Judge sets trial date -- nearly 2 years from now -- for lone suspect accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk

Tyler Robinson.

A judge in Utah on Monday set a trial date for Tyler Robinson, the lone suspect accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk in September 2025 as he spoke on a college campus. Robinson's trial will begin on June 21, 2028, District Judge Tony Graf, ruled on Monday.

Robinson, 23, faces seven charges including first-degree murder for allegedly killing Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025, and could be punished with the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. 

The trial will begin nearly three years after Kirk's murder, a timeline that has drawn criticism from not only the Kirk family but President Trump as well as many other conservativs.

At a hearing in late October, Robinson's attorneys argued they need an exorbitant amount of time to prepare for the trial. USA Today reported that Robinson's attorney's attempted to delay the start of the trial to the third quarter of 2029, which would be four years after the crime. Graf ultimately agreed to grant them significant time, but not that much. Erika Kirk had urged the judge to begin the trial at the earliest possible date in 2027. Utah prosecutors initially said they could be ready to begin the trial in October 2027, then suggested January 2028. 

“A trial in the summer of 2028, three years after Charlie’s assassination, does not feel very speedy to the Kirk family,” Jeffrey Neiman, an attorney for Erika Kirk, told Graf on Monday, according to The Associated Press.

The Kirk family issued a statement after Monday's ruling criticizing the timing of the trial. “While nothing will restore the time we have lost with Charlie, every additional day without justice prolongs our family's pain and forces us to wait even longer for accountability,” the family said.

On the day of the previous hearing in October, President Trump blasted the judge for even entertaining the idea of delaying the trial's start day by years. “The judge in the Charlie Kirk case is doing a terrible job!” Trump said of Graf in a Truth Social post. “The judge is desecrating the memory of the Great Charlie Kirk, while taking forever to ask questions that people already know the answer to,” he added. Legal experts have said the defense attorneys are using a delay tactic in a desperate attempt to defend their client. For more on the story, watch the video below.