Before Tyler Robinson turned himself in to a Utah sheriff's office, he had already texted his roommate a confession. The roommate, it turns out, had also found a note under Robinson's keyboard that read, 'I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take it.' That roommate is now walking free under an immunity deal, and his recorded statements are about to be played in open court.
The Roommate Knew Everything
Lance Twiggs was living with Tyler Robinson in a St. George apartment when Kirk was shot on September 10 at Utah Valley University. According to CBS News, on the day of the shooting, Robinson texted Twiggs and essentially handed prosecutors their case. Twiggs asked Robinson if he was the shooter. Robinson replied, 'I am, I'm sorry.'
That would be damning enough on its own. But Twiggs had already found the note under Robinson's keyboard before the shooting even happened, court documents show. The note spelled out the intent clearly. There was no ambiguity about what Robinson had been planning.
So what does the state do with a witness who received a potential murder confession and had prior knowledge of the plot? They gave him immunity. State Bureau of Investigation Agent Brian Davis confirmed at Wednesday's preliminary hearing that Twiggs received 'use immunity,' meaning his statements cannot be used against him in a criminal case. In exchange, investigators got two recorded interviews, the second of which was conducted on April 20 with law enforcement and prosecutors present.
What the Immunity Deal Actually Means
Use immunity is not a get-out-of-jail-free card in the broad sense, but it is a significant concession. Prosecutors agreed they would not use Twiggs' own words against him. That is how badly they wanted those words on the record.
Deputy Utah County Attorney Lauren Hunt told the court Wednesday that she expected Robinson's defense team to object to introducing the videotaped interviews. She was right. Defense attorneys submitted last-minute redaction requests, which Hunt said complicated things considerably, since redacting video is not as simple as crossing out lines on a document. CBS News reports that after negotiations, an edited audio version of the interviews was expected to be played in court Thursday.
The defense team has not commented on Robinson's guilt or innocence, but they have been aggressive about challenging the evidence at every turn, including the DNA evidence that prosecutors say connects Robinson directly to the suspected murder weapon.
The Rifle, the Towel, and the DNA
After the shooting, investigators found a bolt-action rifle with one spent round wrapped in a towel in a wooded area near the crime scene. On the towel, they found DNA. CBS News reports that Jennifer Faumuina with the State Bureau of Investigation testified that the DNA matched two people: Twiggs, and someone very likely to be Robinson.
The 'very likely' framing is where Robinson's defense found its opening. On Tuesday, a defense attorney challenged the reliability of the DNA testing. The prosecution responded by calling Lawrence Quarino, a forensic science professor and director of the forensic science program at Cedar Crest College in Pennsylvania, who testified that DNA testing is 'the gold standard' of forensic science and described it as 'extremely reliable.'
FBI analyst Amanda Bakker added that after Twiggs provided a DNA sample for comparison, she was able to rerun her tests and attribute all of the DNA on the towel to exactly two people. One of them was Twiggs. The other was, with high probability, the 23-year-old man sitting at the defense table.
The Surveillance Video and the Burgundy Shirt
Agent Davis also narrated a video clip from the Washington County Sheriff's Office, showing Robinson turning himself in the night of September 12, less than 48 hours after Kirk was killed. CBS News reports that Robinson is visible in the holding room wearing a burgundy T-shirt, jeans, Converse shoes, and a black cap.
That matters because surveillance footage taken on the Utah Valley University campus on the day of the shooting shows the suspected gunman dressed in exactly the same combination: burgundy T-shirt, jeans, Converse shoes, black cap. The prosecution did not need to say much else about that.
Robinson's father reportedly recognized his son from the surveillance photos circulating after the shooting and convinced him to surrender. Robinson came in with both parents and a family friend. After the family was interviewed, Robinson was placed under arrest. He has no prior criminal record.
Where the Case Stands
Robinson, 23, is charged with aggravated murder for the September 10 killing of Charlie Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Robinson has not yet entered a plea, and his attorneys have so far failed in their attempts to take the death penalty off the table.
The preliminary hearing is expected to conclude Friday, at which point state District Judge Tony Graf will decide whether enough evidence exists to send the case to trial. CBS News notes that legal experts say that outcome is likely. After everything presented this week, that assessment seems, at minimum, conservative.
The Dingo Take
Let's be precise about what has emerged from this preliminary hearing. The prosecution has a text message confession. They have a note Robinson allegedly wrote before the shooting announcing his intentions. They have DNA on the murder weapon. They have surveillance footage of someone dressed identically to Robinson at the scene. They have a witness who was in Robinson's own home and received the confession directly, and who has now traded his recorded statements to investigators for immunity. The defense's main move so far has been to argue that DNA testing is not perfectly reliable. That is going to be a long trial.
Robinson's lawyers are doing their job, and the adversarial process exists for good reasons. Challenge the evidence, protect the client's rights, make the state prove every element. Fine. But the death penalty question is what makes this case genuinely uncomfortable regardless of where you sit politically. Robinson had no prior criminal record. He was 22 when this happened. The state of Utah is now asking a judge to keep capital punishment on the table for a young man with no criminal history who turned himself in within 48 hours because his father asked him to.
Charlie Kirk built a career on being controversial, inflammatory, and by many accounts genuinely harmful to democratic norms. None of that makes what happened to him acceptable, and none of it justifies political violence, full stop. But the question of whether the state should be executing people in cases like this one is a separate conversation, and it deserves to be had honestly. The prosecution appears to have an extremely strong case. What they do with that case will say as much about the system as it does about Tyler Robinson.
