AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The man accused of shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk will face the death penalty. A Utah judge decided that after an all-day hearing today. It's been almost a full year after the conservative activist was shot while speaking to a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University.
Sean Higgins with member station KUER joins us now from Salt Lake City. Hi, Sean.
SEAN HIGGINS, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so tell us the judge's reasoning here, how he determined that Tyler Robinson, who's, of course, the man accused of killing Kirk - how he will go to trial on charges that make him eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted. How did the judge arrive at that?
HIGGINS: So prosecutors have said since shortly after Charlie Kirk was shot on September 10 last year that they would be pursuing the death penalty. So in order to do that, they had to convince a judge that the person who shot Kirk also knowingly put other people at risk, which they say he did by shooting at Kirk when he was speaking in front of a crowd of thousands of people. Putting others at risk is necessary for the aggravated murder charge that state judge Tony Graf said Robinson will be tried on.
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TONY GRAF: This evidence is sufficient at this stage to support a reasonable belief that the defendant is the individual who shot and killed Charlie Kirk.
HIGGINS: And that was Judge Graf saying there is sufficient evidence for this case to go to trial. And that's a lower bar than the one to sustain that aggravated murder charge. That's really important to say here, Ailsa - that this doesn't necessarily mean there's enough evidence for a jury to convict Robinson.
CHANG: Right. OK. So the judge has now ruled that Robinson will be tried in court on all six felonies that he's been charged with. How has Robinson pleaded to those charges?
HIGGINS: Yeah, this is something that Robinson had yet to do until today. And shortly after the charges were read out, one of his attorneys told Judge Graf that it would be not guilty.
CHANG: OK. But his defense fought trying him on the death penalty charge, right?
HIGGINS: Yeah. This was something they really, really pushed back on over the last few months. They were arguing for a lesser murder charge that here in Utah would have taken the death penalty off the table. For instance, they said that the bullet that killed Kirk did not endanger anyone else because it traveled above the crowd and not through it. Here is defense attorney Staci Visser.
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STACI VISSER: There is zero evidence that there was any action taken towards other people - zero evidence.
HIGGINS: And the defense team's arguments ultimately did not sway Judge Graf, though.
CHANG: Well, meanwhile, prosecutors presented a lot of evidence against Robinson in the run-up to today's hearing to explain why they felt he should be facing the death penalty, yeah?
HIGGINS: Yes. Yes, they did. In July, there was a weeklong evidentiary hearing where prosecutors pointed to a lot of things that they say link Robinson to Kirk's death. There's surveillance video from the day of the shooting that prosecutors say shows Robinson arriving at Utah Valley University, moving across the rooftop where Kirk was shot from and ultimately escaping campus that day. DNA evidence also links Robinson to the rifle that was allegedly used to kill Kirk. There are messages between Robinson and his romantic partner that prosecutors say amounts to a confession. And there's also the fact that Robinson turned himself in to police the day after the shooting.
CHANG: Right. Well, what is next in the proceedings at this point?
HIGGINS: So the next step here is there will be a pretrial conference that's scheduled for October 23, and that is where a trial date could be set.
CHANG: That is Sean Higgins from KUER in Salt Lake City. Thank you so much, Sean.
HIGGINS: Thank you, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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