Tyler Robinson’s former roommate and lover described the erratic behavior of Robinson after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, in testimony played Thursday at Robinson’s preliminary hearing.
The testimony of Lance Twiggs was partially redacted, but it did include descriptions of how Robinson acted after the Sept. 10, 2025, killing of Kirk. The Twiggs testimony was recorded in April, and it was shown publicly for the first time in a Utah courtroom during the fourth day of Robinson’s preliminary hearing to determine if there is probable cause for him to go on trial for allegedly murdering Kirk.
Twiggs said Robinson was walking around and seemed to be keeping himself busy after Kirk’s death last fall. Twiggs also said Robinson told him he planned to talk to his parents or turn himself in to the police.
“I just asked him in person if what he said was true the night before, and he said it was. He started crying a little bit, and he said he wishes he hadn’t done it, and then kept going around and just doing stuff. I think to keep himself busy or distracted or something,” Twiggs said.
When asked by prosecutors in the taped testimony if he discussed politics with Robinson, Twiggs said he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk. He also added that Robinson had brought up President Donald Trump and his policies in some conversations. Twiggs stated that he himself did not keep up with politics.
The admission of the taped testimony was the subject of an intense legal battle between the prosecution and Robinson’s lawyers on Wednesday and into Thursday morning. The prosecution pushed to play the full testimony, while Robinson’s lawyers fought for the taped statements to be redacted or not played at all in the public courtroom. Judge Tony Graf ultimately approved some redactions and allowed the testimony to be played in the courtroom on Thursday.
The prosecution also showed text messages between Twiggs and Robinson, where Twiggs asked Robinson, “You werent the one who [did] it right????,” to which Robinson responded, “I am, I’m sorry.” Twiggs asked how long Robinson had been planning the alleged shooting, with Robinson responding, “A bit over a week.”
Robinson also said in a text to Twiggs that he did it because he had “had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.” In another text, Robinson instructed Twiggs to delete the text exchange, and while Twiggs responded “alright” to Robinson, he did not delete the exchange.
After the court returned from a lunch break, the prosecution presented additional evidence collected during its investigation. That evidence included the bullet casings recovered from the suspected murder weapon.
Photos of the casings were presented at the hearing on Thursday. The casings were inscribed with messages, including “notices bulge,” “owo whats,” and “this?,” along with “Hey fascist,” “catch,” and another engraving with an up arrow, right arrow, down arrow, down arrow, and a down arrow. Another set of bullet messages said, “if you read,” “this, you are,” “gay,” and “lmao,” while a different casing had the lyrics to an Italian antifascist song.
Twiggs told prosecutors in his testimony that Robinson had asked him if he had a Dremel to engrave messages onto bullets. But Twiggs said Robinson implied at the time that he wanted to engrave the bullets to go hunting or camping, not to commit a crime. Twiggs said the conversation happened “at most a month before” Kirk’s killing. Robinson also discussed the bullet engravings in the text messages presented to the court as evidence.
“Remember how I was engraving bullets? The f***in messages are mostly a big meme. If I see ‘notices bulge uwu’ on fox news I might have a stroke,” Robinson said in a text to Twiggs, which was presented as evidence during Thursday’s hearing.
Kirk’s family, including his widow Erika Kirk, has been present for the hearings in Utah, sitting in the same courtroom as Robinson.
The Kirk family’s lawyer had pushed for all exhibits entered into the court during the preliminary hearing to be publicly released, but Graf declined the request, choosing instead to evaluate on a case-by-case basis whether exhibits should be publicly shown. Graf said the decision was intended to balance transparency and Robinson’s constitutional right to a fair trial.
TYLER ROBINSON’S EX-LOVER’S TESTIMONY TO BE PLAYED IN COURT AFTER FIGHT OVER ITS ADMISSION
During the expected trial, Robinson will face multiple charges for his alleged assassination of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in September 2025. The maximum punishment for the charges against Robinson includes the death penalty, which prosecutors have said they intend to pursue. Robinson’s lawyers attempted to get the possibility of the death penalty off the table during a hearing last month, but Graf denied the motion.
Robinson’s trial is expected to be one of the most closely watched criminal cases of the year, after the public killing of Kirk sent shock waves through politics last year. Authorities say Robinson claimed Kirk spread “too much hate,” and that his family said Robinson espoused increasingly left-wing views, including on transgender ideology, in recent years.