“Discovery in this case is incomplete, voluminous, and the processing of it is complex.”
A Friday motion filed by the defense team of Tyler Robinson, the man charged with assassinating Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, revealed that the prosecution intends to call Robinson’s parents, as well as his transgender roommate with whom he had a romantic relationship, as witnesses in the preliminary hearing currently set for May. The defense is attempting to delay those proceedings.
The defense filing stated that counsel for the parties met on March 12 and spoke about discovery issues and evidence the state intends to present in May. The preliminary hearing is currently set to take place the week of May 18 through 22.
“Based upon the State’s representations at this meeting, the State intends to present discrete ‘buckets’ of evidence through three identified law enforcement witnesses. This includes conclusory forensic DNA and ballistics reports authored by the FBI and the ATF, phone and social media data, testimony by law enforcement officials about the crime scene and search locations, and testimony by Mr. Robinson’s parents and roommate,” the filing stated.
The team requested that the court either vacate or delay the May preliminary hearing dates currently scheduled, citing the large amount of discovery materials that need to be reviewed.
“Discovery in this case is incomplete, voluminous, and the processing of it is complex,” the defense team wrote. They said that the initial review of digital electronic discovery received during the March 12 meeting “is anticipated to take sixty days to complete, after which time it can be determined if the downloads are complete, or if additional time is necessary to obtain complete downloads.”
Lance Twiggs, the trans-identified male with whom Robinson began a relationship when they were roommates, went into hiding following the September 10 assassination of Kirk. He was last spotted in Texas, living with family. Messages between the two following the shooting revealed that Robinson had texted Twiggs, asking that he destroy evidence. Additional messages on Discord servers showed Robinson appearing to confess to the killing.