\n<\/p>\n
Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the killing of conservative US activist Charlie Kirk appeared virtually on Tuesday for his first court hearing since his arrest<\/p>\n
Earlier, Utah prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty for Robinson, as they cited evidence against him, including alleged text messages in which he appeared to confess to carrying out the assassination on September 10 during an even that Kirk was hosting at Utah Valley University (UVU).<\/p>\n
\u201cI had enough of his hatred,\u201d Robinson, 22, told his flatmate and romantic partner when asked why he had committed the murder, according to transcripts filed by prosecutors with the court. \u201cSome hate can\u2019t be negotiated out,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Here is what we know:<\/p>\n
Prosecutors laid out extensive evidence against Robinson, much of it taken from his own communications with friends and family.<\/p>\n
He also made his first court appearance on Tuesday in Provo, Utah, via a video feed from the county jail where he is being held. Robinson showed up unshaven and wearing what appeared to be a green suicide-prevention smock.<\/p>\n
He showed no expression, but listened closely as the judge read the charges and warned he could face the death penalty. Robinson spoke only once, to state his name.<\/p>\n
In court filings, prosecutors began to lay out the case against Robinson, who was at large for more than 30 hours before turning himself in.<\/p>\n
The document also revealed text messages from Robinson to his flatmate, whom Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray described as \u201ca biological male who was involved in a romantic relationship with Robinson\u201d. Utah Governor Spencer Cox earlier described the flatmate as a person \u201ctransitioning from male to female\u201d.<\/p>\n
This screengrab from the Utah court livestream shows Tyler Robinson attending a court appearance remotely from his jail cell in Provo, Utah [AFP]<\/p>\n
Gray said Robinson was charged with seven offences, including aggravated murder and felony discharge of a firearm.<\/p>\n
Gray said he would seek the death penalty, citing the threat to others at the UVU event where Kirk was shot, especially children, in addition to Kirk\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n
The 10-page charging document filed by Utah officials contains details on the reasoning behind the charges against Robinson.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Here are the charges against Robinson:<\/p>\n
The document added to previous details that authorities had made public about Robinson soon after his arrest, detailing how his family and flatmate had cooperated with investigators and played a key role in convincing the suspect to turn himself in.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said his mother told investigators that the day after the shooting, she saw a photo of the suspect on the news and thought it looked like her son.<\/p>\n
\u201cRobinson\u2019s mother called her son and asked him where he was. He said he was at home sick\u2026 [She] expressed concern to her husband that the suspected shooter looked like him. Robinson\u2019s father agreed,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis father also believed that the rifle that police suspected the shooter used matched a rifle that was given to his son as a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson eventually spoke to his father on the phone and implied that he would kill himself, according to prosecutors. With the help of a family friend who is a retired deputy sheriff, his parents persuaded him to surrender to authorities.<\/p>\n
Robinson\u2019s mother said that over the last year or so, her son had become more political and leaned more to the left, \u201cbecoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented\u201d. Robinson \u201cbegan to date his roommate, a biological male who was transitioning genders\u201d, his mother added.<\/p>\n
Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray speaks during a news conference about the charges [Jim Urquhart\/Reuters]<\/p>\n
On the day of the shooting, Robinson texted his flatmate and partner, the document said, telling them to \u201cdrop what you\u2019re doing, look under my keyboard\u201d.<\/p>\n
When the flatmate looked under Robinson\u2019s keyboard, they found a note.<\/p>\n
The note read: \u201cI had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I\u2019m going to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
After reading the note, the flatmate texted Robinson back: \u201cWhat????????????? You\u2019re joking, right????\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson also told his flatmate that the rifle he allegedly used belonged to his grandfather. He sent several messages about how he might retrieve it while police were searching for him in the hours after the shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m worried what my old man would do if I didn\u2019t bring back grandpas rifle,\u201d Robinson said in the messages, and appeared to consider whether it could be traced back to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI might have to abandon it and hope they don\u2019t find prints. how the f*** will I explain losing it to my old man?\u201d he said, according to the documents.<\/p>\n
The document said the police found the rifle near the scene, wrapped in a towel. The towel, the rifle and the ammunition were then sent for forensic testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cDNA consistent with Robinson\u2019s was found on the trigger, other parts of the rifle, the fired cartridge casing, two of the three unfired cartridges, and the towel,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n
Each bullet in the rifle had a different message etched into its casing.<\/p>\n
Robinson appeared to joke about the messages, the document said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember how I was engraving bullets?,\u201d Robinson asked in the text messages to his flatmate. He then said that the \u201cmessages are mostly a big meme, if I see \u2018notices bulge uwu\u2019 on fox new[s] I might have a stroke\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also told his flatmate that he had been planning the attack on Kirk \u201cfor a bit over a week\u201d. Robinson told the flatmate to \u201cdelete this exchange\u201d and not to speak to police or the media.<\/p>\n
Talking about his father, a registered Republican, Robinson said that \u201csince trump got into office, [my dad] has been pretty diehard maga,\u201d according to the transcript of his exchange with his partner. He was referring to MAGA, the \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement of US President Donald Trump, which has reshaped traditional Republican politics.<\/p>\n
Another hearing will be held on September 29, at 10am (16:00 GMT).<\/p>\n
Judge Tony Graf said a lawyer had to be appointed to represent Robinson, and that the second hearing would happen on WebEx.<\/p>\n
Graf also stated that Robinson would remain in custody without bail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the killing of conservative US activist Charlie Kirk appeared virtually on Tuesday for his first court hearing since his arrest Earlier, Utah prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty for Robinson, as they cited evidence against him, including alleged text messages in which he appeared to confess to carrying<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[5313,7176,964,12560,2813,150,12680,4527,81,7122],"class_list":{"0":"post-21844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-charges","9":"tag-charlie","10":"tag-donald","11":"tag-kirk","12":"tag-messages","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-robinsons","15":"tag-shooting","16":"tag-trump","17":"tag-tyler"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}