A Utah judge ruled Friday that a deputy prosecutor in the murder case against a man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk had violated a pretrial publicity order by speaking to the media — and held him in contempt of court.
Judge Tony Graf declined, however, to impose the more severe sanction, stripping prosecutors of the option to seek the death penalty, that had been sought by defense lawyers for shooting suspect Tyler Robinson, reported MS NOW.
The contempt finding stemmed from a series of media interviews Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard gave to TMZ, USA Today, PolitiFact and Fox News. Prosecutors had argued Ballard was simply correcting misinformation circulating about the case and believed professional conduct rules permitted him to do so.
Graf found that while Ballard didn’t act out of “malicious desire” to defy the court or taint the jury pool, his public comments on Robinson’s guilt and the strength of the prosecution’s case exceeded what the court’s order allowed, creating “a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing the proceedings.”
The controversy traces back to a defense filing stating that ATF investigators couldn’t conclusively match the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Robinson — a claim prosecutors say omitted that the ATF also hadn’t excluded the rifle as the source. Tabloid coverage and online commentators seized on the partial framing, with some conspiracy theorists claiming it proved Robinson had been framed.
Robinson’s attorney, Richard Novak, argued that removing the death penalty was the only sanction proportionate to what he called prosecutors’ “extreme recklessness” in conducting a “media tour” designed to influence the jury pool.
Graf rejected that argument, calling the requested sanction “grossly disproportionate to the misconduct and legally unavailable in this civil contempt framework.”
The case now moves toward a five-day preliminary hearing beginning July 6, where prosecutors will present evidence — including ballistics reports, surveillance footage, and digital communications — in an effort to establish probable cause for trial. Robinson has not yet entered a plea.
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