'I am. I'm sorry': Text messages shown in preliminary hearing reveal Tyler Robinson admitting to killing Charlie Kirk

During the preliminary hearing of Tyler Robinson on Wednesday, photos of text messages between Robinson and Lance Twiggs, the roommate Robinson was dating, were shown in court, detailing Robinson’s comments in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk. 

Some of the text messages had previously been released by the prosecution earlier in the case, but new messages were also revealed in the hearing. On the stand was Utah State Bureau of Investigation agent Brian Davis, who read out the messages that had been photographed from Twiggs’ phone. 

"I am still ok my love, but am stuck in Orem for a little while longer yet," one message stated. It was followed by another one reading, "Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still. To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you."

Twiggs wrote, "You weren’t the one who did it right????" Robinson replied, "I am, I’m sorry." 

Robinson was later asked why he "did it," with Robinson saying, "I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out. 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." He claimed to have been planning it "a bit over a week." 

Robinson said he had planned on circling back for the rifle that had been left behind, but "there’s one vehicle lingering." He said there was a squad car parked "right by it," but that he believed the spot had already been swept by authorities. "If they had found it I imagine there would be more commotion," he wrote. 

Robinson added, "again I’m so sorry for roping you into all this. You shouldn’t have to worry about this." He said he did not think anyone else knew about his actions. He said it would be "real f*ckin annoying if I can’t get this thing til like 3, then have to drive back and still go into work."

Twiggs asked if Robinson was sure authorities weren’t just waiting to see if anyone returned for the rifle, with Robinson replying, "I’ve gotten close enough that they would have jumped me if they were waiting, and they would probably be more concerned with pulling prints off of it." 

He said a K9 had been in the area hours ago, and said he hoped the dog "has a bad sniffer," and that he wished he had circled back for the rifle earlier in the day. "Guess I’m just sittin in my car watching reels for another hour, hopin this guy f*cks off." 

He said he had returned for the rifle, but added, "getting worried, hard to know for sure but I’m not finding my rifle, could be in the wrong spot." He said if the gun had a serial number it wouldn’t trace back to him, however, "I worry about prints. I had to leave it in a bush where I changed outfits. Didn’t have the ability or time to bring it with [me]."

Twiggs asked if the gun could be replaced, with Robinson saying, "replace it? Unlikely. I don’t fully know what the gun was because it was old as sh*t. And Gramps did some modifying. There was a four-digit serial on it. God only knows who it’s registered to. Hopefully some dead guy who gave it to Grandpa."

He added, "remember how I was engraving bullets? The f*ckin messages are mostly a big meme, if I see “notices bulge uwu” on Fox News I might have a stroke. Alright im gonna have to leave it, that really fucking sucks."

Twiggs asked if Robinson needed the gun for hunting, with Robinson saying, "no, my dad wanted to use a higher calibre for the rifle hunt, judging from today I’d say grandpas gun does just fine idk, I think that was a $2k scope." 

A portion of the text messages were not allowed to be displayed in court. The text messages later continued from Robinson, "I’m gonna turn myself in willingly. One of my neighbors here is a deputy for the sheriff. We hope to keep things sorta quiet here."

A Discord channel that Robinson was a part of was also entered into evidence in Thursday’s hearing. Robinson’s username was tyler/ikum. The messages were obtained as part of a subpoena sent to Discord. The first message noted in the hearing was sent just before 8 pm on September 11. Davis said that Robinson turned himself in at the Washington County Sheriff’s Department around an hour later. Around one minute of audio on discussions of the Discord chat was muted.

Also introduced was a photo of the handwritten letter Twiggs was directed to find underneath Robinson’s keyboard on the night of the 10th. A photograph of the letter was obtained through a search of Twiggs’ phone. Around five minutes of audio from the courtroom were muted.