Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man charged with the murder of conservative political activistCharlie Kirk, will appear in a Provo, Utah, courtroom Tuesday as his attorneys resume their questioning of Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray, whose office is prosecuting the case.
This hearing is the second in the defense team's bid to get the county attorney's office tossed from the case, citing a conflict of interest.
Robinson's defense is arguingbecause the 18-year-old child of one of the prosecutors was present when Kirk was killed during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University in September, a conflict of interest exists. The defense says the entire office should be removed because "no effort was made to shield their prosecution of this case from his conflict," according to the motion to disqualify filed in December.
The county attorney's office has repeatedly denied having a conflict of interest because the 18-year-old, a student at UVU, "did not see Charlie get shot," and "did not see anyone (in the crowd or elsewhere) with a gun," court documents show.
The office contends the 18-year-old will not be called as a witness in the case because their knowledge of the incident, despite being present, "is based entirely on hearsay."
Does the 18-year-old's presence qualify as a conflict of interest? Here's what legal experts say.
What constitutes a conflict of interest?
Robinson's defense citedUtah's Code of Judicial Administrationin their filing, which states attorneys can't be involved in cases with "a concurrent conflict of interest," which may include "a personal interest of the lawyer."
But conflict of interest arguments are rarely accepted by the courts, according to Paul Cassell, a criminal law professor with the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law.
"There's a presumption of good faith for prosecutors, and more broadly the government, and without some clear showing that there is reason to doubt the fairness of the proceedings, generally the proceedings will move forward," Cassell said. "The chances of this prevailing based on other similar claims that have been presented are very, very low."
Still, CNN Legal Analyst Joey Jackson says the court will weigh whether the parties "are making decisions predicated upon the merits, the facts, the law, and the circumstances only, and that there are no outside influences that are going to impact the judgments that are being made."
The defense estimated some 3,000 people were present at the event in their filing and attached declarations from five witnesses, some of whom described the scene as "pure panic" and "chaotic" in their accounts, with one disclosing, "I thought I was about to die."
The county attorney's office, in its opposition to the disqualification motion, said comparing the defense's witness statements to that of the prosecutor's child shows "just how unnecessary (the child's potential testimony) is in the case."
"It's ultimately going to turn on, how did the (adult child) witnessing that impact, impair, affect the decision, if at all," Jackson said. "The issue before the court is whether an actual conflict – not a perceived conflict – has been presented and can be established based upon the chain of events."
If the judge does agree there is a conflict of interest, Cassell said the response would more likely be "disqualifying a person who has been tainted by a particular conflict," rather than an entire office.
To disqualify the full office would be a serious step, according to Cassell, because the Utah County Attorney is an elected official.
"If you disqualify an entire office, you're essentially invalidating the results of the election," he said.
If the judge did take that step, the case would likely be reassigned either to another prosecutor's office in a neighboring county or to the state Attorney General's office – all options which come with their own drawbacks.
Salt Lake County has similar resources to Utah County, but unlike Gray, its district attorney is a Democrat, which could impact the approach to the case. The counties to the south are smaller and may not have the resources necessary to prosecute a case of this magnitude, and reassigning it to the Attorney General's office would remove it from the hands of an elected county official, according to Cassell.
Did a conflict of interest play into death penalty pursuit?
The defense further implied in its filing the alleged conflict of interest may have influenced the prosecution's decision to pursue the death penalty so quickly in the case.
In Utah, prosecutors have 60 days after an arraignment to file notice of intent to pursue the death penalty against a defendant.
Robinson will not be arraigned until after his preliminary hearing, which is scheduled to begin on May 18 and last three days. As such, he has not yet entered pleas to charges including aggravated murder, felony use of a firearm, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.
"The rush to seek death in this case evidences strong emotional reactions" by the county attorney's office, the motion says.
The county attorney's office pushed back on that assertion in their response, saying, "There is nothing unusual or untoward about filing a death penalty notice before a preliminary hearing."
The evidence and circumstances of the case "justify the death penalty," and a delay "would have been unnecessarily unsettling and painful to Charlie Kirk's loved ones and does not promote justice for anyone," the court filing said.
"There's going to be all kinds of information, of facts, that are going to come out in the hearing to determine if there was an … actual conflict," Jackson said. "You want, at the end of the day, fairness in a system that doesn't take anything into account but the case."
Other high-profile conflict of interest claims
Though conflict of interest claims can be infrequent in a courtroom, they're not unprecedented.
Attorneys forLuigi Mangione, the 27-year-old man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk in 2024, filed a motion to bar the death penalty in his case over a conflict of interest with US Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Mangione's attorneys argued Bondi should have recused herself from decision making in the case because she had previously worked for Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm that represents UnitedHealth Group, before she joined the Trump administration.
The judge in that case ruled Friday thatMangione won't face the death penalty– but not because of the conflict of interest claim.
She dismissed the federal murder charge he was facing, which was his only charge carrying the death penalty, because it hinged on his stalking charges being classified as "crimes of violence," which the judge disagreed with based on Supreme Court precedent.
Brian Kohberger, who pleaded guilty in July to the gruesome stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, faced a conflict of interest issue with his own attorney during the course of his case.
His appointed public defender, Anne Taylor, had previously represented the parent of one of the victims, a2023 court recordshows.
Taylor told the court though she represented the former client for roughly three months, she had never met them nor provided any legal advice. The record shows the judge, with Kohberger's agreement, allowed Taylor to continue representing him.
When Robinson's case resumes Tuesday, Gray will finish his testimony before the defense calls three more witnesses: the prosecutor in question, his adult child and an investigator with the county attorney's office.
CNN's Nicki Brown contributed to this report.
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