You had one job, courtroom tech people. One job.
During the preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, the 23 year old charged with fatally shooting conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University last September, a judge's order explicitly barred any alleged confession material from being shown to the public before trial. So naturally, as Trending Politics reported, two images of Robinson's alleged handwritten confession note popped right up on the court's livestream Thursday for the whole world to see. Judge Tony Graf noticed the error and had the images yanked, but not before everyone with a screen got an eyeful.
One image showed the note partially burned. The other was an earlier photograph of the undamaged letter that investigators said they pulled from the phone of Lance Twiggs, Robinson's former roommate and romantic partner. The note was allegedly left beneath a computer keyboard for Twiggs to find.
The letter addressed Twiggs by the name "Luna," which Twiggs told investigators was used only by some people in his life. The note read: "If you are reading this per my text, then I am so sorry. I left the house this morning on a mission, and set an auto text. I am likely dead, or facing a lengthy prison sentence. I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I took it. I don't know if I will/have succeeded, but I had hoped to make it home to you."
It continued: "I wish we could have lived in a world where this did not feel necessary. I wish I could have stayed for you and lived our lives together."
So the judge specifically said do not broadcast this, and the courtroom broadcast it anyway. Somebody's getting a talking to.
Robinson faces the death penalty if convicted. Kirk was shot on Sept. 10, 2025 before thousands of people at the university. During Thursday's hearing, the court also played portions of a recorded April 2026 police interview with Twiggs, who described what happened after the shooting.
Twiggs said Robinson texted him around 11 p.m. on the night of the killing and told him to check under the keyboard. When Robinson returned home the next day, Twiggs said he paced the apartment and dodged questions. "I asked him in person if what he said he had done the night before was true. He said it was," Twiggs told investigators.
Twiggs claimed Robinson later broke down crying, said he wished he "had not done it," and told Twiggs he planned to turn himself in to police.
Twiggs told investigators he and Robinson met in 2023, shared an apartment in St. George, Utah, and began a romantic relationship roughly two months later. On the morning of the shooting, Robinson allegedly told Twiggs he had a long workday ahead. That turned out to be quite the understatement.
Several portions of the police interview were redacted after disputes between prosecutors and defense attorneys over what could be shown publicly, which is a level of caution the livestream operator apparently did not share.
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