A Utah judge found on Tuesday that prosecutors had enough evidence to try the man accused of killing the conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year and said they could seek the death penalty.
The highly anticipated ruling by Judge Tony Graf was a major step in one of the country’s most scrutinized murder cases. It came nearly a year after Mr. Kirk was assassinated during an open-air speaking event attended by thousands at Utah Valley University in Orem.
During a weeklong hearing in July, prosecutors offered a barrage of evidence against the suspect, Tyler Robinson, including surveillance videos of Mr. Robinson near the crime scene and text messages in which he confessed to his roommate and lover that he had killed Mr. Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.”
Mr. Robinson’s lawyers have tried to delay the case with procedural fights and have questioned DNA and ballistic evidence tying Mr. Robinson to the killing on Sept. 10. But they have not offered a concrete defense, apart from arguing that Mr. Robinson should not face the death penalty.
Prosecutors have charged Mr. Robinson, 23, with aggravated murder eligible for the death penalty, because they say he “knowingly created a risk of death” to others by climbing to a rooftop and firing into a courtyard where Mr. Kirk was taking questions from an audience of thousands.
Mr. Kirk, 31, founded the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA and was one of the country’s most influential conservative Christian activists. A close ally of the Trump administration, he regularly hosted campus debates where he invited liberal critics to question him in exchanges that often went viral on social media. And he consistently opposed gay marriage and gender transitions, describing the latter as a “middle finger to God.”
In August, the defense argued that Mr. Kirk’s assassin had fired just once and hit the “intended target” and had not put anyone else in grave danger.
“The shooter did not miss his intended target and did not chamber another round, leaving the spent cartridge in the rifle,” Mr. Robinson’s court-appointed lawyers wrote.
Judge Graf rejected that argument on Tuesday, leaving it up to a Utah jury to decide whether Mr. Robinson faces the death penalty after what could be a long and highly publicized televised trial.
Legal experts overwhelmingly expected Judge Graf to find probable cause to proceed to trial. Prosecutors argued that “this isn’t a close case.”
Mr. Robinson’s lawyers challenged other elements of the prosecution’s case, including that Mr. Robinson had killed Mr. Kirk because of his views.
The defense argued that Mr. Robinson’s text messages to Lance Twiggs, who was then his romantic partner, never specifically discussed Mr. Kirk’s religious or political views. “He refers to ‘hatred’ and nothing more,” the defense said.
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