Alleged Charlie Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson appears in court to try and toss prosecutor’s office from the case

Charlie Kirk’s alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, sat stoically in a Utah courtroom Tuesday as a judge heard arguments over whether the prosecutor’s office, which is seeking the death penalty against him, should be tossed from the case.

Robinson’s defense attorneys have argued the Utah County Attorney’s Office mishandled a potential conflict of interest after discovering a prosecutor’s teenage child was in the crowd when Kirk was fatally shot.

But over the course of a two-day hearing, the county attorney’s office strongly denied the child’s presence had any impact on decisions to charge Robinson or seek capital punishment. The 18-year-old, who is a student at Utah Valley University, did not see the fatal moment or witness anybody in the crowd who may have been a suspect, prosecutors said.

Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray took the stand to say he believes the student is “completely irrelevant to anything that matters in the case.”

Testimony from one lead investigator also revealed evidence found at Robinson’s home that has not been reported to the public, including tools believed to be used to inscribe bullet casings and recently purchased shooting targets.

The judge is set to deliver his decision in a February 24 hearing.

Both Gray and the deputy attorney, Chad Grunander, testified Tuesday, insisting the child’s attendance that day has not swayed their office’s actions in the case against Robinson.

Gray also defended his decision to allow Grunander to remain on the team prosecuting Robinson.

“I do not believe that there is any conflict whatsoever,” Gray said Tuesday. “I made that conclusion. I stand by that.”

Robinson’s team was notified of the possible conflict via email on October 20, a little over a month after Kirk was killed, Gray testified in the previous hearing. The county attorney said he notified Robinson’s counsel of the possible conflict out of an abundance of caution.

But Robinson’s defense argued Gray has taken an “inappropriately casual approach” to the issue, saying the prosecutor’s office should have sequestered Grunander from the case and notified defense attorneys immediately.

“The decision as to what charges to file, the decision as to whether or not to seek the death penalty, should never, ever have been made in consultation with (the prosecutor),” Robinson’s defense attorney Richard Novak said in closing arguments.

Novak pressed Gray about whether he had consulted a formal policy on conflicts of interest when deciding to keep the prosecutor on the case.

Gray replied he did not, saying he instead “relied on my 25 years of knowledge” on the issue.

Grunander said that it was always prosecutors’ intention to share his potential connection to the event, saying, “we knew from the outset that once council was appointed, that we would be disclosing this to the defense.”

But the deputy prosecutor argued that the office shared the information out of “an abundance of caution,” not because they believe it is an issue.

“Don’t mistake our disclosure, my disclosure, our abundance of caution, our professionalism, integrity, to be a concession that we believe there’s merit to this alleged conflict,” he told the court.

Grunander and Gray were at an event together about 60 miles away from the college when Grunander got a text from his child saying someone had been shot at Kirk’s event.

“I was obviously concerned when I first heard and saw these text messages, Grunander said. He said he called his child to make sure they were okay.

His child, who also testified Tuesday, said they dropped their bag and ran to a nearby building as the panic unfolded. They were able to call their dad and let him know they were safe and unharmed.

Grunander and Gray drove to the college that day to meet with investigators, but the child and other students had left by the time they arrived. Grunander said his child asked him to locate their abandoned bag.

Asked whether his child’s presence that day has impacted his decision making in the case, Grunander said, “No, not at all.”

He said it was clear his child was not in the “zone of danger,” referring to a legal doctrine that in part determines whether people are placed in immediate risk of physical harm.

As Gray understood it, he testified, “the child was not in that line of fire,” a detail Gray said is important because the charging documents allege when Kirk was killed, the shooter “placed others in grave risk of death.”

Prosecutors argued that even though the teenager was present, they have no plan to call them as a witness.

Prosecutors called up Sgt. David Hull with the Utah State Bureau of Investigations, who testified that prosecutors did not notify investigators that the child had video or witness account of the shooting.

But Hull also briefly alluded to a few items uncovered inside Robinson’s home, which investigators have not previously described to the public.

Investigators have said bullet cartridges were found near the crime scene engraved with phrases from internet memes and video games. Hull said Tuesday similar items may have been found in Robinson’s home.

“If I recall, there were some bullet casings that had some inscriptions on. There were some tools that were believed to have been used to make those inscriptions,” he said.

The search also recovered used shooting targets and other unused targets that had been recently purchased, Hull said. Investigators also retrieved Ring camera footage from several neighbors.

Robinson has not yet entered pleas for the slew of charges he’s facing, including aggravated murder, felony use of a firearm, obstruction of justice and witness tampering, along with several victim targeting enhancements and an aggravating factor of having committed a violent offense in the presence of a child.

He won’t be arraigned until after his preliminary hearing, which has been scheduled to begin May 18 and is expected to last three days.

A charging document laid out key evidence against Robinson, including DNA on the suspected murder weapon and a confession.

A bolt-action rifle, a towel, a used cartridge casing and three unused cartridges were discovered in a wooded area near the crime scene, and DNA on several of those items was consistent with Robinson’s, according to the document.

Robinson turned himself in to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office the day after the shooting, accompanied by his parents and a family friend. His parents had recognized their son from the surveillance photo, the charging document said.