It had all the elements of a modern-day tragedy: the grieving widow quietly dabbing away tears with a white tissue, the president’s son making a surprise appearance with his glamorous new wife, and a diminutive accused killer at the center of it all.
But the second day of the preliminary hearing over Charlie Kirk‘s 2025 murder also had elements of a farce: an afternoon of testimony so utterly boring, four women who had camped out overnight to get courtroom seats quietly slipped away after just an hour.
The day had begun with a phalanx of cameras mobbed around the entrance waiting to capture the main players: Donald Trump Jr with his recent bride Bettina Anderson, Kirk’s widow Erika and his devastated parents, as well as Robinson’s own mom and dad who scurried into the Provo District Courthouse dodging the lenses as much as they could.
Inside, security was heavy: the fourth floor had been turned into a fortress with the floor to ceiling plate glass windows blacked out with fabric to prevent any clear shot at those entering the courtroom.
Snipers were stationed on the roof while squads of heavily armed cops had packed into the lobby and into the courtroom itself.
Erika herself was flanked by a posse of three heavies, looking small and fragile at their sides.
Reporters covering the hearing were swept into the courtroom first, where, from their perch in the jury box, they were positioned directly next to the defense team and the accused killer Tyler Robinson himself.
Not that the seating arrangements appeared to bother the 23-year-old, who maintained a mask of stony indifference throughout the day as he sat, hunched over the defense desk, in a crumpled gray suit.
Emotional Erika Kirk, seen on Monday, quietly dabbed her tears as she listened to testimony on the second day of Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday
Robinson, 23 (pictured in December), faces the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted of murdering Kirk at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025
The conservative influencer interacted with the crowd during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University moments before he was shot dead
Yet there were the odd signs of emotion: rolling his pen through his fingers as a picture purporting to show him positioning himself to strike, his left thumb tracing circles on his thigh as his trans former lover’s name got its first mention, and a quick scratch of his left eye.
As reporters filed out at the end of the day, he offered a brief smirk – the most visible and discernible facial expression he managed in eight hours of testimony.
The real emotion was to be found further back where Erika, dressed in a black satin blouse and matching wide-leg pants, sat in the third row next to Kirk’s visibly distraught parents.
Occasionally dabbing her eyes as she watched frame by frame footage of Robinson’s movements on the day her husband died, it proved all too much at times – with both Erika and his parents fleeing the court room twice in the morning.
Sitting just in front of them, just a few seats away, were Robinson’s parents Matthew and Amber who, like their son, didn’t give much away – stoically facing Judge Tony Graf while chewing gum throughout.
Behind them and to their right was Don Jr, solemn in a navy suit, and new wife Bettina who added a shot of glamour to proceedings in a cream pinstriped suit and black t-shirt.
Although the newlyweds spent the whole of Monday in court, neither made it back after Tuesday’s lunch break – for which both should breathe a sigh of relief.
Although Robinson’s sharp-tongued lead attorney Kathy Nester – last seen mounting an unsuccessful defense of grief author Kouri Richins – took center stage in the morning, the afternoon saw the floor handed to Michael Burt.
Kirk was supported in court by her late husband’s close friend, Donald Trump Jr, and his new wife Bettina Anderson (pictured at the Freedom 250 UFC fight at the White House in June)
Charlie Kirk’s parents Robert and Kathryn Kirk appeared grief stricken as they arrived for the second day of preliminary court appearances in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday
Tyler Robinson’s parents Matt and Amber also seen arriving at the courthouse on Tuesday
Burt, no stranger to a famous case himself having represented parent killer Lyle Menendez during his first trial, took the later hours of the day from high drama to crashing bore.
For more than three painstaking hours, Burt attempted to prove flaws in the DNA testing that identified Robinson, subjecting FBI scientist Amanda Bakker to a tedious barrage of questions and waving best practice manuals written in 1996 at the witness box.
The courtroom, already mostly marked by a hushed silence, descended into a stupor before dapper prosecutor Ryan McBride rapidly wrapped proceedings up with a few quick questions of his own.
Tuesday marked the second day of a week-long preliminary hearing in the murder case.
Robinson faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted, with his defense attorney Nester, 59, attempting to prevent key evidence from being admitted at his pre-trial hearings this week.
Nester is a veteran trial attorney with a number of infamous defendants on her resume, including former polygamous religious leader Lyle Jeffs, synagogue shooter John Earnest and Michael Kirk Moore, who was accused of issuing false Covid vaccine certificates and destroying $28,000 worth of COVID-19 vaccines. The charges against Moore were eventually dropped.
Much of the focus on Tuesday morning was on the testimony of Utah State Bureau of Investigation agent David Hull who said that hours before Kirk was killed, Robinson visited the amphitheater where the influencer was preparing to speak.
Hull claimed that Robinson made contact with several members of the conservative activist’s organization Turning Point USA.
Defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, on Tuesday
A never-before-seen image allegedly showing Robinson on the UVU campus before the shooting
Prosecutors say Robinson drove a grey Dodge Challenger for four hours to the UVU campus, and on Tuesday they presented never-before-seen footage allegedly showing the vehicle stalking the area before Kirk’s assassination
The agent did not testify as to what Robinson said to the organization’s members, but Hull added that Robinson also bought food from Chick-fil-A roughly two hours before Kirk was killed.
Hull also noted that a police officer interacted with the suspect on campus the day after the shooting, amid an intense manhunt for Kirk’s killer.
He said Robinson returned to the UVU campus during the manhunt, but during his conversation with the police officer he set off alarm bells.
Hull said the officer had ‘cop intuition’ about Robinson and wrote down his license plate, which later helped investigators prove that the 23-year-old was on campus that day, he testified.
The bombshell testimony came after prosecutors shared never-before-seen footage allegedly showing Robinson prowling the UVU campus on the day of the shooting.
However, prosecutors hit a hurdle on the first day of the evidence hearings on Monday as Utah District Court Judge Tony Graf rejected surveillance footage put forward by the state, as he said he was ‘concerned’ it had been edited.
The footage had been altered with circles around items of interest and zooms at key moments, which prosecutors said were ‘only added to make it easier to view.’
People gather outside a courthouse, on the day of a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson
The early ruling came as the first cop at the scene, Utah Valley University police officer Chris Bagley, also admitted in his testimony that he did not have bodycam footage from the day of Kirk’s assassination to back up his testimony, because his camera ‘ran out of batteries.’
Despite the early challenges in the evidence on Monday, prosecutors only need to convince Judge Graf of probable cause in taking Robinson to trial, a lower bar than the ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ standard needed to ultimately convict him.
Robinson has remained in custody in Utah ever since his arrest 33 hours after Kirk was killed.
Prosecutors say they have compiled a slew of evidence in that time, including DNA linking Robinson to the murder weapon, witness statements and further surveillance tying him to the scene.
They are also expected to cite messages Robinson allegedly sent his transgender partner Lance Twiggs on the day of the shooting, which said he ‘had enough of (Kirk’s) hatred’ and that ‘some hatred can’t be negotiated out.’
Robinson has not yet entered a plea in the case.
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