Tyler Robinson defense witness argues against transparency, complains about 'sensational media coverage' in Charlie Kirk murder case

The defense brought expert witness Bryan Edelman to testify in a hearing on Friday about media coverage in the trial of Tyler Robinson, the man charged with murdering Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. He argued that pretrial publicity that has been seen with the case has been sensationalized.

Edelman, the co-founder of the trial consulting group Trial Innovations, had played a key role in getting a change of venue granted in the case of Bryan Kohberger, the man convicted of killing four University of Idaho students. He said he had been asked by the defense to "assess whether or not people in the community are being exposed to media coverage, how closely they’re following it, what their sources are," and stressed that it was not a "change of venue study."

He said that "the types of pretrial publicity that are most prejudicial is emotional pretrial publicity and pretrial publicity around the character of the defendant."

In his study, which randomly polled 200 Utah County residents over the phone who are jury eligible, he found that 99 percent of residents polled knew of the case, 64 percent of whom said they believe he’s guilty of murder "based off of what they've read, seen, or heard about the case," Edelman said.

Over 50 percent believe that "the defendant would have a difficult time convincing them that he’s not guilty," 35 percent believe he should be sentenced to death, and 65 percent have a somewhat or very negative opinion of the defendant. Edelman said the latter finding "fits into all that negative character evidence that we just walked through," referring to footage that was played during his testimony. 

Defense Attorney Michael Burt played Edelman a number of clips of news reports that have covered the case. Edelman referred to an initial press conference regarding Tyler Robinson, which "keeps getting reproduced in a sensational way on TV." He said that people with "a lot of influence and power," such as President Trump and former Attorney General Pam Bondi, have made "strong, prejudicial, inflammatory statements," which is "unique" to this case. 

In regards to news coverage that was played for the court, he said that outlets were "confusing viewers with what happened in hearings" in mixing statements from hearings and court documents, and that a focus on a protective order that was filed on behalf of Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, "goes to future dangerousness of impressions of the defendant earlier...negative character is prejudicial."

Speaking on news coverage that features body language experts or other similar officials, Edelman said, "now we’re completely speculating with sensational conjecture, because he didn’t blink properly, and his eyebrows didn’t go up enough, or whatever it is. And now he’s creating this impression that this person has no emotion or empathy, like he might fit the, I think later it becomes a sociopath."

"It’s all speculation and sensationalism."

Burt also played a CBS townhall event that featured Erika Kirk and aired on December 13. In the clip played for Edelman, moderator Bari Weiss asked Kirk, "do you believe that Tyler Robinson murdered your husband?" She replied, "Yes, I do." She later said, regarding conspiracy theories surrounding Kirk’s killing, that she has seen "our case pulled together. I’ve been in constant with our lawyers ... the prosecuting team. I’ve seen it all, and let me tell you this, why in the world, why should we, prior to the trial, lay all of our hands and cards on the table for the defense team to see...?"

Edelman took issue with the comments, saying, "I think it's not ideal to have a victim saying that due process shouldn't be complied with, the idea of discovery and why we sharing, exchanging information, which is the way the due process works. And then the references, I've seen the evidence, I know, you know, it's an open and shut case, essentially commenting that he's guilty, and the evidence suggests that would definitely be prejudicial and create a presumption of guilt among prospective jurors."

During cross-examination, the state pressed Edelman for whether he looked into negative pretrial publicity against Charlie or Erika Kirk as part of his study. He said he was familiar with it, but did not look into it. He also said he did not look into positive pretrial publicity in relation to Robinson. 

The prosecutor noted that the study asked respondents what three words best describe Charlie Kirk, to which he got responses that include "racist," inflammatory, "misogynist," "*sshole," and "harmful," among other words. The same question was asked of Robinson, responses for which include "scapegoat," "confused," "lost," and other words. 

He was asked why it matters if there are television cameras in the courtroom "where there’s pre-trial publicity," to which he replied that it "creates sensational, misleading media coverage that undermines the defendant’s fair trial rights."