Suspect left note, wrote texts about killing Charlie Kirk: prosecutor

Prosecutors brought a murder charge Tuesday against the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk and outlined evidence, including a text message confession to his partner and a note left beforehand saying he had the opportunity to kill one of the nation’s leading conservative voices “and I’m going to take it.”

DNA on the trigger of the rifle that killed Kirk also matched that of Tyler Robinson, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said while outlining the evidence and announcing charges that could result in the death penalty if Robinson is convicted.

The prosecutor said Robinson, 22, wrote in one text that he spent more than a week planning the attack on Kirk, a prominent force in politics credited with energizing the Republican youth movement and helping Donald Trump win back the White House in 2024.

Robinson appeared briefly Tuesday before a judge by video from jail. He nodded slightly at times but mostly stared straight ahead as the judge read the charges against him and said he would appoint an attorney to represent him.

Authorities have not revealed a clear motive in the shooting. Gray said that Robinson was involved in a romantic relationship with his roommate, who investigators say was transgender, but hasn't been confirmed. Robinson wrote in a text about Kirk to his partner: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

Robinson also left a note for his partner hidden under a keyboard that said, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it,” according to Gray.

After the news conference, Utah’s Department of Public Safety Commissioner, Beau Mason, said about the texts and other investigative threads, “We are starting to get a picture of where his mind was.”

While authorities say Robinson hasn’t been cooperating with investigators, they say his family and friends have been talking.

Robinson’s mother told investigators that their son had turned left politically in the last year and became more supportive of gay and transgender rights after dating someone who is transgender, Gray said.

Those decisions prompted several conversations in the household, especially between Robinson and his father. They had different political views and Robinson told his partner in a text that his dad had become a “diehard MAGA” since Trump was elected.

Mason added that the family’s views “differed quite significantly,” and the conversations were at times controversial between parents and son.

Robinson’s mother recognized him when authorities released a picture of the suspect and his parents confronted him, at which time Robinson said he wanted to kill himself, Gray said.

The family persuaded him to meet with a family friend who is a retired sheriff’s deputy, who persuaded Robinson to turn himself in, the prosecutor said.

Robinson was arrested late Thursday near St. George, the southern Utah community where he grew up, about 240 miles southwest of where the shooting happened.