Former federal prosecutor Jim Trusty warned Tuesday that the prosecution of Tyler Robinson for the Sept. 10 assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk could be difficult due to media coverage.
Utah County District Attorney Jeffrey Gray announced Robinson was charged with aggravated murder, committing a violent offense in the presence of a child, obstruction of justice and witness tampering on Tuesday in relation to Kirk’s assassination during an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. Trusty said that the “remarkable amount of detail” in the probable cause statement might cause problems.
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“You can summarize and still have enough for probable cause so he has the best of both worlds,” Trusty told “The Story” guest host Bill Hemmer. “I’m afraid in the long run we will see a motion to change venue, which is almost automatic in death penalty cases of high-profile, but he probably fueled that fire. I am talking about how he gave all of these vivid details, and you point to the case of the Boston marathon bomber, whose death penalty recently got reversed by the court of appeals because of the pretrial publicity problem in picking a jury.”
“It’s a great moment for all of us who want the satisfaction that this is a strong case and that they got the right guy and a quick decision to pursue the death penalty, but in the long run, there will be some issues from having that much detail out in the public,” Trusty said.
In text messages, Robinson told his romantic partner, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman, that he “had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred” and also urged him to delete the messages, according to the charging document released by the Utah County district attorney.
“It does look like this was a political assassination,” Trusty said. “These warped ideologies of him, in particular living with his boyfriend, thinking that somehow this is justifiable or righteous to do what he did.”
“Again, it’s a terrible world to crawl into that sort of head, but that motive seems strong,” Trusty continued. “The evidence is going to be powerful and the presence of the death penalty, Bill, really kinda warps the calculation on how you try this case if you’re the defense. If this evidence holds up, you are talking about a slow plea rather than a hard-fought battle on guilt and innocence.”
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