Charlie Kirk court hearing: Video of suspect Tyler Robinson's roommate alleging he confessed

Over objections from defense attorneys, a video was played in a Utah courtroom on Thursday in which the roommate of Tyler Robinson, the suspect charged in the 2025 killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, claimed Robinson confessed to the shooting.

Lance Twiggs, Robinson's roommate and romantic partner, claimed in the highly redacted videotaped interview with prosecutors and detectives that Robinson told him in person that he killed Kirk.

"He didn't go into detail. I just asked him in person what he said was true the night before, and he said it was," Twiggs said in the video filmed in April 2026 at the Utah County Attorney's Office. "He started crying a little bit and he said he wishes he hadn't done it, and kept going around just doing stuff, I think to keep himself busy or distracted, or something."

Twiggs was granted immunity from prosecution for the statements he made in the interview.

Twiggs spoke to investigators twice, once on Sept. 12, 2025, following Robinson's arrest, and again on April 20 of this year, when his testimony for the preliminary hearing was recorded.

Twiggs said his conversation with Robinson occurred at the home they shared in St. George, Utah, on Sept. 11, a day after Kirk, who was the founder of the conservative youth movement Turning Point USA and a strong ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during a rally at Utah Valley University in Orem.

At the time of the conversation, investigators were still trying to identify the suspected gunman and had released surveillance images of a person of interest in the shooting.

Twiggs said in the video that he first heard of Kirk's shooting when a friend on Instagram sent him a link to a story about the incident. He recalled seeing the images of the possible suspect that authorities released a day after the shooting.

Asked in the video by Utah County Assistant District Attorney Ryan McBride if he recognized the man in the surveillance photos, Twiggs initially replied, "I wouldn't say it with 100% certainty just because of the camera quality."

"But that looks like him [Robinson] in terms of the shoes he's wearing, the sunglasses," Twiggs said.

Twiggs said Robinson left their home on Sept. 10, 2025, around 4 a.m., after telling Twiggs he had to leave early because he had a long drive to get to work.

Twiggs testified that the night before the shooting, Robinson asked him for a Dremel, or engraving tool, claiming he was going on a family hunting trip and wanted to use it to carve messages on bullets he planned to use for hunting.

Previously, prosecutors have said investigators uncovered three unfired bullet casings at the shooting scene that had engravings on them, including one reading, "Hey fascist! CATCH!" with an arrow symbol pointing up, then to the right, and then three arrows pointing down.

Another unfired casing, according to prosecutors, read, "O Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Ciao, ciao!" seemingly in reference to an Italian anti-fascist song popularized following World War II and another unfired casing read, "If you read this, you are GAY Lmao."

Prosecutors also submitted into evidence at the preliminary hearing on Thursday a series of text messages Robinson allegedly sent Twiggs after allegedly shooting Kirk.

In his video statement, Twiggs testified that in one of the text messages, Robinson directed him to look under his computer keyboard for a handwritten note.

The note was released to the public by prosecutors early in the investigation in the charging documents against Robinson. According to prosecutors, Robinson allegedly wrote, "I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take it."

In his testimony on Thursday, agent Brian Davis of the Utah State Bureau of Investigation read the text messages allegedly between Robinson and Twiggs following the Kirk shooting.

"You weren't the one who did it right????" Twiggs asked Robinson in one of the text messages.

Robinson allegedly replied, "Im am, I'm sorry."

At the time of the text message exchange, Robinson allegedly told Twiggs that he was still in Orem, hoping to retrieve his rifle from where he allegedly stashed it after the shooting.

"How long have you been planning this?" Twiggs messaged Robinson.

Robinson allegedly responded, "A bit over a week I believe."

In his video statement, Twiggs said that Robinson returned to their home the day after the shooting, Sept. 11, 2025. Robinson allegedly told him that he was going to speak with his parents and surrender to the police.

Twiggs said he said a final good-bye to Robinson, whom he had dated only a few months after first becoming roommates.

"I said bye to him and he drove off and I just went back to my parents' house," Twiggs said in the video.

Defense attorneys fought hard to keep the video from being made public in court, arguing that broadcasting it would likely taint the jury pool in case Robinson is bound over for trial at the end of the preliminary hearing.

Judge Tony Graf, who is presiding over the case, ruled the video was admissible, but ordered prosecutors to redact large portions of it as he weighed being as transparent about the evidence as possible while protecting Robinson's right to a fair trial.

Graf said he is allowing the full video into evidence, but declined to make it all available to the public, saying there are parts that are not relevant to the case. He said he has reviewed the video in "great detail" to help make his final judgment on whether to hold Robinson over for trial.

During Thursday's hearing, an attorney for Kirk's family, including his widow, Erica Kirk, made an impassioned plea to Graf to allow prosecutors to play the full video in open court without redactions.

"The Kirk family has waited 10 months for this hearing, and they have a right to be here, and they have a right to hear the evidence," the family's attorney, Jeff Neiman, told Graf. "They have a right to see and feel what's going on in this courtroom, just like and they want to understand, judge, what you are viewing. They want to see the evidence."

Neiman added, "We understand you have to balance. But at a minimum, this courtroom needs to be open, for the evidence to be displayed openly in this courtroom for them to see."

Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child.

Utah prosecutors said they have a mountain of evidence against the 23-year-old defendant and plan to seek the death penalty.

Robinson has yet to enter a plea to the charges.

His preliminary hearing is scheduled to continue on Friday.