Defense lawyers in Charlie Kirk murder case say it will take several years to prepare for trial

Defense lawyers for the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk are suggesting a 2029 trial date because they believe it could take them that long to prepare their case.

Lawyers for Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, said Thursday that the defense’s proposed timeline was “absurd” and that defendant Tyler Robinson was simply trying to delay.

Utah District Court Judge Tony Graf scheduled a hearing Friday to set a trial date.

Robinson pleaded not guilty to the aggravated murder of Kirk last year while President Donald Trump’s ally spoke to a crowd of several thousand people at Utah Valley University. The 23-year-old defendant turned himself in a day after the shooting, and his lawyers have not offered an alternative theory of Kirk’s death. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Utah County prosecutors, in court filings, anticipated a 17-week trial and said they would be ready by October 2027. But rather than holding proceedings over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, they proposed the trial begin Jan. 31, 2028.

Erika Kirk’s attorney, Jeffrey Neiman, said the trial is expected to begin next October, the earliest date prosecutors have identified.

“Under the defendants’ proposed timeline, Mr. Kirk’s two children, who were one and three years old at the time of his murder, will be six and eight years old at the conclusion of the trial,” Neiman wrote. “They will face the uncertainty of this criminal process longer than their father did in their lives. »

But Robinson’s lawyers said in court filings this week that they had to sift through tens of thousands of records turned over by prosecutors.

They said they will have to conduct thorough investigations into Robinson’s life looking for mitigating factors that could influence his sentence if he is convicted, and will have to spend “significant time” on issues such as jury selection.

Defense attorneys said they respected the court’s attempt to set a “realistic date for trial.” However, because this is a complex death penalty case, attempting to predict when the case will be ready for trial “is an exercise that, at this point, will necessarily be infected with false precision,” they wrote in a document filed Wednesday.