Trump Says Kirk Judge Is 'Desecrating' Charlie's Memory as Accused Killer's Lawyers Push Trial to 2029

President Trump on Friday tore into the Utah judge handling the murder case against Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old charged with assassinating Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Robinson's lawyers want his trial pushed to the second half of 2029, nearly four years after Kirk was shot dead on stage at Utah Valley University.

"The judge in the Charlie Kirk case is doing a terrible job! This case should be tried within a month, not three years — and it should be over with!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The judge is desecrating the memory of the Great Charlie Kirk, while taking forever to ask questions that people already know the answer to. The whole Country is mocking him and our 'Legal' System. JUSTICE FOR CHARLIE!"

The judge is 4th District Judge Tony Graf, and the post landed hours before he was due to hold a Friday afternoon hearing in Provo to set a schedule for the case (Fox News).

Three dates on the table

Earlier this month Graf ordered both sides to file memos laying out how long they need to get ready and how long a trial would run. He said the schedule would not be binding (KSL). Those memos came in late Wednesday night, and they are years apart.

Robinson's defense team called the third quarter of 2029 "a necessarily speculative approximation" of when a capital trial might start, and said the trial itself would take six to seven months (KSL). They want quarterly hearings between now and then devoted to whether even 2029 still works (Fox 13 / CNN).

Utah County prosecutors say they could be ready by Oct. 4, 2027. They proposed starting a 17-week trial on Jan. 31, 2028 instead, so jurors aren't stuck in the courtroom through the winter holidays (ABC News; Daily Herald). "The State therefore proposes that the Court schedule the trial to begin January 31, 2028," the memo says (Fox News).

Then Charlie's widow, Erika Kirk, stepped in. On Thursday her lawyers filed a victim's motion asking Graf to reject 2029 outright and set trial as early as possible in 2027, no later than the state's own ready date of Oct. 4, 2027. She also wants monthly progress reports so the case can't quietly drift (Deseret News; ABC News).

Why the defense wants four years

The defense says 2027 and 2028 will be spent filing and fighting pretrial motions, that several of its lawyers already have other trials booked in 2027, and that jury selection in a case this famous will be hard (Daily Herald). They also plan a venue study and may ask to move the trial out of Utah County (ABC News). And they point to the size of the case file: about 31,000 files of evidence to sift (Fox 13 / CNN).

Setting a firm date now, they argued, would create "false precision" and could rush the court in a death-penalty case, where "death is different" (Fox News).

Erika Kirk's lawyers had a sharp answer for the evidence argument. "This perverse position, that the more evidence the state has accumulated the more need for delay, is not found in the law," the motion says (Fox 13 / CNN). Put simply, the defense is asking for more time because the case against its client is so big. That's like asking for more time to answer a charge because the pile of proof is too tall to read.

What the family is asking for

Utah law gives crime victims a right to a "speedy disposition of the charges free from unwarranted delay caused by or at the behest of the defendant," and the Kirk motion leans on it. "Utah law requires that the victims' interests receive actual weight in setting trial," it says, "and for the reasons laid out here, those interests include a judicial process that is fair, transparent, and without needless delay" (Deseret News).

Her lawyers called the 2029 date "grossly out of line" with other Utah murder cases, which they said have gone to trial within one to two years. They warned that four years would cost taxpayers millions and feed conspiracy theories, and they cited a report that Robinson's defense had already cost about $1.6 million in its first year (Deseret News; Fox News).

Then there are the children. "Every additional day of delay carries the weight of all that Charlie's murder has taken from his family, especially his two young children who were just three and one year old when their father was murdered and would be seven and five years old by the time a verdict is handed down under the Defense's proposed schedule," the motion reads (Fox News).

Where the case stands

Kirk was shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at a Turning Point USA tour stop at Utah Valley University in Orem. On Sept. 1 of this year, after a preliminary hearing, Graf ruled there was enough evidence to send Robinson to trial on seven counts, including aggravated murder and felony discharge of a firearm. He also found that others were put at risk of death in the shooting, which lets prosecutors seek the death penalty (ABC News; Daily Herald).

Robinson has pleaded not guilty to every count (KSL). He was brought to court Friday for the scheduling hearing, where Graf will weigh the three proposals, the pretrial deadlines and how many alternate jurors to seat (KSL; AP).

The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk in front of a crowd of students has already been in custody for more than a year. The president, the widow and even the prosecutors agree he should not get to wait until 2029 to face a jury. Now it is the judge's call.