A Utah judge has just ruled that a deputy attorney general may remain on the prosecution team in the murder case of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
The Tuesday ruling rejects defense efforts to have him disqualified.
Defense attorneys for 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the man accused of fatally shooting Kirk, had asked the court in January to remove the prosecutor and his entire office.
The demand came after it was disclosed that the prosecutor’s daughter had been in the crowd the day Kirk was killed.
The woman did not witness the shooting itself.
However, she sent a message to a family group chat stating, “CHARLIE GOT SHOT.”
Robinson’s attorneys argued that the prosecutor’s connection to someone present at the event could have influenced the decision to pursue the death penalty.
Prosecution Pushes Back
In a court filing in Utah’s Fourth Judicial District Court for Utah County, prosecutors disputed the claim that the daughter’s presence created a conflict of interest.
She did not suffer “any lasting trauma from the event,” the filing said.
“In fact, nearly everything [she] knows about the actual homicide is hearsay,” the filing noted.
They added that any testimony she gave would consist of “generic, uncontested details available from literally thousands of other witnesses.”
Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray argued that the defense motion was nothing more than a delay tactic.
“This is [an] ambush and another stalling tactic,” Gray said.
Shooting at Utah Valley University
Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative voice, was killed last September.
He was shot dead while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Robinson faces aggravated murder charges in connection with the shooting.
Footage from the day appears to show Robinson, wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap, climbing onto a building where investigators believe the shots were fired.
Authorities have said he later turned himself in after consulting with family members.
The judge’s ruling allows the prosecution to move forward without changes to its legal team as the case proceeds toward trial.
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