Charlie Kirk murder trial set for June 2028, nearly three years after the shooting

Jury selection will begin June 21, 2028, and the trial is expected to run 105 days. That is the schedule a Utah judge set Monday for the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk, according to the Associated Press, as published by News 6 ClickOrlando.

District Judge Tony Graf announced the dates in Provo. Tyler Robinson, 23, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder. Kirk was 31 when he was shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking to several thousand people at Utah Valley University. Robinson could face the death penalty if convicted.

Graf said the schedule balances Robinson's right to prepare his defense against the right of Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, to a speedy resolution.

A date in the middle

Robinson's attorneys had proposed a trial starting in 2029. Prosecutors said they could be ready by October 2027, but suggested January 2028 so the trial would not run through Thanksgiving and Christmas. The judge landed between the two.

The Kirk family did not welcome it. Their attorney, Jeffrey Neiman, told the court the family would accept the ruling because there was no choice, but he did not hide their view.

“A trial in the summer of 2028, three years after Charlie's assassination, does not feel very speedy to the Kirk family,” Neiman said.

In a statement after the hearing, the family called the decision a delay and said every added day without justice prolongs their pain.

President Donald Trump has also weighed in. Last month he posted that Robinson should be tried within a month, and he criticized Graf, a former prosecutor appointed to the bench last year, for taking too long to ask questions that people already know the answers to.

What the defense says it needs

Robinson's lawyers told the court they must go through tens of thousands of files turned over by prosecutors. They also plan broad investigations into his life, looking for mitigating factors that could affect his sentence if he is convicted.

The defense also intends to survey Utah County residents to see whether an impartial jury can be seated there. Depending on the results, it may ask to move the trial elsewhere. Graf said he will hear arguments on venue at a later hearing. Defense attorneys declined to comment after Monday's session.

The case so far

Robinson turned himself in the day after the shooting. His lawyers have not offered alternative theories about how Kirk died.

Utah County prosecutors allege Robinson targeted Kirk for his political beliefs. They say a bullet found in the rifle was engraved with a taunting message, and that Robinson texted that he had enough of Kirk's hatred and that some hate can't be negotiated out. Those are allegations, and Robinson is presumed innocent until a jury decides otherwise.

Kirk helped draw young voters to Trump in the 2024 election. The case has now run more than a year in court, and the trial is still more than a year and a half away.