Charlie Kirk assassination suspect expressed regret after shooting, roommate says

Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old man accused of assassinating conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, allegedly said he wished “he hadn’t done it” the day after the shooting, according to a recording of an interview with his roommate played in a Utah courtroom Thursday. Lance Twiggs, who was also Robinson’s romantic partner, said the suspect nervously paced around their apartment after Kirk’s killing. Twiggs said Robinson told him he planned to confess to his parents or turn himself in to law enforcement. Utah prosecutors played the video and audio clips on the fourth day of a five-day preliminary hearing to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring Robinson to trial. State District Judge Tony F. Graf Jr. will make that decision at the end of the proceedings. The interview with Twiggs was recorded April 20. The recording shown in court Thursday had been partially redacted. Twiggs, seen in the video dressed in a suit and tie, said he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk before the Sept. 10 fatal shooting at Utah Valley University in front of a crowd of hundreds. Robinson is charged with aggravated murder and has not entered a plea in the killing of Kirk, 31, a co-founder of the influential conservative student organization Turning Point USA and an ally of President Donald Trump. Prosecutors allege Robinson left a note for Twiggs that said: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.” The day of Kirk’s killing, the two exchanged text messages that were detailed in a Utah County Attorney’s Office court filing. “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” Robinson told Twiggs in one text message, according to the filing. In another text, Robinson alluded to engraving messages on bullets. Twiggs, in his April interview, confirmed that Robinson had told him he wanted to engrave text on bullets ahead of what the suspect described as a hunting trip with his family. “How long have you been planning this?” Twiggs asked Robinson in one text. Robinson replied that he had been doing so for “a bit over a week.” Inside the courtroom Thursday, a law enforcement investigator read parts of the text message exchanges aloud while phone screenshots were displayed on a monitor. Prosecutors also showed a photo of the suspected murder weapon wrapped in a towel. Investigators have said they found the gun, a bolt-action rifle, in a wooded area near the amphitheater where Kirk was shot dead. Robinson’s attorneys had argued against the public release of Twiggs’ statements, contending that prosecutors would label them a confession and harm their client’s right to a fair trial. The attorneys for Kirk’s family and representatives of the news media implored the judge to make Twiggs’ statements and other evidence in the case public. “To not be transparent, to not be open and let the world see what happened will create doubt and distrust in the judicial system,” Kirk family lawyer Jeffrey Neiman told Graf. Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, attended Thursday’s proceedings. It was not immediately clear whether she was inside the courtroom when the clips of Twiggs were played. Kirk’s family released a statement ahead of the start of Monday’s hearing thanking supporters for their kindness in the wake of the 31-year-old activist’s killing. “Charlie was a beloved husband, son, brother, friend, and father,” the family said. “Every court proceeding serves as a painful reminder of his death and the loss that has irrevocably impacted our lives and the lives of his children.”