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By Andi Babineau, Nick Watt, CNN
Provo, Utah (CNN) — Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man accused of killing Charlie Kirk, appeared in a Utah court Friday afternoon as his attorneys pushed for prosecutors to be pulled from the case over what they allege is a conflict of interest.
Robinson’s defense attorneys are arguing the entire Utah County Attorney’s Office should be disqualified because an attorney’s 18-year-old child was at the September 10 Utah Valley University event where the prominent conservative activist was shot.
Robinson, dressed in a light blue button-up shirt and dark tie, appeared calm Friday as his attorney asked Judge Tony Graf to designate the state Attorney General to litigate the motion on the conflict of interest instead of the attorney’s office — a request that Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray described as an “ambush and another stalling tactic.”
Defense attorney Richard Novak said the request is “not about tactics at all,” but because “we firmly believe that the law supports the conclusion that that particular prosecutor should have been screened off.”
The defense team first addressed the potential conflict of interest during an October 24 hearing that was at the time sealed to the public, with Novak telling the court the attorney’s child was “present at the incident” and “law enforcement were actually deployed to the area with (the prosecutor’s child’s) safety and status in mind.”
The attorney’s name has been redacted from public documents and was referred to as “Prosecutor A” during Friday’s hearing.
The prosecutor’s child, a student at the university, was about 85 feet from where Kirk was seated, according to the documents.
The county attorney’s office has said there’s no conflict of interest because the student, referred to as “adult child (AC)” in court documents, “did not see Charlie get shot,” and “did not see anyone [in the crowd or elsewhere] with a gun.”
The attorney’s office won’t be calling the prosecutor’s child as a witness in the case because “nearly everything [AC] knows about the actual homicide is hearsay,” a document filed by the attorney’s office says. “And because Mr. [Dpty Atty] has no conflict of interest, the County Attorney’s Office also has no conflict of interest requiring disqualification.”
However, Novak said Friday the defense intends to call the prosecutor and his adult child as witnesses as they argue for disqualifying the attorney’s office.
Gray, the county attorney, was called up as the first of four witnesses who were expected to testify Friday, more than three hours after the hearing began and after Judge Graf said the defense had so far not made a “sufficient showing” to justify bringing the state’s Attorney General into the case, even in a limited capacity.
Gray recounted hearing about Kirk’s shooting from “Prosecutor A,” who had received a text from his adult child.
He said he didn’t speak to the prosecutor’s child that day, adding students had already left by the time he arrived at the scene. He said the understanding was “the child was not in that line of fire.”
Gray explained that detail is important because the attorney’s office is alleging that when the shooter killed Kirk, he also “placed others in grave risk of death.”
Gray was still on the stand Friday when the court recessed late. The hearing will resume during a previously scheduled February 3 court date.
The defense also implied in its filing that the alleged conflict of interest may have influenced the attorney’s office’s decision to pursue the death penalty so quickly in the case. In Utah, prosecutors have 60 days after an arraignment to file notice of intent to pursue the death penalty against a defendant.
“The rush to seek death in this case evidences strong emotional reactions” by the prosecution, the motion says.
The attorney’s office pushed back on that assertion in their response, saying “there is nothing unusual or untoward about filing a death penalty notice before a preliminary hearing.”
The evidence and circumstances of the case “justify the death penalty,” and a delay “would have been unnecessarily unsettling and painful to Charlie Kirk’s loved ones and does not promote justice for anyone,” the court filing said.
Robinson will not be arraigned until after his preliminary hearing, which is scheduled to begin on May 18 and last three days. He has not yet entered a plea.
The brazen killing – seen by students in person and many more people in videos that spread swiftly online – took place as Kirk was speaking at the Utah university last year and was followed by an intense, 30-plus-hour manhunt for a sniper who authorities said fired the fatal shot from a nearby roof.
Robinson, who surrendered to police a day after the shooting, is facing a flurry of charges, including aggravated murder, felony use of a firearm, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. Several of the charges also include victim targeting enhancements and the aggravating factor of having committed a violent offense in the presence of a child.
A charging document laid out the key evidence against Robinson, including DNA on the suspected murder weapon and a confession.
A bolt-action rifle, towel, a used cartridge casing and three unused cartridges were discovered in a wooded area near the crime scene, and DNA on several of those items was consistent with Robinson’s, according to the document. The cartridges were engraved with phrases from internet memes and video games.
The following day, Robinson, his parents and a family friend went to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to turn himself in, the document states. His parents had recognized their son from the surveillance photo, it said.
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CNN’s Eric Levenson contributed to this report.
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