Utah County prosecutor defends his team working on the Charlie Kirk shooting — full court hearing

In the early afternoon of Sept. 10, a Utah County prosecutor’s child — an 18-year-old Utah Valley University student — sent an urgent text to their family group chat. The young person was at the event on their college campus where conservative commentator Charlie Kirk had been speaking. After a gunshot rang out, they texted: “SOMEONE GOT SHOT,” and later, “CHARLIE GOT SHOT.” That same prosecutor is now part of the team litigating the criminal case against Kirk’s accused killer, Tyler Robinson. And on Friday, defense attorneys for Robinson called elected Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray to the witness strand to question him about his decision to keep that prosecutor on the case. The defense team argues that the prosecutor’s family tie to one of the thousands of people who attended the UVU event creates a disqualifying conflict of interest. They’ve asked a judge to ban the entire Utah County attorney’s office from handling the case against 22-year-old Robinson. The prosecutor may not be able to fairly handle Robinson’s case, they contend, adding that his office has made no efforts to wall him off. Gray testified on Friday that he didn’t feel the prosecutor needed to be separated from the case. Defense attorney Richard Novak drilled him on whether Gray consulted with the Utah attorney general’s office or any lawyer ethics groups — which Gray said he didn’t do. Video from pool via Fox 13 News Reporting: Jessica Schreifels | The Salt Lake Tribune