The trial of Tyler Robinson, the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University last year, is scheduled to begin in June 2028, a Utah judge announced Monday, according to ABC News.
Utah District Court Judge Tony Graf set June 21, 2028, as the opening date for jury selection in the high-profile capital murder case, allocating 105 days for the proceedings.
Graf said the schedule was intended "to ensure that the constitutional rights" of Robinson and Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, "are upheld at every junction."
The decision followed competing requests from prosecutors, defense attorneys and Kirk's family over when the trial should take place.
Robinson's attorneys had sought to postpone the proceedings until the third quarter of 2029, approximately four years after Kirk's murder, arguing in a filing last month that such a timeline would be consistent with other death penalty cases in Utah.
The defense estimated that the trial could last six to seven months and would require "substantial time" for selecting a jury. Attorneys also indicated that they intended to conduct a study of potential trial locations and might seek a change of venue depending on its findings.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, informed the court that they could be prepared to begin as early as October 4, 2027, and estimated that the proceedings would last approximately 17 weeks.
However, the state recommended January 31, 2028, as the trial's opening date to avoid the "worst of the winter season" and scheduling complications surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Kirk's widow strongly opposed the defense's proposed delay, asking the court to "enforce the right to a speedy disposition" and begin the trial as early as possible in 2027, no later than October 4 of that year.
In a motion submitted on her behalf, Erika Kirk argued that prolonged proceedings would impose an emotional burden on the couple's two young children.
"Under the Defendants' proposed schedule, Mr. Kirk's two children, who were one and three at the time he was murdered, will be six and eight years old by the time the trial concludes," the filing stated. "They will face the uncertainty of this criminal proceeding longer than they had their father in their lives. Each hearing induces anxiety, pain, and mourning. The Kirk family deserves to have this matter resolved expeditiously."
The motion also warned that postponing the trial until 2029 would come at a "great cost to the taxpayers of Utah."
Kirk, the co-founder of the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot on September 10, 2025, while addressing an outdoor gathering at Utah Valley University in Orem.
Investigators allege that Robinson fired a rifle from the rooftop of a building approximately 415 feet from where Kirk was speaking.
Robinson, 23, faces charges of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and committing a violent offense in the presence of a child.
The aggravated murder charge, a capital felony under Utah law, includes an allegation that the shooting knowingly endangered other people.
In September, Judge Graf determined that prosecutors had established probable cause for Robinson to stand trial on all charges. He also found that the shooting created a reasonably foreseeable risk of death to others, allowing the prosecution to seek the death penalty.
Robinson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.