Tyler James Robinson attends a virtual court hearing from Utah County Jail. Photo / Getty Images
The suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk has appeared in court for the first time wearing an anti-suicide vest as chilling new details come to light about the alleged assassination.
Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged with aggravated murder, discharging a firearm and multiple other charges over the September 10 shooting of the political activist at Utah Valley University.
Robinson is being held without bail and made his first appearance at a Utah County courtroom on Tuesday (local time).
He appeared virtually wearing a green sleeveless vest, designed to prevent him from taking his life.
The vest is standard issue for high-profile prisoners at the Utah County Security Centre, court officials said.
“Can you state your name?” the judge asked.
“Tyler James Robinson,” he said.
Robinson sat emotionless in front of a white wall as the charges were read against him. He appeared to nod as the judge told him he would remain in jail without bail, NBC News reports.
His next hearing is scheduled for September 29.
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray earlier said prosecutors would be seeking the death penalty.
It’s been revealed Robinson left a note under his keyboard for his roommate to read after the fatal shooting, text messages between the pair show.
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said prosecutors would be seeking the death penalty.
In a press conference on Tuesday local time, Gray read out a string of text messages between Robinson and his roommate, who is transgender and was in a romantic relationship with Robinson. The roommate has been identified by the New York Post as Lance Twiggs, 22.
On the day of the shooting, Robinson messaged his roommate: “Drop what you’re doing, look under my keyboard.”
Under the keyboard, Robinson left a note which read: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it.”
The roommate replied: “What?????????????? You’re joking, right????”
“I am still ok my love, but am stuck in orem for a little while longer yet,” Robinson responded. “Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still. To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you,” Robinson messaged back, court documents show.
When the roommate asked “you weren’t the one who did it right????” Robinson replied: “I am, I’m sorry”.
The roommate said he thought the person responsible had been caught.
“No, they grabbed some crazy old dude, then interrogated someone in similar clothing. I had planned to grab my rifle from my drop point shortly after, but most of that side of town got locked down. Its quiet, almost enough to get out, but theres one vehicle lingering,” Robinson replied.
Asked why he did it, Robinson said: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
In contrast to Robinson himself, police have said his partner has been extremely helpful to authorities during the investigation.
District Attorney Gray said Robinson and his parents had very different political views with the suspect accusing his father of being “die hard Maga”.
Gray said Robinson’s parents had said he had “moved to the left” over the past year.
The elderly man who allegedly hindered authorities’ response after Kirk was fatally shot is now accused of keeping “graphic” sexual photos of children on his phone, according to law enforcement.
George Zinn, 71, was charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor on Monday local time, after investigators found more than 20 images of kids as young as 5 years old, at least partially naked and “posing” in a “sexual” way, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said on Tuesday.
“Zinn admitted … that he gets sexual gratification from viewing and sharing [child sexual abuse material] images with others, and that his preferred victim age is 5 to 12 years old,” the agency alleged.
Zinn, who is a political “gadfly”, is also facing a charge of obstruction of justice after he allegedly admitted to screaming that he shot Kirk at the Utah campus on Wednesday in a bid to help the actual shooter get away.
He was quickly taken into custody at Utah Valley University. His detention paved the way for the child porn charges, the sheriff’s office said.
The senior citizen was initially hauled off to campus police headquarters, where he refused to co-operate, but was soon taken to the hospital for a medical problem, authorities said.
He confessed there than he was not the shooterand investigators asked to look at his phone.
As he handed it over, Zinn admitted to state and federal agents that he uses the electronic device to check out inappropriate images of children, the sheriff’s office said.
“Those agents did see several images on the phone of prepubescent girls scantily dressed,” the agency said.
A search warrant obtained on Monday led investigators to find the 20-plus illicit images and “several very graphic sexual text threads in which Zinn shared images with other parties”, according to authorities.
Zinn is being held in county jail.
- More to come
- With the New York Post
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