Erika Kirk’s request to show all evidence in court shines light on victim rights — and their limits 

Almost 10 months after his assassination, Charlie Kirk’s widow and parents traveled to Utah to see prosecutors present the most evidence they’ve shown so far against the 23-year-old man charged in Kirk’s death. 

Although Kirk’s family has watched the preliminary hearing from the first row of the courtroom gallery, their attorney argued Thursday they haven’t had a meaningful opportunity to observe because of what they haven’t gotten to see — multiple exhibits the judge accepted as evidence but prohibited from display in the courtroom.

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The arguments shined a spotlight on the rights of crime victims in Utah, as well as the limitations of those rights. 

“This has not been easy, as you can imagine, and I think the family deserves to see the evidence that’s been gathered in this investigation. They deserve to know what happened to Charlie,” their attorney Jeffrey Neiman argued in Provo’s 4th District Court. 

In a court filing late Wednesday, Neiman urged Judge Tony Graf to allow everyone in the courtroom to see evidence the judge already has or will admit in the remainder of the weeklong hearing. 

After it’s over, the judge must decide whether to order a trial for Tyler Robinson or dismiss the case. Robinson, of St. George, hasn’t entered pleas yet to charges including aggravated murder, a capital offense. 

When victims’ rights, transparency take a back seat

Utah’s victim bill of rights, ratified by voters in 1994, guarantees the right to attend important hearings in criminal cases. But that right is “hollow,” Neiman argued, if they can’t see what the judge is agreeing to consider. 

But Utah law isn’t clear on the matter. It doesn’t spell out whether the right to be present includes having access to all the evidence, Michelle Jeffs, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Weber State University, told Utah News Dispatch on Thursday.

“In the United States criminal justice system, defendants’ rights do generally trump a victim’s rights, and that can be really difficult,” Jeffs said. “It’s a defendant that has a presumption of innocence. It’s a defendant that can force the state to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, and so when there is tension, a lot of times judges do tend to lean towards a defendant’s rights.” 

Jeffs spoke in general terms, not about the specific case against Robinson. She noted Utah’s system — which mostly relies on preliminary hearings to assess evidence early in the case, rather than convening grand juries behind closed doors — allows victims greater access than in some other states. 

Jeffs, a former Weber County prosecutor of seven years, said the nation has made strides in strengthening victims’ rights in the last 50 years, but those changes have also made proceedings more complex. 

“Now the judge has to weigh a lot more, and I think that’s a good thing,” Jeffs said. “But it also means that because more people feel like they have a right to have their voice and their perspective heard, there’s less people who are happy with the results.” 

On Wednesday, Neiman argued in his court filing that “in the absence of transparency, speculation and conspiracy theories related to the tragic assassination of Mr. Kirk will continue to proliferate in the public domain, breeding doubt and distrust in the judicial system. This is not what anyone should want.”

The judge said he recognized the concerns but declined the Kirk family’s request Thursday, saying he’d continue to decide case-by-case whether exhibits will be displayed in his courtroom, taking into account the rights of Robinson, the Kirk family and the public. 

“Transparency is an important principle, but it must be maintained in a manner consistent with the constitutional rights and protections afforded to all parties,” Graf said. 

He said he’d rule Friday on a request from the Kirk family to play edited, zoomed-in surveillance video from the campus of Utah Valley University that earlier in the week he’d declined to display in the courtroom. 

New evidence includes video interview with ex-roommate 

For the first time, Utah County prosecutors presented on Thursday a video interview they recorded with Lance Twiggs, Robinson’s former roommate and romantic partner at the time of the shooting. 

Prosecutors also reviewed text messages between the two from the hours after the shooting. They’ve alleged in prior findings that Robinson confessed in the messages to shooting and killing Kirk. 

In the recording played in court Thursday, Twiggs recalled asking Robinson the day after the shooting “if what he said was true the night before, and he said it was.”

“He started crying a little bit and said he wishes he hadn’t done it, and then kept going around and just doing stuff, I think to keep himself busy or distracted or something,” Twiggs said in the interview recording.

Twiggs said the two hadn’t talked about Charlie Kirk prior to the shooting but Robinson discussed politics and President Donald Trump. The former roommate told investigators Robinson had said he would talk to his parents and turn himself in to law enforcement. 

Prior to his assasination, Kirk was credited with helping Trump win the presidency in 2024. The president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., attended the hearing this week. 

The hearing is scheduled to resume Friday morning and conclude the same day. 

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