Jessica SchreifelsNote to readers • This story contains images of text messages that include profanity.
On the morning after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on a Utah college campus, Tyler Robinson’s roommate and romantic partner said the man paced around their St. George townhouse, seemingly trying to keep himself busy and distracted.
Lance Twiggs said in a video interview played in court Thursday that he asked Robinson if what he had texted the night before was true: that he was the shooter.
“He said it was,” Twiggs said. “He started crying a little bit and said he wishes he hadn’t done it.”
Twiggs lived with Robinson and had been dating him at the time of Sept. 10 shooting. Dressed in a suit and tie, Twiggs calmly answered questions in the video interview about how he met Robinson in 2023 as a “new roommate,” and they started dating a few months later, but had separate bedrooms.
Robinson worked for an electrician company, Twiggs said, while he had a job doing bathtub and shower repairs. They played video games together, Twiggs said, and had mutual friends.
In his phone, Twiggs saved Robinson’s contact name as simply “Tyler” with a heart emoji.
But Twiggs said they didn’t often discuss politics with one another — “I don’t really keep with politics very much,” he said — and added that he had never heard Robinson talk about Kirk. A prosecutor interviewing him also asked if the two ever discussed LGBTQ or gender issues. But 4th District Judge Tony Graf had ruled that answer couldn’t be shown publicly, and the video cut to black.
Authorities have said that Twiggs is transgender. In a small portion of the video, Twiggs confirmed he has also gone by the name Luna, but added that he used the name with “some people” and that it wasn’t “an overall thing.” Both the prosecution and the defense have referred to Twiggs with male pronouns throughout the hearing.
The video came during the fourth day of a preliminary hearing for Robinson, who has been charged with aggravated murder and other crimes in connection to Kirk’s Sept. 10 death.
Prosecutors presented the strongest evidence so far implicating Robinson in the crime, including confessions they say Robinson sent in texts and wrote down. Those who were in the courthouse reported that Robinson did not visibly react as these messages, and Twiggs’ interview, were played on screens throughout the Provo courtroom.
A ditched rifle, and a note under his keyboard
Prosecutors showed text messages that they say Twiggs and Robinson exchanged on Sept. 10. At 4:33 p.m. — hours after Kirk had been shot Robinson and Twiggs sent each other messages telling the other they loved them.
But at 11 p.m., a text that Robinson had seemingly scheduled changed the tone of their conversations. He told Twiggs to “drop what you are doing” and “look under my keyboard.”
Twiggs said in the video interview that he looked under the keyboard and found a note. He took a picture of it, which was shown in the courtroom.
“If you are reading this per my text,” the handwritten note begins, “then I am so sorry.”
Robinson allegedly wrote that he left that morning on a “mission” and that he was likely dead or facing a lengthy prison sentence.
“I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I took it,” the note reads. “I don’t know if I will/have succeeded, but I had hoped to make it home to you.”
Twiggs then texted Robinson seemingly in a panic, asking if he was joking.
“You weren’t the one who did it, right????” Twiggs texted.
“I am, I’m sorry,” Robinson texted back, according to photos of the text exchange displayed in court.
These images contain profanity.
Robinson also texted Twiggs about trying to go back to where he had ditched the rifle, which he said he left in a bush near the campus wrapped in a towel. He expressed worry in the messages that police would find the weapon — which he said was old, and his grandfather’s — and added that he might have to leave it behind and possibly anger his father.
“Judging from today,” he texted, “I’d say grandpas gun does just fine.”
Sgt. Jennifer Faumuina, with Utah’s Department of Public Safety, testified on Thursday that authorities found a rifle wrapped in a dark towel in a wooded area near the campus — and photos of the weapon were published in court.
(Spenser Heaps | Pool) An image of a rifle that prosecutors say was recovered by investigators near Utah Valley University is displayed during a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, Thursday, July 9, 2026.
‘Let the world see what happened’
Faumuina also testified that police found one fired cartridge and three unfired bullets in the rifle, all of which had engravings on them. Photos of the cartridges were shown in court Thursday, showing they were engraved with phrases like “If you read this, you are GAY Lmao” and “Hey Fascist! Catch!” In a text he allegedly sent to Twiggs, he said the engravings were mostly internet memes.
In the video interview, Twiggs said Robinson had asked him about whether they had a Dremel tool in the weeks prior to the shooting, and said that Robinson told him he wanted to engrave bullets for a hunting trip he was going on with his family.
“I just told him where the Dremel was,” Twiggs said. “I didn’t really think about it.”
Prosecutors finished presenting their case Thursday afternoon.
Robinson’s defense team had fought hard to keep Twiggs’ video, the text messages and other evidence out of the public view — arguing that any release in open court would affect Robinson’s right to a fair trial and could taint a future jury pool.
Michael Judd, an attorney representing The Salt Lake Tribune and other media outlets, asked for the evidence to be shown — as did the attorney who is representing Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk. Jeff Neiman said the Kirks want all of the evidence presented during the hearing “made public for the world to see.”
“To not be transparent here, to not be open, to not let the world see what happened will create doubt and trust in the judicial system,” Neiman argued.
(Tess Crowley | Pool) Jeff A. Neiman, an attorney representing Erika Kirk, speaks on behalf of the Kirk family during a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, at the 4th District Court in Provo on Wednesday, July 8, 2026.
Neiman went step further Wednesday evening and filed a motion on behalf of the Kirks demanding that all of the evidence that the judge has privately viewed be shown publicly. He noted in the filing that Kirk’s family have been in the Provo courtroom “to bear witness” but have not been permitted to view the evidence.
“To receive evidence in a manner shielded from those seated in the courtroom — as happened today — is not transparency," Nieman wrote. “And in the absence of transparency, speculation and conspiracy theories related to the tragic assassination of Mr. Kirk will continue to proliferate in the public domain, breeding doubt and distrust in the judicial system.”
Graf, the judge, ruled that the video and other evidence could be shown, but he ordered that portions of the interview would not be shown publicly.
(Spenser Heaps | Pool) Tyler Robinson, left, who is accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, sits while Judge Tony Graf conferences with attorneys during a preliminary hearing at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, Thursday, July 9, 2026.
The judge also said video surveillance evidence that he previously ruled would not be public could be played in the courtroom on Friday. The video is footage that prosecutors altered by zooming in, which they say shows someone run across the roof of a campus building, lay out in a “prone” position, then jump off the building and run away after Kirk was shot.
The unaltered footage was previously shown in court, but Kirk’s family attorney said it was difficult to view because it was a zoomed out wide shot.
This week’s preliminary hearing is not a trial, and the burden of proof is much lower. Graf will determine only if there is “probable cause” that Robinson likely committed a crime, compared to “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard that jurors must find in a trial.
But that decision is still months away. The judge on Thursday said he’ll allow the attorneys to file their arguments in writing, and scheduled an oral argument hearing for September.
