A Utah judge overseeing the preliminary hearings of Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old accused of murdering conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has refused to consider surveillance footage submitted by prosecutors because it had been edited. District Court Judge Tony Graf rejected the compilation video on Monday, saying he was "concerned" that the altered material had been intended to form a key part of the state's case. The ruling matters because the hearings will decide whether Robinson stands trial for the shooting at Utah Valley University in September 2025, and it represents a setback to the prosecution's evidence.

The disputed footage was a compilation that allegedly showed Robinson visiting the UVU campus four times before the shooting, with prosecutors having zoomed in at points and drawn circles around certain items. Graf noted that the state was not calling whoever made the edits to testify, and said even he did not know when or how the changes were made or how much the video had been manipulated, warning that an altered exhibit "can become problematic" once shown to a jury. Prosecutors argued the footage was "accurate" and that edits "were only added to make it easier to view", conceding they did not currently hold the raw footage but intended to obtain it.