The judge in the Tyler Robinson case just handed the defense a partial win, ordering chunks of a recorded police interview to be snipped out before it gets played in court. Because apparently even accused assassins get to complain about editing, and sometimes the judge agrees.
District Court Judge Tony Graf ruled Wednesday that several sections of a police interview with Lance Twiggs, Robinson's former roommate and romantic partner, must be redacted before the recording is played in open court. Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors planned to cherry-pick portions of the recording and frame them as "confessions" that could tank Robinson's right to a fair trial, as Trending Politics News reported.
Here is the twist though. Graf said he will still personally consider the full, unredacted recording when deciding whether prosecutors have enough evidence to send Robinson to trial. So the jury of public opinion gets the censored version, but the guy making the actual call gets the whole thing. Convenient.
Prosecutors had planned to play the recording Wednesday but had to push it to Thursday after the judge dropped his redaction order. Robinson's weeklong preliminary hearing is expected to wrap up that day. Robinson, 23, faces seven criminal charges including aggravated murder in the fatal shooting of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The DNA side of this case is getting increasingly complicated. Testimony earlier in the week revealed that DNA evidence tied to Twiggs was found on key items recovered from the campus. Jennifer Faumina, a sergeant with the Utah Department of Public Safety, read portions of a DNA report from the stand during the second day of hearings in a Provo, Utah courtroom.
The items in question include a screwdriver found on the rooftop of the Losee Center for Student Success and a towel that had been wrapped around a rifle. Faumina testified: "Male DNA was obtained from item 7-1. Item 7-1 was interpreted as originating from two individuals, one of whom is Twiggs." She added similar findings about the towel.
FBI analyst Amanda Bakker also testified about DNA evidence linking both Robinson and Twiggs to the towel, according to the AP. Robinson's defense team has disputed the DNA evidence and questioned its reliability, which is the legal equivalent of saying "yeah but are you sure" when someone shows you a lab report.
So to recap: the judge is letting the defense trim the interview tape but is still watching the director's cut himself, DNA from the defendant's roommate is showing up on rooftop screwdrivers and rifle towels, and this whole thing wraps up Thursday. Whatever your feelings about the case, you have to admit this preliminary hearing has had more plot twists than most courtroom dramas that get their own Netflix series.
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