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Utah prosecutors say they are prepared to proceed with a preliminary hearing against Tyler Robinson, the man accused of assassinating conservative icon Charlie Kirk, without additional DNA analysis, according to a new court filing.
The filing, made by prosecutors Friday, said that they don’t need DNA evidence allegedly tying Robinson to the crimes in order to hold the preliminary hearing, where more evidence is expected to be produced.
“The State has previously proffered that it intends to introduce at the preliminary hearing DNA evidence tying Defendant to the crimes charged in the Information,” prosecutors said in their filing.
“However, if the Court finds that the State’s introduction of that evidence at the preliminary hearing warrants a continuance, the State is prepared—in the interest of moving this case forward—to proceed with the preliminary hearing as scheduled without the DNA evidence. The State has made this decision after concluding that the other evidence it intends to introduce is more than sufficient to establish probable cause for bindover.”
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A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 18, but Judge Tony Graf is expected to make a ruling on Friday about whether the hearing will proceed as planned or be postponed.
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In late March, Robinson’s attorneys asked Graf for a minimum six-month delay for the preliminary hearing.
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Robinson’s attorneys said in the filing that defense attorneys received more than 600,000 files from prosecutors during a meeting on March 12, which they say will take time to review. The team also said that the discovery is not yet complete.
“Discovery in this case is incomplete, voluminous, and the processing of it is complex,” the defense team wrote.
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Prosecutors in an April 30 filing accused Robinson’s defense team of misleading the public surrounding ballistics testing.
In a previous filing, Robinson’s attorneys claimed that “the ATF was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson.”
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However, Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard said the claim was misleading and “misstated,” which resulted in widespread media coverage.
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Ballard said Robinson’s defense left out critical context from the ATF report.
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“The ATF was unable to identify or exclude the bullet as having been fired from the rifle,” Ballard wrote. “Defendant reinforced this misleading inference by following it up with, ‘the defense may very well decide to offer the testimony of the ATF firearm analyst as exculpatory evidence.'”
In the ATF report’s appendix, officials explained that “inconclusive” findings indicate that it was “an examiner’s opinion that there is an insufficient quality and/or quantity of individual characteristics to identify or exclude.”
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Robinson faces multiple charges after he allegedly killed Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025, including aggravated murder. His charges are death penalty eligible.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz, Stepheny Price, Julia Bonavita and Peter D’Abrosca contributed to the report.
