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COMMENTARY by Benny Johnson — "The Charlie Kirk Murder Trial is OVER. Tyler Robinson Defense Admits Defeat, Smoking Gun Evidence..." (published 2026-08-12).
This is third-party opinion/analysis ABOUT State of Utah v. Tyler James Robinson — NOT the court record. It is indexed for comparison against the primary transcripts/filings. Transcript is the YouTube auto-caption track (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ba0WK9O5Dk) — verbatim ASR.
Charlie Kirk was like a brother to me. We worked together and built together for nearly 10 years. I MCed the guy's wedding to Erica. And that same Erica asked me to sit with her at Charlie's murder pre-trial in Utah last month. And that's exactly what I did. And I told you the truth about what happened in the courthouse that day and the demonstrable evidence that the prosecution has. And now something truly stunning has happened. The defense agrees with me. Isn't that shocking? Ladies and gentlemen, what I said and I caught a lot of heat for this by the Charlie Kirk murder industrial complex that is making an obscene amount of money lying to you about what's going on and what happened in the courthouse that day decided to come after me for explaining precisely what the prosecution has, which is this. You can see Tyler Robinson on campus that day. You can follow his movements from various different security cameras. Some of them are really good. Some of them are not as crystal clear. But all of them show Tyler Robinson's car, his license plate, his face. They show details of his clothing and his actions on the rooftop. This is what I said. And this was a horrifying thing to watch because we're just feet away from Tyler Robinson. As the Kirks wept together, Charlie's mother, father, and wife, Tyler Robinson, with his pale, salow, sunken, emaciated, self sat staring at the floor. Not even a hint of remorse. Ladies and gentlemen, Tyler knows that he did it because Tyler's own defense team knows that he did it. They just filed a brief with the court because the court is heading in to decide whether Tyler Robinson will be facing the death penalty. And effectively this filing says we're pleading for mercy. Yes, Tyler Robinson went there with the intention to kill Charlie Kirk. Yes, Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk. He was there on campus. He was there that day. This is him in the security footage. We agree with the framing of all of the evidence that was presented. You can see that I mean exactly what I described to you here is Tyler Robinson's defense using the same arguments and the same evidence saying here ladies and gentlemen for instance you can see Mr. Robinson, not a figure, not a not Fed slop, not some agent or whatever, some facade guy, but like literally Mr. Robinson in the video walking up and down the stairs at UVU with a gate impaired by something long in his pant leg for reasonable inference from the evidence provided that it was a fully assembled rifle. This is the defense writing this. This is the defense. And we're going to zoom out here and show you exactly what they're because effectively what they're saying is that Tyler Robinson went there to kill Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was killed, but he didn't mean to hurt anybody else and that he shouldn't have to face the death penalty for that. This is what this is what they write in their filing with the court. Here we go. uh it says that actually the best evidence that the court has that Tyler Robinson was there to kill Charlie Kirk that day is the videos that I described to you that were played in the court that were not allowed to be released at full quality and resolution. Mr. Kirk was struck by a projectile in the left side of his neck and his injury resulted in death. This is Tyler Robinson's defense team writing this. Okay, so we can put that one to bed, right? The exploding microphone. The best evidence of the events of September 10th from the Utah Valley campus are the videos. You see this? Okay, here's the filing. You can read it for yourself. Link in the description. uh the compilations of UVU surveillance footage, the exact ones that were played for me and everybody in the courthouse. The surveillance depicts the roof of the Losi building and the walkway between the Losi building and the computer science building. The shooter has been has is seen going over the railing separating the walkway from the Losi roof exactly as we described it. Uh each of the video each of the videos then jump when the figure is seen running west across the Losi roof. The figure drops off the roof and begins to crawl to the western ledge of the roof going both south and west. The shooter reaches the edge of the roof. Although the additional body positioning on the ground is visible until approximately 12:22. This is described as a prone position on the gravel rooftop. for 15 to 30 seconds. He is in the prone position. The figure gets up and then begins running to the northwest corner of the roof and drops off the Losi building to the ground. Uh the shooter was in the position of the southwest corner of the Losi rooftop for approximately 35 to 44 seconds. A clear line of sight between the tent and the Losi rooftop. Okay, so what does this say? This says that they admit the state's evidence show Tyler Robinson on campus in the security footage with the gate and that the rooftop evidence is the strongest evidence and the surveillance video footage is the strongest footage exactly as I said here. This is the strongest footage and evidence for the actual prosecution. And what do they go on to argue in this 22 in this 22-page document? I'm sorry, correction, 41page document. [snorts] And here it is, ladies and gentlemen. What do they go on to argue? They go on to argue that Tyler Robinson didn't mean to kill anyone other than and that just because he hated Charlie doesn't mean he wanted to hurt other people or had a political motivation. It doesn't argue, shockingly that Charlie was killed by exploding microphone or an Egyptian plane, that Charlie was killed by a federal agency. It doesn't argue that Tyler Robinson wasn't on campus that day or couldn't have physically been there or that it was impossible for him to be there. He could have been literally anywhere else in the world. And with geot tracking, geoloc, security footage, with cell phone pings, it would have been very easy to prove that Tyler Robinson, even if he was on a different place on the campus, wouldn't have been able to commit this murder. But instead, the filing says he's in the stairwell. Yes, it's him. They call him Mr. Robinson. And then they describe exactly what I described on the rooftop. No, the video is not Michael Bay drone camera footage of him taking the shot. But somebody is going to have to present. The burden of proof is on you to explain who's there taking the shot, lining it all up with all of the other available evidence, DNA evidence. The family, the lover, Lance Twigs, all of the other security camera footage that is very clear is a rooftop camera. Ladies and gentlemen, the defense has conceded that the evidence shows that it was him in the stairwell with the rifle completely blown out of the water. Look at this. and that the shooter was in the prone position before firing the weapon once. That aligns exactly with the FBI's testimony against Tyler Robinson and another breakdown right here of the rest of the defense. The entire filing is ludicrous. I'm providing the entire filing in this thread with a summary. I thought the summary was really good. Tyler Robinson's defense is essentially arguing that yes, Charlie Kirk was deliberately targeted. Yes, one shot was fired at him. And yes, Robinson admitted that I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, but somehow the state is reaching too far with the additional aggravating factors. So the defense is saying, okay, we admit it. Tyler Robinson was there to kill Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was killed in a manner that is completely consistent with what they say. But you can't argue all these other extracurriculars, these other accelerants to your charges, right? So you stack charges in a case like this. And they're saying don't do that because uh there was no great risk of death. You see Charlie see Tyler Robinson went there, he shot Charlie Kirk and he fired just one bullet. And that means that he wasn't intending to shoot anybody else. Robinson fired one shot. He intended to just hit Charlie and he hit Charlie. Nobody else was hit. Therefore, according to the defense, he did not knowingly create a great risk or death to anybody else. Never mind that this happened at a crowded public event. Never mind that he was allegedly firing a high-powered rifle from a rooftop towards an area filled with people. The defense argues this is because the bullet traveled downward, hit its intended target, and did not strike anybody else. Prosecutors cannot establish the required risk. the person merely uh because the people were nearby. Wait a second. I thought Tyler Robinson wasn't even there. I thought it was at a steakhouse somewhere or whatever, right? Like he wasn't even on campus that day, right? Well, his his own defense team doesn't say that. His defense team is effectively arguing that Tyler Robinson did it, killed Charlie, but he didn't hit anyone else. right here in the filing. They even attacked the significance of the shooting targets recovered from Robinson's apartment. Their argument the state supposedly cannot establish when the targets were shot. What firearms were used or whether Robinson personally fired every shot and they dismissed the screwdriver found on the roof arguing existence doesn't mean that Robinson was there to assemble anything. Then we get to witness tampering. Robinson tells Lance Twigs to stay silent and they argue that he has a constitutional right to stay silent. He was just giving constitutional advice. Okay. I mean, it was Lance Twigs that is the single most devastating thing probably in this trial that you've seen is the Lance Twigs testimony. And you've only seen about half of it. They redacted the other half. The most damaging half. But Lance Twigs is saying, "Yeah, that looks like Tyler Robinson on the stairwell." Yes, this looks like him. Yes. Yes. He was crying in my arms saying he was really sad that he did it. Okay. uh children under 14 were at the event. The defense doesn't dispute that. Instead, they argue that the prosecutor cannot prove Tyler Robinson knew that they were there. The reasoning is that argu uh Robinson was 400 ft away and spent only 44 seconds positioned on the rooftop before the shot. They literally distinguished this from the shooting from an shooting at an elementary school or daycare where knowledge that children would be present would be reasonably inferred. They are they are undone here. The most ridiculous argument is the political motivation. They say, "Yes, yes, Tyler Robinson did say he had a chance to take out Charlie Kirk. He had had enough of his hatred. Yes, these are his messages." The defense says all of that, but according to the defense, it's not enough. Why? Because Robinson didn't provide an exact list, an itemized list of exactly why he hated Charlie Kirk. Ladies and gentlemen, it is shocking to the entire internet that the Charlie Kirk murder conspiracy industrial complex arguments have never been used by his own defense team. That's odd, isn't it? At this point, I'll be shocked if Tyler Robinson's lawyer don't come crawling for a plea deal. That's what I think is going to happen. They spent a year running the Brian Cobberg playbook. Motion after motion, challenge after challenge. Fight the death penalty. Drag the case out as long as possible. They still haven't entered a plea. The preliminary hearing just wrapped. Final arguments aren't until September 1st, and they're fighting to eliminate the sole aggravating factor that could put the death penalty on the table. Sound familiar? Cobberg stalled, fought everything, and then took a deal before the trial rather than risk the needle. Life without parole was the prize. Robinson's defense look like heading down the same road. And this is what's most critical. There is so much more empirical evidence that connects Tyler Robinson to this murder than anything in the Brian Cobberg case that happened up the road right in Idaho. Incredible. Mr. Robinson, they admit it shows this shows Mr. Robinson, excuse me, walking up and down the stairs. And Charlie Kirk was shot. Bad day for the Tyler Robinson was not on campus that day. Retards. Oh, interesting. Using their AI their AI enhanced altered photographs as his own defense team. His own defense team says, "Yes, it's That absolutely insane. Tyler Robinson's defense is trying to avoid the death penalty by arguing that Tyler only intended to harm Charlie and not anybody else. Does this sound like a defense team that's trying to say he didn't commit this murder? I'm no lawyer. I'll happily admit my shortcomings. I went to community college. So I don't pretend to be some type of SSRI divorce a wine mom murder solver here. What I do have is a functional brain stem that says as I read through this filing, which I encourage you to do, please, unlike one side of this argument, uh, evidence has actually been presented that's more than just vibes and feelings and consulting the crystals, I beg you to read the filing from Tyler Robinson's defense lawyers. Nowhere in the filing will you find them arguing that he wasn't there on campus, that he's a pacy. In fact, the entire filing is yes, he did it. Please give him a plea deal because what you're trying to accelerate we're going to argue those, right? We're going to try and like build a semantic case around did he know there were children under 14? Did he try and hurt other people when he was firing into a crowd that day and so on. Does this sound like a case? Does it sound like the prosecution is going with the whole he wasn't there that day or he didn't do it? It's the opposite. Any child can see this. They've concluded that Tyler murdered Charlie. They're just trying to secure a lesser sentence. The signals the defense recognizes the evidence is overwhelming and Tyler Robinson will be convicted of Let's go ahead and read here. Candace is having her latest blowup because the defense's new 41page filing in the Tyler Robinson case uses exactly none of the wild claims she spent the last 11 months pushing rather than make the case that Robinson is not guilty. The filing focuses on exclusively trying to spare him from the death penalty. The filing spends only one page contesting the actual murder evidence by arguing that Lance Twigs' testimony was improper. All the rest of the filings concern aggregating factor like secondary charges. The filing admits that Charlie was killed by a rifle shot from the Losi center. It explicitly describes the person captured on camera as the shooter. There's absolutely no effort to talk about the exploding microphones or directly or indirectly contesting the idea that Charlie was killed by a rifle round. Fireling uh never argues that Robinson was not on campus. In fact, it says the evidence shows that he was on campus and that you can see him clearly in the security calls a reasonable inter interference, a reasonable imperence, sorry, that his gate was caused by a fully assembled rifle. The filing admits that Robinson was texting with Lance Twigs, telling him, "I'm going to turn myself in." When Lance asks if he would avoid prison, he says, "I highly doubt it." Professional lawyers, unlike dishonest podcasters, have ethical obligations that the bar that bar them from saying things that are not true. So, unsurprisingly, their defense bears absolutely no resemblance to what Candace has spent months shilling to her audience. Yikes. Yikes. Okay. You know what? Just is what it is. You know, you hate to be right on these things. We've we can uh withstand the Crucible. Obviously, there's no shortage of Only Fans, girls, and wine mom, true crime, SSRI, cat ladies that came for us in all this. Uh but now it seems like our greatest defenders or the people that are exonerating us entirely in what we told you that was true that happened that day uh is Tyler Robinson's own defense team trying to argue that he shouldn't get the death penalty for the crimes that he committed. Okay, so time to get back to reality. Whoops, there goes gravity. It's your boy Benny simply speaking the truth here. Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk and he deserves the firing squad. Justice for Charlie and to hell with the demons that have been tormenting everyone for the last few