State rests in Tyler Robinson preliminary hearing

PROVO — On the morning of Sept. 11, 2025, Lance Twiggs returned to his St. George apartment to see his roommate and boyfriend, Tyler Robinson, after Robinson returned from the campus of Utah Valley University, where he allegedly shot and killed conservative political activist Charlie Kirk the day before.

“He was walking around a lot,” Twiggs said in a video interview conducted by the Utah County Attorney’s Office. “He started crying a little bit and says he wishes he hadn’t done it.”

A redacted version of the much-debated video interview with Robinson’s roommate, Lance Twiggs, was shown to the courtroom on Thursday morning on the fourth day of Robinson’s preliminary hearing.

Robinson is charged with 10 crimes, the most serious being aggravated murder, in the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed on the campus of Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025. A preliminary hearing is held to determine whether there is sufficient probable cause to go to trial on the charges levied against a defendant.

On April 20, Twiggs was interviewed by prosecutors at the Utah County Attorney’s Office. His own attorney was also present during the questioning. In the video, Twiggs, who has long hair and was wearing a suit and tie, explained how he first met Robinson in 2023 when Robinson became a roommate of Twiggs’ along with others as part of a friend group. The two, however, started dating two to three months later and soon moved into their own apartment together.

After they were living together, Robinson told Twiggs he was going on a hunting trip with his family and wanted to use a tool belonging to Twiggs to engrave bullets, he said in the interview.

On the morning of Sept. 10, Robinson left the apartment at about 4 a.m., allegedly to go to work, Twiggs told investigators. About 11 p.m. that night, a text message that Robinson had pre-set to be delivered at that time was sent. Twiggs did not get the message until he woke up the next morning. It told him to look for a note Robinson had left under the keyboard in his bedroom. Twiggs, whom Robinson referred to as Luna, took a picture of the note before burning it. Investigators retrieved the picture of the note after seizing Twiggs’ phone and downloading the data.

“Luna, if you are reading this per my text, then I am so sorry. I left the house this morning on a mission and sent an auto text. I am likely dead or facing a lengthy prison sentence. I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I took it,” the letter states.

“I don’t know if I will/have succeeded, but I had hoped to make it home to you. I wish we could have lived in a world where this did not feel necessary. I wish I could have stayed for you and lived our lives together. I lack the words to express how much I love you, and how very much you mean to me. Please try and find joy in this life. I love you, always, -Tyler,” the letter continued.

After reading the note, Twiggs and Robinson exchanged text messages. Pictures of Twiggs’ phone with the messages were shown in court on Thursday. The contact information on the phone showed the messages as coming from “Tyler,” which had a red heart emoji next to it. When asked why he allegedly shot Kirk, Robinson replied, “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” according to the text messages.

After Robinson returned home, Twiggs, who had left the apartment to stay with his parents after Robinson warned him of a potential heavy police presence, went back to see Robinson before Robinson turned himself in.

“I said ‘Bye’ to him and he drove off,” Twiggs recalled.

In addition to the text messages between Robinson and Twiggs, a Discord chat group that Robinson was a part of and the note Twiggs found in Robinson’s room were all admitted as evidence on Thursday and displayed for those in the courtroom. Although the video was redacted for courtroom viewing, 4th District Judge Tony Graf says he received it in its unedited form.

On a Discord chat with his friends, with whom he played Dungeons and Dragons, Robinson wrote, “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all. It was me at UVU yesterday. I’m sorry for all this. I’m surrendering through a sheriff friend in a few moments.” An hour later, prosecutors say he was at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

In their video interview, prosecutors also asked Twiggs if he recognized surveillance pictures put out by the FBI of the alleged gunman seen walking on campus.

“I wouldn’t say it with 100% certainty, but it looks like him,” Twiggs said of the first few photos. He then added that the last two photos he was shown — both a front view of the alleged gunman wearing a ball cap, sunglasses, a long-sleeve dark shirt and jeans — “definitely look like him,”

When asked whether Robinson would talk about politics prior to Kirk’s death, Twiggs replied not much around him, though when Robinson did, it was usually “about Trump.” And when asked specifically about Kirk, “I personally have never heard him talk about Charlie Kirk, specifically,” Twiggs said.

Meanwhile, Erika Kirk and her family, apparently frustrated with the ongoing debates over what evidence can be publicly shown and what is only viewed by the judge and attorneys, requested in a court filing on Wednesday night that all evidence submitted since Monday be made public.

“The right ‘to be present’ (at the preliminary hearing) is hollow if the victim or his representative is physically in the room but is prevented from seeing the evidence the court is receiving,” the attorney for the Kirk family, Jeff Neiman, stated in the court filing.

“For 10 months, the victim’s family has waited for this preliminary hearing. Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, and his grieving parents traveled to this courtroom for one reason: to be present at these proceedings and to bear witness to the evidence concerning the death of their husband and son. At certain points throughout the preliminary hearing, the Kirk family sat in the room while evidence was admitted but not presented for their viewing. They were present in body, yet denied the very thing their presence was meant to secure: their ability to meaningfully observe the preliminary hearing,” the court filing states. “The victim’s family’s position is simple. At a minimum, every exhibit entered into evidence during the preliminary hearing must be visible to every person lawfully present in the courtroom.”

Neiman followed up his court filing by telling the court in person on Thursday, “This has not been easy … I think the family deserves to see (the evidence). They deserve to know what happened to Charlie.”

Erika Kirk and Charlie Kirk’s parents were in the courtroom for Thursday’s hearing, as they have been all week. Also in the gallery on Thursday was Utah Sen. Mike Lee.

The second half of the day on Thursday focused on DNA tests conducted on the rifle believed to be used by Robinson, a towel the rifle was wrapped in and bullet casings, bullet fragments and unfired bullets with inscriptions alleged to have been made by Robinson using a Dremel, including bullets found at the crime scene and at Robinson’s St. George home.

Prosecutors finished calling all of their witnesses on Thursday. Robinson’s defense team is expected to call one more witness to testify on Friday. Graf has also agreed, based on Neiman’s request, to play the enhanced UVU surveillance video allegedly showing Robinson on campus on Friday — which he originally did not show in court — but only to people in the courtroom and not for the livestream video.