Feb. 24 (UPI) — A judge ruled Tuesday that the Utah County Attorney’s Office has no conflict of interests in prosecuting Tyler Robinson, the alleged shooter of Charlie Kirk.
On Jan. 16, Robinson’s legal team submitted a challenge arguing that the daughter of prosecutor Chad Grunander, chief deputy in the Utah County Attorney’s Office, was at the Sept. 10 event when Kirk, 31, was shot. She texted her family in a group chat that “someone” had been killed, KSL News Radio reported.
Kirk was killed on the Campus of Utah Valley University at a TurningPoint USA event.
On Tuesday, 4th District Judge Tony Graf said he found no conflict of interests.
The defense on Feb. 3 argued that the daughter, a UVU student, could be a potential witness.
Grunander, his daughter and Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray all testified that she had no influence on any of the decisions made in Robinson’s prosecution. They also said the woman had been in the back of the crowd and that there were many stronger potential witnesses, KSL reported.
The prosecutors disclosed the situation to the defense team a month after the shooting, and the timing is what the defense team took issue with.
Grunander testified that they made the disclosure out of “an abundance of caution.”
“Don’t mistake our disclosure, my disclosure, our abundance of caution, our professionalism, integrity, to be a concession that we believe there’s merit to this alleged conflict,” he told the court.
Grunander said his daughter, 18, didn’t see Kirk’s death or anyone who may have been a suspect, CNN reported.
“The reality is … she did not see Charlie Kirk get shot. She’s just not a witness,” deputy Utah County attorney Ryan McBride said. “As a result, there’s really no conflict here.”
Graf agreed that the decision to seek the death penalty was not influenced by Grunanders’s daughter but because it was appropriate.
“She has no uniquely relevant testimony to give,” KSL reported Graf said. But he told Robinson’s defense team that they may subpoena her if they believe her testimony is relevant.
Robinson hasn’t entered pleas for his charges, which include aggravated murder, felony use of a firearm, obstruction of justice and witness tampering, along with several victim-targeting enhancements and an aggravating factor of having committed a violent offense in the presence of a child.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 18 and is expected to last three days.