What the Tyler Robinson indictment reveals about the Charlie Kirk murder

Tyler Robinson, who has been charged with seven counts, including aggravated murder, appeared in court on Tuesday.  

Clad in what appeared to be an anti-suicide vest, the 22-year-old sat in front of a blank wall that mirrored his own silence. But in its lapidary tone, the indictment that the Utah prosecutors have compiled speaks volumes.  

In all likelihood, the alleged assassin will receive the death penalty. “I do not take this decision lightly, and it is a decision I have made independently as county attorney based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime,” Jeffrey S. Gray said at a press conference. 

Gray seems to be a model prosecutor. The indictment recounts in careful and restrained detail the acts leading up to the sanguinary deed at Utah Valley University. The shot from the roof. The passage of the bullet after it struck Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk. The hasty flight after the shot had been fired. The disposal of clothes and the rifle. The spare wording possesses its own persuasive power, underscoring the shocking nature of the sanguinary deed that took place on that fateful afternoon at UVU.  

Indeed, to read the indictment is to realize that Robinson has, in essence, indicted himself by sending numerous text messages to his roommate, Lance Twiggs (whom the mainstream media is referring to as his romantic partner). The messages could scarcely be more incriminating. For one thing, he gestures at his motive, declaring about Kirk that “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.” That he experienced a political evolution seems difficult to deny. Robinson’s mother allegedly told prosecutors that “Over the last year or so, her son had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.” The bottom line is that in arrogating to himself the right to murder, Robinson apparently became the one consumed by hatred.  

At the same time, he seems to have been keen to elude the police, if at all possible. Robinson texted that, “If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence. Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything about them finding it.” Fortunately, Robinson’s roommate declined to heed his admonition to delete the exchange. Instead, he provided it to the appropriate authorities. 

The charging document is unlikely to quell the furor surrounding Robinson and the Trump administration. Instead, it may well prompt the administration to heighten its calls for a crackdown on what President Trump and his allies are depicting as a broader left-wing conspiracy, one comprised of terrorist networks intent on subverting America. In this regard, the bullet that was fired at UVU is ricocheting in ways that the assassin probably could not have predicted. 

The next court hearing for Robinson will take place on September 29. Perhaps he will have shed his impassivity by then. But his text messages have already revealed more than enough about what appear to be his sordid plans for mayhem and murder.