Charlie Kirk Case: Suspect's Romantic Partner Reveals Chilling Words He Received After the Incident

A note hidden under a keyboard. A confession typed in all caps. A quiet admission of regret whispered the morning after a killing that shocked the country.

Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, sat feet away from her husband's accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, inside a Utah courtroom this week, forced to relive the final moments of the Turning Point USA founder's life. At the same time, the man charged with taking it looked on.

What came out over the following days, through the words of Robinson's own romantic partner, painted a picture far more disturbing than anyone following the case could guess.

Erika Kirk Faces Her Husband's Accused Killer For The First Time

Erika, 37, arrived at the Provo courthouse on Monday, July 6, 2026, dressed in black and escorted by two men as the five-day preliminary hearing got underway. She took a seat beside Charlie's parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, wiping away tears with a handkerchief as she came face to face with Tyler for the first time since her husband's death.

Kathryn clutched a tissue pack throughout the session, according to a Fox 13 report from inside the courtroom, while Robert wore a gray striped suit as the two walked in arm in arm.

Donald Trump Jr., his wife Bettina Anderson, and conservative commentator Jack Posobiec were also present, according to the initial report on Erika's arrival. Tyler, 23, sat nearby in a gray suit with his wrists shackled, occasionally smiling as he conferred with his attorneys and jotting notes while witnesses testified.

Security inside the courthouse was tight, with roughly half a dozen officers in tactical gear stationed indoors and additional personnel positioned on the rooftop.

Judge Tony Graf, who is presiding over the hearing, will ultimately decide whether prosecutors have enough evidence to send Tyler to trial for the September 10, 2025, shooting of Charlie at Utah Valley University. He faces the death penalty if convicted and has not yet entered a plea.

Ahead of the proceedings, Charlie's family released a statement describing him as a "beloved husband, son, brother, friend, and father," adding that "every court proceeding serves as a painful reminder of his death." They asked for continued privacy while the case moves forward.

And so the process began, but it was revealed later that Erika had to flee the courtroom entirely just before prosecutors played three graphic videos capturing the moment her husband was shot.

Tyler's defense team objected to nearly every piece of evidence prosecutors attempted to introduce, winning only one dispute over a video that appeared to have been edited, which the judge ordered replaced with an unaltered version.

It was Erika herself, however, who pushed for one particular piece of evidence to be released to the public in full, over her opponents' objections. She and prosecutors argued that keeping it sealed would only feed the kind of baseless conspiracy theories pushed by commentator Candace Owens and others surrounding her husband's killing.

Attorney Jeffrey Neiman told the court the Kirk family had "waited 10 months for this hearing" and deserved to witness everything unfold in front of them, asking pointedly, "What's the point of being here?" if they weren't allowed to see the evidence.

Tyler's lawyers had fought to keep both media cameras and the material itself out of public view, warning that live coverage could taint the jury pool before a trial even began.

The Man Who Knew Him Best Finally Speaks

Ultimately, Erika's side won, and a video was released. It showed Lance Twiggs, 22, who was Tyler's roommate and romantic partner in the town of St. George, roughly three hours from the university where Charlie was killed.

He was officially seen for the first time on Thursday, July 9, in a pre-recorded deposition played before the court and now, the world. In this interview, Lance was dressed in a coat and tie, casually chewing gum until he was asked to spit it out before the testimony began.

Lance told investigators that he met Tyler when the suspect moved in as his roommate, and their bond grew from a shared love of video games and a private Discord server into a relationship.

What he described next is what the Kirk family had been waiting nearly a year to see made public: Tyler's confessions.

Several Confessions, One Devastating Night

The first one came within minutes of the shooting itself. Lance said he received a text from Tyler instructing him, "drop what you are doing, look under my keyboard."

Confused, Lance responded, "what????????????" followed by "you're joking right????" Tyler's reply arrived moments later, panicked, "[Expletive] I tried to delete that."

Underneath the keyboard, Lance found a letter addressed to him under his private nickname, "Luna," in which Tyler allegedly wrote, "I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take it."

The confessions didn't stop there. In text messages shown in court Thursday, Tyler allegedly wrote to Lance, "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 [sic]."

When Lance asked outright, "you werent the one who did it right????" Tyler allegedly answered plainly, "I am, I'm sorry," before adding, "I had enough of his hatred. some hate can't be negotiated out [sic]."

The final confession came face to face on September 11, 2025, the day after the shooting. Lance recalled Tyler breaking down in tears when confronted directly about what he'd done.

"Didn't go into detail. I just asked him in person if what he said was true the night before, and he said it was. Started crying a little bit, and said he wishes he hadn't done it," Lance told investigators. He added that Tyler eventually said he "would talk to his parents or turn himself over."

Prosecutor Ryan McBride pressed Lance further during questioning, asking directly, "Did he talk about what he had done?" Lance's response confirmed Tyler never elaborated beyond that brief, tearful admission and the texts.

The Rifle, The Bush, And A Grandfather's Gun

Between those confessions, Tyler's texts allegedly revealed that he spent hours consumed with worry over the murder weapon itself, a bolt-action rifle he said belonged to his grandfather.

He admitted to Lance that the gun's four-digit serial number worried him, writing that despite its age, "judging from today, I'd say grandpas gun does just fine [sic]." Erika was reportedly seen breaking down as these messages were read in court.

Tyler also confessed the shooting had not been spontaneous, telling Lance he had been planning the attack for "a bit over a week" beforehand. He allegedly told Lance he had ditched the rifle in a bush while changing outfits after the shooting, then doubled back to the area and sat in his car for nearly an hour trying to figure out how to retrieve it.

"Gonna see of the road closer to campus is open, so I can drive past and check stuff out. Probably still closed off tho," he wrote, before adding with apparent anxiety, "Getting worried, hard to know for sure but I'm not finding my rifle, could be in the wrong spot [sic]."

Lance wrote back asking, "Do you think they found it."

Separately, prosecutors presented a Discord message in which Tyler allegedly confessed to friends outside his relationship with Lance, writing "it was me" and pointing them toward "the photos from the surveillance footage" as proof.

Forensic testimony delivered Tuesday, July 7, revealed that DNA likely matching Tyler was recovered from a towel allegedly used to conceal the rifle, while DNA matching both Tyler and Lance turned up on a screwdriver left at the rooftop position where prosecutors say the fatal shot was fired.

Sergeant Jennifer Faumuina testified that the shot that killed Charlie traveled roughly 415 feet from that rooftop perch. But Lance also recalled a strange request from Tyler weeks before the shooting, when he asked whether the two owned a Dremel engraving tool.

"I don't remember exactly when, but he had said he was planning to go hunting with his family and he asked me if we had like a Dremel, because he said he wanted to engrave messages on bullets," Lance testified.

Investigator Brian Davis of the Utah State Bureau of Investigation told the court that this account matched an earlier police interview Lance gave back on September 12, 2025. Therefore, he was granted limited immunity by the US Attorney's Office and the Utah County Attorney's Office in exchange for his cooperation and was not accused of any wrongdoing himself.

What Prosecutors Say It All Proves

Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty against Tyler, argue the confessions and messages establish that the killing was politically motivated, pointing to Charlie's conservative views and public stances, including comments critical of the LGBTQ community.

Tyler's defense has pushed back hard against that framing, fighting to limit how much of the political angle can be used against their client, particularly given its weight in a potential death penalty argument.

Lance told the court that Tyler rarely discussed LGBTQ issues at all and instead gravitated toward conversations about Donald Trump and his policies. "I personally had never heard him talk about Charlie Kirk before specifically," Lance said.

Tyler, who had been studying to become an electrician before his arrest, now faces seven criminal charges, including aggravated murder. He has yet to enter a plea, and the preliminary hearing is expected to wrap up Friday, July 10, with the judge ultimately deciding whether the case moves forward to a full trial.