Today, the judge handling the Tyler Robinson case issued a ruling holding a prosecutor in the case in contempt of court for speaking to the media several months ago. The defense had sought to have the death penalty removed as a possibility in the trial as a penalty for the prosecutor's statements but the judge refused to go that far.
The defense’s contempt motion stemmed from comments prosecutor Christopher Ballard, also a spokesperson for the Utah County Attorney’s Office, made to media outlets this spring about an inconclusive ballistics report mentioned in a defense filing.
While trying to clarify the results of the report to reporters, Ballard also referenced the strength of the state’s case against Tyler Robinson – statements the judge on Friday found risked prejudicing the jury pool.
“Those additional public statements possessed a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing the proceedings by communicating the prosecutor’s assessment of the defendant’s guilt,” Judge Tony Graf said in issuing his ruling.
The backstory here is that the judge issued a gag order to attorneys on both sides in order to prevent contamination of the jury pool. But back in March some commentary in a briefing submitted by the defense was picked up and spread around by the media. Specifically, the brief mentioned that the bullet found in Charlie Kirk's body had not been matched to the gun tied to Tyler Robinson. The brief also suggested this failure to find a match could be used in the trial to support the defense's case.
As I described here, the Daily Mail's coverage of this was especially bad. Their headline read, "Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did NOT match rifle allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson, new court filing claims."
In reality, what the ATF said was that the test was inconclusive. That's a common result in situations where the bullet is broken into so many fragments that a match cannot be made. It does not rule out the possibility that the bullet was fired by that gun.
"It's not uncommon for a round that went through a human body, especially if it traveled through tissue, to say conclusively that it's tied to a specific firearm, because by nature the projectile is supposed to transfer all of its kinetic energy, and it often disintegrates into fragments and whatnot," said Bernard Zapor, a former ATF special agent in charge and faculty associate at Arizona State University. "The fact that it went through several bone structures, there was going to be very little left."
As a result, it would be unfair to conclude that the bullet hadn't been fired out of the rifle police recovered nearby, experts told Fox News Digital.
"Unable to identify is not the same as ruled out," said retired FBI supervisor agent Jason Pack. "That’s a finding of inconclusiveness, not exoneration."
In any case, when the prosecutor received calls from several media outlets about the media reports suggesting the case against Robinson was falling apart, he spoke to them and corrected the record. When asked if this was a significant blow to their case, he replied that the prosecution still had plenty of evidence to show Robinson was guilty.
That was the comment which led the defense to cry foul. And today Judge Graf agreed that these short conversations (about five minutes each) with several media outlets violated his gag order. However, the court did not grant the penalty that the defense was seeking.
During an evidentiary hearing on June 12, the defense argued that the court’s proceedings have “very little meaning” if attorneys can go on a “PR tour” to proclaim a defendant’s guilt or innocence...
“I think that the number one remedy in this case, your honor, is for this court to preclude the state from seeking the death penalty from Mr. Robinson,” Defense attorney Richard Novak argued.
The defense stated that the prosecution tried to “influence the public perception of this case,” and the best remedy to impose for those undue actions would be taking the death penalty off the table.
On June 26, Judge Graf ruled to hold the prosecutor in contempt but declined to take the death penalty off the table.
Bottom line, it's an embarrassment for the prosecutor who will probably face a fine or maybe even some kind of bar referral, but the defense failed to get the remedy they wanted. In fact, I've been arguing for months that all of these delays by the defense are aimed at just one thing, helping Robinson avoid the death penalty. This was probably their last and best chance to do that and it didn't happen. Next month there will be a preliminary hearing where the prosecution will lay out a lot of its evidence in the case. It will be covered by the media as the defense efforts to have it shielded from the media failed.
Finally, it's worth noting that the Candace Owens fans (and fellow lunatic podcasters) have embraced an entirely new theory that Kirk was killed by an exploding microphone planted by assassins or his own team at TPUSA or something. Needless to say there is no support for this. In fact, the actual defense in this case just won this small victory on the grounds that the bullet which killed Kirk was found in his body. No one disputes that except the brain trust surrounding Candace.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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