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The presiding judge in the case against Tyler Robinson, accused of assassinating conservative icon Charlie Kirk last September, will rule on a critical defense motion today.
Judge Tony Graf will decide in a WebEx hearing scheduled for 10:30 a.m. local time this morning whether to disqualify state prosecutors over an alleged conflict of interest. He is expected to issue an oral ruling followed by a written decision on whether county prosecutors should be disqualified, which could change the course of the trial significantly.
Robinson is expected to listen to the hearing from jail.
Robinson’s defense team has asserted that the state has a conflict of interest since one of the prosecutors’ children was present at the Sept. 10 event at Utah Valley University where Kirk was killed.
There have been two prior hearings on the matter.
On Feb. 3, defense attorney Richard Novak questioned Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray in order to pinpoint when the prosecution determined it would pursue the death penalty against Robinson, which was publicly announced shortly after his arrest.
The court then heard testimony from an unnamed senior prosecutor, identified only as “Prosecutor A,” who described the office’s internal handling of the case and the decision to disclose the child’s presence to the defense.
The prosecutor testified there was no recollection of a specific conversation with Gray about how to proceed because of the child’s presence, but acknowledged it was routine for Gray to consult senior prosecutors in death penalty cases.
A PROSECUTOR’S CHILD WITNESSED CHARLIE KIRK’S ASSASSINATION — CAN HE TAKE PART IN THE CASE?
The prosecutor testified Gray expressed early on that he intended to seek the death penalty and wanted that decision announced at the same time charges were filed — earlier than is typical, when such notices often come after a preliminary hearing.
Meanwhile, the state’s position remains that there is no conflict of interest with the prosecutor whose child witnessed the shooting, but even if there was, it wouldn’t affect the entire prosecutorial team. The state argued in previous filings that thousands of other people witnessed the shooting and that the child in question did not have a direct line of sight to the shooter.
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To that point, the state called Utah State Bureau of Investigation Agent Dave Hall, a lead investigator in the case, to testify in the Feb. 3 hearing. He said that none of the more than 40 eyewitness statements taken from those who witnessed Kirk’s killing identified the shooter.
Graf has said that he is accepting the defense’s alleged facts as true for the purpose of this motion.
Fox News’ Stepheny Price, Adriana James-Rodl, Julia Bonavita and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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