Defense attorneys for the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk are suggesting a 2029 trial date because they say it could take them that long to prepare their case.
Attorneys for Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, said Thursday that the defense's proposed schedule was “absurd” and defendant Tyler Robinson was simply trying to delay.
Utah District Court Judge Tony Graf has scheduled a Friday hearing to set a trial date.
Robinson pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder in last year's killing of Kirk while the ally of President Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of several thousand people at Utah Valley University. The 23-year-old defendant turned himself in a day after the shooting, and his lawyers have not offered alternative theories for Kirk’s death. He could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
Prosecutors from Utah County in court filings anticipated a 17-week trial and said they would be ready by October 2027. But rather than hold the proceedings during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, they proposed the trial begin Jan. 31, 2028.
Erika Kirk’s attorney, Jeffrey Neiman, said the trial should start next October, the earliest date identified by prosecutors.
“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,” Neiman wrote. “They will face the uncertainty of this criminal proceeding longer than they had their father in their lives.”
But Robinson's attorneys said in court filings this week that they must sift through tens of thousands of files turned over by prosecutors.
They said they'll have to conduct extensive investigations into Robinson's life in search of mitigating factors that could influence his sentence if convicted, and must devote “substantial time” to issues such as jury selection.
The defense lawyers said they respected the court's attempt to set a “realistic trial date.” Yet because it's a complex death penalty case, trying to predict when it will be ready for trial “is an exercise that, at this time, will necessarily be infected with false precision,” they wrote in a document filed Wednesday.
FILE - Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, sits beside defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a hearing in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File)
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine officials announced a bounty Friday for the capture of a senator who has been ordered arrested by the International Criminal Court for an alleged crime against humanity in connection with deadly anti-drugs crackdowns.
The court alleges that Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, 64, was an “indirect co-conspirator” of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who was arrested last year and now faces trial for alleged crimes linked to the so-called war on drugs he waged while in office.
Dela Rosa last appeared in public when he went to the Philippine Senate briefly in May but fled after the international court in The Hague, Netherlands, made public a warrant for his arrest.
Dela Rosa was the first national police chief designated by Duterte to enforce the brutal crackdowns he launched after becoming president in 2016. After dela Rosa retired from the police force, he was appointed as a top prisons official before successfully running for a Senate seat in 2019.
Estimates of the death toll in the crackdown on drugs during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 reported by the national police to up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.
Duterte and dela Rosa denied authorizing extrajudicial killings.
The ICC warrant, originally issued confidentially in November last year, charged dela Rosa with murder of “no less than 32 persons” allegedly committed between July 2016 and April 2018.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla announced a bounty of 50 million pesos ($787,000) for dela Rosa’s capture in a televised news conference with top police officials. He said that the fugitive senator was being monitored in the country’s south and authorities were negotiating for his peaceful surrender to prevent a potentially deadly clash.
“We have given him all the courtesy that could be afforded as a senator of the Republic of the Philippines, but he has shown nothing but cowardice by going into and remaining in hiding,” Remulla said.
"It’s time for the gloves to come off. It’s time to render justice to his victims,” he added.
A police task force led by a general has been formed to lead the manhunt for dela Rosa, who was now considered “armed and dangerous,” Remulla said without elaborating. Philippine officials have said they would hand over dela Rosa to the ICC if he's captured.
Duterte, whose stormy six-year term ended in 2022, was arrested in March last year at Manila’s international airport on an ICC warrant. He was flown to The Netherlands and will face a trial in The Hague starting on Nov. 30.
The ICC's investigations into drug killings under Duterte spanned from 2011, when he was still mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao, to 2019 during his presidency.
FILE - Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa speaks to reporters at the Philippine Senate in Pasay, Philippines on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
