hearing ran from July 6 to 10, 2026. The state presented surveillance footage it says shows four visits to the campus before the shooting, a video interview with Robinson's roommate, and what prosecutors describe as a confessional note. On September 1 Judge Tony Graf found probable cause on all seven counts and bound Robinson over for trial. He entered a not-guilty plea the same day. On September 19 the defense asked the court to take the death penalty off the table.

The next date is a pretrial conference on October 23 at 1 p.m. Mountain time. The Kirk family's lawyer has asked that a trial date be set at that hearing.

The criminal case now has a civil shadow. On September 9 Kirk's widow, Erika, filed a notice of claim, the precursor to a lawsuit, against Utah Valley University, the state of Utah and named officials, alleging that campus police had no written security plan and only six officers for the event, and that a rooftop threat should have been anticipated.

The case is filed under Senseless. It is at the pretrial stage, no verdict has been returned, and Robinson is presumed innocent.