The suspect accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been indicted with premeditated murder by Utah county prosecutor Jeffrey Gray, who also announced that he would seek the death penalty.
"I am filing a notice of intent to seek the death penalty. I do not take this decision lightly, and it is a decision I have made independently," Gray told US public broadcaster NPR after a press conference on Tuesday.
The alleged gunman, Tyler Robinson, has apparently confessed to the killing in a note quoted by the prosecutor and on social media.
According to Gray, Robinson left text messages to his partner, who is also his roommate, and a note saying he had the opportunity to kill one of the nation’s leading conservative voices, “and I’m going to take it".
DNA on the trigger of the rifle that killed Kirk also matched that of Robinson, Gray said while outlining the evidence and announcing the charges.
The prosecutor said Robinson wrote in one text that he spent more than a week planning the attack on Kirk, a prominent force in politics credited with energising the Republican youth movement and helping Donald Trump win back the White House in 2024.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk is an American tragedy,” Gray said.
Appearing briefly on Tuesday before a judge by video from jail, Robinson claimed he targeted Kirk because he saw him as a "threat to the country". Prosecutors also revealed a list of other potential political targets within Robinson's notes.
The judge ordered him to be held without bail, with his next court hearing set for 29 September.
The case widened when Robinson's roommate, Adam Johnson, was also charged with obstruction of justice for hiding evidence. Court documents allege Johnson initially hid a backpack containing ammunition and Robinson's mobile phone at their shared apartment before later turning the items over to police.
The FBI has now opened a parallel federal investigation to see if any domestic terrorism laws were violated.
Kirk was killed on 10 September at an event at Utah Valley University. Prosecutors allege Robinson shot Kirk in the neck with a bolt-action rifle from the roof of a nearby building on the campus in Orem, about 64 kilometres south of Salt Lake City.
'I had enough of his hatred'
Authorities have not revealed a clear motive in the shooting, but Gray said that Robinson wrote in a text about Kirk to his partner: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
After the news conference, Utah’s Department of Public Safety Commissioner, Beau Mason, said about the texts and other investigative threads, “We are starting to get a picture of where his mind was.”
Robinson was involved in a romantic relationship with his roommate, who investigators say was transgender. Gray said the partner has been cooperating with investigators.
Robinson’s partner appeared shocked in the text exchange after the shooting, according to court documents, asking Robinson “why he did it and how long he’d been planning it.”
While authorities say Robinson hasn’t been cooperating with investigators, they say his family and friends have been talking.
Robinson’s mother told investigators that their son had turned left politically in the last year and became more supportive of transgender rights after dating someone who is transgender, Gray said.
Those decisions prompted several conversations in the household, especially between Robinson and his father. They had different political views and Robinson told his partner in a text that his dad had become a “diehard MAGA” since Trump was elected.
Mason added that the family’s views “differed quite significantly,” and the conversations were at times controversial between parents and son.
Robinson’s mother recognised him when authorities released a picture of the suspect, and his parents confronted him, at which time Robinson said he wanted to kill himself, Grey said.
The family persuaded him to meet with a family friend who is a retired sheriff’s deputy, who persuaded Robinson to turn himself in, the prosecutor said.
Robinson was arrested late Thursday near St George, the southern Utah community where he grew up, about 390 kilometres southwest of where the shooting happened.
He was also worried about losing his grandfather’s rifle and mentioned several times in the texts that he wished he had picked it up, according to the texts shared in court documents, which did not have timestamps. It was unclear how long after the shooting Robinson was texting.
“To be honest, I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you,” Robinson wrote in another text to his partner.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday that agents are looking at “anyone and everyone” who was involved in a gaming chatroom on the social media platform Discord with Robinson.
The chatroom involved “a lot more” than 20 people, he said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington.
“We are investigating Charlie’s assassination fully and completely and running out every lead related to any allegation of broader violence,” Patel said in response to a question about whether the Kirk shooting was being treated as part of a broader trend of violence against religious groups.
