Tyler Robinson's defense attorney sparked sharp pushback from prosecutors, the Kirk family, and fellow lawyers after characterizing Charlie Kirk as someone who spoke "hatefully", remarks that came the same day a Utah judge sent all charges, including death-penalty-eligible aggravated murder, to trial.

The confrontation unfolded Tuesday inside a Provo, Utah, courtroom where Robinson, 23, faced a preliminary hearing for the fatal shooting of the Turning Point USA founder at a campus event nearly a year ago. During closing arguments, California-based defense attorney Richard Novak told the court that "Mr. Kirk spoke hatefully of certain groups of people", a characterization that drew an immediate response from the prosecution and from Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, who was seated in the gallery with Kirk's parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk.

Chief Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander rebuked Novak directly in front of Judge Tony Graf Jr., telling the court that nothing presented during the hearing supported the claim that Kirk harbored hatred toward anyone. Kirk, Grunander said, "had an opinion that he would express on politics and religion. That doesn't make it hate." The prosecutor then turned Novak's own framing against him, arguing that by labeling Kirk's views as hatred, the defense attorney had inadvertently strengthened the state's case, because Robinson himself, in alleged text messages, cited Kirk's supposed "hatred" as his motive for the killing.

Prosecutor turns the defense's own word against Robinson

Grunander's rebuttal zeroed in on the alleged texts Robinson sent to his roommate and romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, after the September 10, 2025, shooting at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Prosecutors say Robinson wrote to Twiggs: "Why did I do it? I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out. If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence."

By Grunander's logic, Novak's decision to frame Kirk's political speech as "hate" mirrored the very reasoning Robinson allegedly used to justify pulling the trigger. Fox News Digital reported that Grunander told the judge: "The fact that Mr. Novak even considered as hate makes the case for the state in his client's own words, he hated what Mr. Kirk stood for."

Kirk was 31 years old and a father of two when he was shot in front of thousands of onlookers during a Turning Point USA event on the university's campus. The alleged confession texts and Robinson's described motive have been central to the prosecution's case from the start.

Jeffrey Neiman, the attorney representing the Kirk family, was blunt in his response to Novak's remarks. He told the court that Kirk had made a career out of having "hard conversations" on difficult topics, and that labeling that work as hatred inverted the truth of what happened inside the courtroom.

Neiman told the judge:

"Charlie was the opposite of hate. Firing a bullet into a crowd and assassinating him. That is hate."

Outside attorney calls Novak's remarks 'totally uncalled for'

The criticism did not stop at the courtroom doors. David Gelman, a New Jersey-based criminal defense attorney who has followed the case, called Novak's characterization of Kirk unprofessional and said the defense lawyer "should be embarrassed."

Gelman told Fox News Digital:

"You don't ever and I mean ever say that, No. 1, as a defense attorney or a prosecutor, especially not even at a trial. If you want to paint Charlie as a bad person in front of the jury, knock your socks off. Do whatever you think you have to do. But to do that at a preliminary hearing...when you have the victim's family all there, that was totally uncalled for."

A preliminary hearing exists to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to send a case to trial, not to argue guilt or innocence before a jury. Gelman's point was that Novak's attack on Kirk's character served no strategic purpose at that stage and amounted to gratuitous provocation in front of a grieving family.

Gelman went further, pushing back on the substance of Novak's claim. "Charlie Kirk was not full of hatred. If anything, he was full of love," he said. "He brought people together. He was there doing a free speech event, all right? He's trying to bring people on the left on the right together."

Erika Kirk, seated in the courtroom beside her in-laws, visibly reacted when Novak repeated his characterization of her late husband. She leaned forward and said something to an aide with the county attorney's office. AP News reported that Erika Kirk and her mother-in-law, Kathryn Kirk, held each other in a long embrace while the judge read his ruling. The Kirk family released a statement saying, "Every step in this process carries the weight of all that Charlie's murder has taken from his family, especially his children who will grow up without their father."

Judge Graf sends every charge to trial, death penalty stays on the table

Whatever Novak hoped to accomplish, it did not move the judge. Graf bound over all charges against Robinson to district court for trial, including the death penalty-eligible charge of aggravated murder. A full account of the judge's ruling confirmed that prosecutors cleared every evidentiary threshold the hearing required.

Robinson's attorney Kathy Nester entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to all charges at an arraignment held the same day. Robinson is due back in court on October 23 for a pretrial conference, where Graf may set a trial date.

The five-day preliminary hearing produced extensive evidence against Robinson. RealClearPolitics reported that surveillance footage placed Robinson on the Utah Valley University campus before, during, and after the shooting, approximately 200 yards from where Kirk was speaking. DNA evidence recovered from the rifle was described as "at least one trillion times more likely" to have originated from Robinson than from an unknown individual.

Twiggs, who testified during the hearing, told the court that Robinson effectively confessed to him in person. "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 said he wishes he hadn't done it," Twiggs testified. The Washington Examiner noted that the surveillance footage and text messages also dismantled conspiracy theories, including those promoted by podcaster Candace Owens, that had alleged Erika Kirk was somehow involved in her husband's death.

Those baseless claims have added a layer of public cruelty to a family already enduring the worst kind of loss. Erika Kirk has also had to contend with unfounded romance rumors in the months since her husband's killing.

Novak's gambit backfired, and revealed the defense's weakness

The defense attorney's decision to attack Kirk's character at a preliminary hearing, rather than at trial before a jury, raises a straightforward question: what was the strategy? A preliminary hearing requires a judge to decide only whether probable cause exists to proceed. Characterizing the victim as hateful does not raise or lower that bar. It does, however, hand the prosecution a rhetorical gift, the chance to argue, as Grunander did, that the defense's own framing validates the motive described in Robinson's alleged texts.

Former prosecutor Wendy Patrick, commenting on the hearing for Just The News, described the global impact of Kirk's killing. "That assassination really had a worldwide reverberation. I hope it's a wake-up call," Patrick said.

Kirk was gunned down while speaking at a free-speech event on a college campus. Utah Valley University reportedly backed away from a memorial marking the one-year anniversary of his death, a decision that drew its own wave of criticism.

Robinson's defense team did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment on Novak's remarks.

A man is dead because he stood on a stage and said what he believed. His accused killer allegedly told a friend the motive was "hatred." And now the defense attorney wants the courtroom to agree that the hatred belonged to the man behind the microphone, not the one behind the rifle. The jury will have its say.