Robert L. Hild, Jr. was standing near a stage at Utah Valley University last September, court records say, waiting for Charlie Kirk to come out and speak to the crowd. His friend shot a video that shows him among the thousands that had gathered, wearing a gray T-shirt.

That was around 11:52 a.m., according to a new lawsuit. One minute before that, another man was walking up a campus stairwell. Photos of this man — who was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt — were later seen around the world as the FBI hunted for him, after they say he fired a fatal shot at Kirk from a rooftop perch on a campus building about 30 minutes later.

Hild says he had nothing to do with the shooting. But he alleges in a new defamation lawsuit that podcaster Candace Owens has repeatedly told her audience of millions that Hild contributed to Kirk’s assassination, had ties to malicious foreign actors and was connected to a “gothic” and “communist” underground that she associated with the killing.

In one example, the lawsuit describes Owens musing aloud about a photo of Hild after Tyler Robinson was arrested and charged with aggravated murder in Kirk’s death.

Hild “kind of resembles, certainly more so than Tyler Robinson does, the blurred image of the individual that was coming up the stairs,” the lawsuit quotes her, saying that and other comments sparked widespread speculation about him among commenters.

Owens has millions of social media followers and six million YouTube subscribers, and Hild alleges that her accusations and the attention they’ve brought have “upended” his life and made him a “target” for threats and verbal attacks.

He and others have asked Owens to retract “the damaging falsehoods” she’s aired, the suit says, but she hasn’t done so. “Hild therefore brings this defamation action against Owens and her companies as the only remaining means of vindicating his reputation,” it says, “and protecting himself from further harm.”

Hild is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages.

Owens is facing a separate defamation lawsuit from Kirk’s former head of security over similar claims made on her podcast, allegedly implicating him in a conspiracy to assassinate Kirk. In an August motion for that case, Owens argued that her commentary falls under legally protected opinions or “rhetorical hyperbole,” and she is just asking “questions” that aren’t considered defamatory.

Attorneys representing Owens in other litigation did not immediately return a request for comment about Hild’s suit. A message sent to a general email address for Owens was not immediately returned.

‘Remedy the harm’

Hild’s lawsuit says that in an episode of her show earlier this month, Owens “tacitly admitted” that she knew the person pictured in the UVU stairwell at Kirk’s event was not Hild, but Robinson.

“Yet,” the lawsuit reads, “defendants never made any effort to clear Hild’s name or remedy the harm they caused him.”

The legal filing also names as defendants two companies based in Nashville, Tennessee: Candace Owens, LLC, which manages social media accounts and posted the Candace podcast episodes it targets; and GeorgeTom, Inc., which owns CandaceOwens.com, where episodes are uploaded and published, as well as on YouTube.

Hild, who worked as a data scientist, grew up in Washington state, attended Brigham Young University and served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had trained him on the risks of social media, the suit said. He deliberately had a “minimal” online presence, with his social media accounts set to private, it said.

But he said that Owens’ public accusations have led to death threats, and being doxxed and stalked — leading him to hide for weeks and leave Utah for several months out of fear for his safety, according to the lawsuit. He also applied for refugee status in another country.

His home and vehicle were vandalized, the lawsuit says, and strangers have accused him in person of being involved in Kirk’s killing.

Hild also says the allegations have affected his personal and professional life, including his ability to go to graduate school and apply for jobs. He has avoided professional events and the fear and anxiety caused by the attention became severe enough that he experienced suicidal thoughts and was prescribed antidepressants, according to the lawsuit.

And, he’s also avoided being in public with his girlfriend, whom he hopes to marry, for fear that being associated with him could expose her to danger or harassment, the lawsuit says.

The day of the shooting

On the day Kirk was killed, Hild walked to campus with his friend Shaner Broderick and Broderick’s sister, after they parked at the home of the Brodericks’ grandmother, the suit said.

The trio met other friends at UVU, including one identified as C.B., who took a video of Hild in the crowd before Kirk began speaking, it said.

After Kirk was shot, Broderick later told The Salt Lake Tribune, he and his friends “dogpiled on top of each other” to create human shields if any more shots came. None did. Broderick remembered he got up and then “saw [Kirk] in his chair with blood.” He saw Kirk’s staff pick him up and then Broderick ran to the refuge of his grandmother’s house.

Hild went with him, his lawsuit says, and Broderick’s uncle — former state Rep. Phil Lyman — also sought shelter there.

On Sept. 11, TMZ published home surveillance footage of the suspected shooter walking past the grandmother’s house at 11:49 a.m. headed toward campus, and then later walking back behind the home.

Broderick posted on Instagram the next day, showing the area and explaining why his grandmother’s home was being shown on news channels, the suit said.

Two days later, Broderick, Hild and one of Hild’s roommates went for a walk, visiting some places from the suspected shooter’s path — including the campus stairwell shown in photos released by the FBI of the suspect. Broderick took selfies of the three of them in the stairwell and later included them in an Instagram post.

Shortly after, Owens saw the photos and broadcasted them to her audience, falsely claiming that Hild and his friends were re-enacting the shooter’s path, according to the lawsuit. She asserted that the stairwell in their selfie matched the exact FBI surveillance footage location and alleged they were linked to the shooter or part of a cover-up.

‘Please make this right’

C.B., the friend who had shot the video of Hild near the stage before Kirk appeared, sent an email to Owens on Sept. 30, 2025, about Hild, his roommate and Broderick.

“I know they have nothing to do with this,” she wrote, asking Owens to “please make this right.”

She began by telling Owens she was her “biggest Fan” and listened to her podcasts every day. “I love Candace so much,” she wrote. But what she was seeing online, she added, had left her “truly shocked & scared.”

“Candace was the one person I thought was always telling the truth,” she wrote. “Now she is using innocent people for a story as if they are a missing puzzle piece.”

Owens did not respond to the email, according to the lawsuit. She also did not respond to Broderick’s attempts to reach her and provide more information about Hild and his friends, the lawsuit says. Other friends left comments on Owens’ Facebook posts or tried to reach her through her tip line, and one did speak with her by telephone.

But Owens was kept talking about Hild, the suit says, and in April she announced that her investigation into him was officially reopened.