Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, may still face the potential death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder, a Utah judge ruled Friday.
Judge Tony Graf Jr. found that Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard was in contempt of a court order for statements he made about his opinion on the strength of evidence in the case, but ruled that Ballard was not wrong for making other statements that disputed a misleading characterization about specific ballistic evidence from a defense court filing.
Graf denied Robinson's argument that the appropriate remedy would be to remove the potential death penalty, instead opting to expand the jury selection process to ensure a fair trial.
"The court finds that striking the death penalty is grossly disproportionate to the misconduct and legally unavailable in this civil contempt framework," Graf said in court.
Prosecutors countered that they did not violate the gag order or any other court rules when they "set the record straight" after what they call a misleading statement from a defense filing led to viral news coverage suggesting that the ATF could not match the bullet that killed Kirk to the suspected murder weapon, Robinson's grandfather's rifle.
The ATF could neither identify nor exclude Robinson's grandfather's rifle as the source of the bullet fragment recovered from Kirk, describing the tool mark analysis as inconclusive, according to court records. However, the caliber was consistent, and a spent casing was also a match.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty if Robinson is convicted of assassinating Kirk during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025.
Robinson will attend the preliminary hearing remotely from jail, which is scheduled to take place over a week in early July.
