A well-known defense attorney in Utah says that the timeline of events could be a major weakness in the prosecution’s case against Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The defense is likely to delay the discovery process for up to a year before the case goes to a preliminary hearing.Kirk, who was 31 and had two kids, was shot and killed at 12:20 p.m. on September 10 while giving a speech at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University. He started the conservative student group, which turned into a national movement that is credited with getting more young people involved in the Republican Party.
Skye Lazaro of the Salt Lake City firm Ray Quinney & Nebeker told Fox News, “There is just so much we don’t know yet as this case develops.”
The defense team also doesn’t know much at this point. The discovery process started on Monday, and prosecutors have five days to make their first revelations. Robinson’s lawyers have already pushed back his waiver hearing by a month.
News briefings, statements from law enforcement, and charging paperwork filed last week have made some evidence public. The documents include text exchanges between Robinson and his roommate and love partner, Lance Twiggs. In these communications, Robinson is said to have taken responsibility for Kirk’s death. But the messages don’t have any timestamps.
Robinson, 22, was taken into custody in his hometown in southern Utah 33 hours after the shooting. Fox News Digital reports that authorities said he went back to the crime scene before he was arrested, where police later located the gun they think he used to kill someone.
The outlet said that investigators have not made clear when he talked to a police officer who was stationed along the edge of the area.
Lazaro told Fox that “If it doesn’t line up in a way that makes sense, it could definitely be bad for them.”
Fox said that a police source said Robinson told an officer at the site that he was trying to get back something he had left in a parking garage close to where police subsequently found the rifle they think was used in the murder.
At the time, the contact didn’t trigger any red flags because hundreds of individuals had left their things behind while running away from the location after Kirk’s deadly shooting in front of about 3,000 people.
The officer did a normal check of Robinson’s car’s license plate. The insider informed Fox that investigators later linked that interaction to Robinson after he was named as a possible suspect.
Lazaro noted that if the officer’s body camera wasn’t recorded during the meeting, Robinson’s legal team might be able to question parts of the investigation.
Lazaro said that more information regarding the text messages mentioned in court documents might also make things harder for Robinson’s defense as the case goes on, according to the site.
She explained, “A lot of the time, when you get cellphone records, you can find out where messages were sent from.”
Legal experts say that if subpoenaed documents reveal that Robinson’s phone in Orem sent the texts and his partner’s phone in St. George received them, it would back up the prosecution’s story.
“The defense is going to want to get, going to wanna see, and probably spend a lot of time, whether they get their own forensic expert to analyze it or do it themselves, to really piece together a timeline,” she added.
Authorities said that Twiggs is working with the police. The defense, on the other hand, is likely to fight aggressively to weaken the state’s case.
“It might turn out that those aren’t as bad as they sound,” Lazaro stated. “You should remember that when the government writes a probable cause affidavit, it’s the best evidence they have at the time.”
