Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin returns to court — without showing his face

PROVO, Utah — His absence from his own hearing left the courtroom with more empty seats than answers.

Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk at a Utah college campus earlier this month, returned to court Monday, sort of. He attended the hearing over a remote feed without video.

Robinson is due back for another hearing on Oct. 30, after his defense team, led by Kathy Nester, asked for more time to decide whether they would force an evidentiary hearing in the case against their client.

Two new names added to his team were announced during the hearing, attorneys Michael N. Burt and Richard G. Novak, both from California.

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Prosecutors said they had begun handing over discovery materials to the defense. They raised a question about the wording of a gag order on the case, which may involve more than 3,000 witnesses, and the defense asked the court not only for more time on the waiver question but also before they decide whether to request bail.

There was a void in the courtroom, however, where Robinson would have sat and on the screen hooked up to the jail speaker he called in from.

Judge Tony Graf, who is overseeing the proceedings, asked Nester if she planned to have Robinson attend in person next month.

“Yes, your honor,” she replied. “Thank you.”

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It’s unusual but not unheard of for a defendant to appear remotely without video, a number of local attorneys and other authorities told Fox News Digital.

The request for the setup came from the defense, the court announced over the weekend. It was not immediately clear why, but security concerns may have been on everyone’s mind after Kirk’s assassination and a Sunday morning attack on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Michigan happened within 18 days of one another.

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Security measures had been significantly bolstered ahead of the hearing, which saw few spectators beyond about two dozen reporters and a handful of other attendees. Police K9s swept the premises repeatedly throughout the morning, and the court closed one of its two entrances to divert all traffic through a single door. The judge temporarily banned bags from the courthouse. 

Sgt. Ray Ormond, a spokesman for the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, told Fox News Digital that nothing happened to Robinson behind bars that would have prompted him to attend a hearing off-camera, he remains in the jail’s special housing unit and he hadn’t been involved in any incidents with other inmates.

“There were some other concerns,” he said, “partly because it was going to be such a short hearing.”

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The hearing took about 10 minutes total, and Robinson was not asked to enter a plea.

Robinson’s defense team did not immediately respond to questions about the process, and there did not appear to be any record of Nester’s request in court documents.

Robinson had been expected to attend in person until the court announced Saturday that he wouldn’t. 

“The best person to answer this question is someone on the defense team,” said Christopher Ballard, general counsel and the public information officer for the Utah County District Attorney’s Office. 

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The parties and the judge could have informally agreed to the arrangement, according to Randolph Rice, a Maryland-based legal analyst who is following the case.

“Just a thought, I wonder if they are so worried about tainting the jury pool with additional images of him in that suicide smock that they’re avoiding any unneeded video of him from the jail,” he told Fox News Digital.

Before the hearing started, a jail official said Robinson was present on the other side of a blank screen. He was not visible at all during the hearing, which the court said he would attend off-camera from the county jail.

“And to the jail, do we have Mr. Robinson present?” Graf asked after attorneys for both sides had introduced themselves.

“Yes, your honor,” a man’s voice replied.

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“All right, Mr. Robinson, good morning to you as well,” the judge replied, indicating the voice belonged to the suspect.

Robinson faces seven charges, including aggravated homicide, which carries the potential death penalty, felony discharge of a firearm, obstruction and witness tampering.

He allegedly confessed or “implied” guilt to his parents, his romantic partner and friends, according to court documents. Investigators also allege they recovered his DNA from the suspected murder weapon, a Mauser .30-06 with a custom stock and modern optics — distinctive enough that his father allegedly asked him for the rifle’s whereabouts after police had it in their possession.

Authorities have said they believe he acted alone and only discussed the plot with other people after allegedly carrying it out.