Tyler Robinson’s lawyers want a Utah judge to keep video of Charlie Kirk’s killing from being played in court next week, even as the case moves toward a Friday hearing on whether news cameras should be allowed to stay in the room. Robinson, 22, has not entered a plea more than seven months after the shooting at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
The defense is set to argue that cameras should be excluded from the hearing on its motion to kick prosecutors off the case over an alleged conflict of interest. Judge Tony Graf has already allowed one news camera in, but only if it does not capture private conversations or the faces of Robinson’s family.
The dispute has drawn in the question that now sits over the case: how much public access is too much when a defendant is facing one of the most watched criminal proceedings in Utah. Erika Kirk has asked the court to safeguard meaningful media access as the case plays out, while two groups of local and national outlets, including, have asked to keep cameras in place.
Robinson is accused of shooting Kirk during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University in September 2025. Prosecutors say he climbed to a rooftop across the courtyard from where Kirk was speaking and fired a single shot from his grandfather’s Mauser rifle. Bystander video shows the bullet struck the 37-year-old in the neck in front of a crowd of roughly 3,000 people, and he died from the injury.
The hearing is also expected to feature expert testimony on how social media and wall-to-wall coverage could affect the jury pool, and the defense is bringing in social psychologist Bryan Edelman. Edelman has worked on Bryan Kohberger’s successful motion for a change of venue in the Idaho student murders and on the trial of Buffalo supermarket mass shooter Payton Gendron.
That leaves the judge with a narrow task and a broader one. Graf must rule on cameras and courtroom access now, but the bigger issue is whether the public can watch a case this charged without impairing Robinson’s right to a fair trial. For both sides, that answer may matter as much as the hearing itself.