Judge rules Tyler Robinson will stand trial, face death penalty

The man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk will face the death penalty when his murder trial gets underway. A Utah judge ruled Wednesday that Tyler Robinson would face an aggravated murder charge, which would make him eligible for a potential death sentence.

On Wednesday, the prosecution and defense laid out their cases regarding whether the death penalty should be on the table. Kirk’s parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, along with his wife, Erika Kirk, were seated in the courtroom as both sides made their arguments.

One of the key decisions for District Judge Tony Graf was whether the shooter had knowingly created a risk of death for anyone else when firing the fatal shot, The Associated Press explained.

Utah County Attorney’s Office prosecutor Ryan McBride told the court that there was a mountain of evidence against Robinson, including from DNA, messages to his partner, and his posts. He went on to say that the very location where Kirk was killed would have been enough for a shooter to know others’ lives were in danger.

“Tyler James Robinson shot and killed Charlie Kirk because he disagreed with him, and he did it by firing a high-powered rifle into a crowd of over 3,000 people, which created a great risk of death that anyone would know about,” McBride said.

Robinson’s attorney, Staci Vissar, countered that the prosecution wanted to make the facts of the case fit the aggravated murder charge. Vissar argued the law was based on the probability that someone else’s life is at risk, not just the possibility. She pointed to where the gunman was allegedly located at the time of the killing and how the shooting occurred.

“There is one shot. There is one bullet. There is one victim,” Visser said. “There is zero evidence that there was any action taken towards other people.”

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani joins LiveNOW’s Andy Mac to discuss.