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that's so criminal. Tyler Robinson's much anticipated preliminary hearing is happening this week and we're following it every day live. If you missed today's proceedings, we have a recap of of what you need to know from the courtroom. I'm Lyndon Blake and you're listening to that's SO criminal.
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That's so Criminal.
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Welcome back in. That wraps up day two of the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk. Tyler Robinson's preliminary hearing out there in Utah. A lot of action today inside that courtroom in Utah. I'm going to start with what just wrapped up and what just took up the majority of the afternoon on the stand. We had the defense's first witness called up. Her name's Amanda Baker. She is a DNA expert and the defense really spent hours and hours trying to prove this uncertainty and doubt in Baker's account for the DNA that she found on the towel that was wrapped around the rifle and the screwdriver that was found on the LOSI building. That building where authorities said there was is that sniper pad laid out where the prosecution is saying that Tyler Robinson took the shot that killed Charlie Kirk. From I want to get into some numbers and to some clarification because there's been a lot of chatter online the DNA breakdown of both the contributors. So Lance Twiggs's DNA and Tyler Robinson's DNA that was found on the screwdriver and towel goes as followed. Baker said that on the towel twigs was 5% and Robinson was 95% of the DNA on the screwdriver twigs was 11% and Robinson was 89%. So that is a clarifying statement that Baker med made. A lot of people online have been discussing quite the opposite, but that is not the case. Most of the DNA that was found on the screwdriver and towel did belong to Tyler Robinson, per the DNA expert Amanda Baker. And again the defense went back up and tried to wrap up the day by trying to discredit the DNA witnesses credibility. Michael Burt, who was the defense attorney, he has been around the block, he has taken a lot of cases. He was basically asking her do you know about this protocol? Do you know about this scenario? When did you go to school? Did you do this type of qualification and testing? So, so defense is trying to create confusion, trying to create doubt for that witness. She is done. She was dismissed, she had to travel. That's why the preliminary hearing went a little bit longer today. But that is the last for the preliminary hearing. We'll see of Amanda Baker. Some other big takeaways from day two. It started out with that surveillance footage that was never before seen shown to the public of the person that David Hull, that officer identified as Tyler Robinson. On the video it showed Tyler Robinson going to and from Utah Valley's campus multiple times starting around 9am the morning of September 10, the morning that Charlie Kirk was shot. And it showed Tyler Robinson around campus all the way to the wee hours of the morning on September 11th. David Hull was able to identify that the person he says is Tyler Robinson was on the roof of the low C building, the roof where the action took place according to prosecution. And a big part of his testimony was he was able to say that at one point on the rooftop he was able to see that Robinson was concealing something there. And he said that's when they knew that there was definitively something that Robinson, who they say was on the roof, was allegedly concealing there. So the never before seen video, one of the parts that stuck out the most to me was you see the person they're calling Tyler Robinson was limping, walking weird up the steps at that parking garage when he returned for I do believe the third time, changed clothes into those blue jeans, black shirts, still had on the same Converses that hole identified that Robinson came to campus with hours before. So we've seen the pictures of the person of interest we've seen the pictures of what prosecutors are calling Tyler Robinson. But we saw a lot of video today of him walking with what appeared to be something in his pants, making him walk oddly up that parking garage. And that surveillance footage was a big part of what was laid out as evidence today. That surveillance footage was admitted as evidence for the court. The enhanced footage, it wasn't necessary for it to be to be shown to the public, to the media. All the prosecution did for that enhanced footage was make some zooms, make some facial blurs so that people that were just walking by in that surveillance footage weren't identified by people. So another tidbit that I found interesting that wasn't challenged, wasn't questioned during today was David Hole back to the first witness of the day that was left over from yesterday when he took the stand. He said that Robinson interacted with TPSA staff when he first got to campus. And that was something that I found interesting to me. And I'll say this is my opinion. I think what David Holt was saying was Robinson went down to where the rally was taking place. Again, though it was never questioned, it was never asked to give clarity on what you meant by Robinson going and interacting with people from the TPA staff. But again, I think he just meant that he went there, saw the rally, then went back to the parking garage and that's when he left for the first time. Another thing that was asked about a lot today when Hull was still on the stand was the banner on the back of the tent. And see through that banner was. Prosecution was trying to make their point that the line of sight for Charlie Kirk couldn't have come from anywhere else besides that lo see building where the sniper's perch was. The defense was trying to press whole on. Did you see anyone else around the tent to the right, to the center? Could you see through the banner through underneath the tunnel if you remember the layout of there of what that arena looked like on Utah Valley. Just going back to my notes, that's how Hull really wrapped up his testimony, was talking about the banner and that it wasn't see through. And then before we went to the next witness, which I'll get to in just a second, this was a big point that was discussed today and it was about hearsay evidence. It was about this statement that was being submitted by the prosecution from someone on the TPSA board from David Englehart. He's a pastor board member there with turning Point. And there was a big argument of is this being shown as saying that Robinson was intersecting Religion and politics. And they were asking the judge, the defense, and I was talking about if the judge can make an explanation of when religion and politics intersect. There was a lot of back and forth about that because the statement quoted scripture from Matthew. But long story short, the defense didn't want that admitted because they said this had nothing to do with the case and it only would go to a point in Utah law that could potentially up the severity of the punishment for Tyler Robinson on the scale there of punishment. So Richard Novak, who was on the defense team, this is the quote he said about that scripture in that statement that was trying to be submitted as evidence from the prosecution. He said, the state is turning this into a question of whether Mr. Robinson's views, identity, life are anti Christian. And that is a huge problem. Novak argued that the prosecutors should not be able to read directly from that exhibit. So again, a debate ensued there. The solution, though, Judge Graff in the end ruled that the document would be provisionally admitted into evidence, pending relevance. So for now, that statement from the TPSA board director has been admitted into evidence. To get to the point of the DNA on the towel that covered the rifle and the screwdriver, the prosecution had to call up their final witness of the day. And it was Sergeant Jennifer Falmina. She was basically a chain of custody witness. She was there on the stand to say the evidence, the screwdriver, the towel, the rifle went from here from the scene to the FBI, and that's where it was. The only thing that left the FBI's custody that went into the custody of the ATF was then the rifle to obviously do the testing. So her time on the stand was brief. She was there to say this went from here to here to here. But she was the first one on the stand to identify that DNA on both that towel and, and that screwdriver belonged to Tyler Robinson and his roommate, Lance Twiggs. And I would add here that Lance Twiggs is also, as you, if you follow this case, you know, Robinson's alleged lover. So that is a synopsis of what happened today, day two of the preliminary hearing. This is not a trial, this is a hearing. It is supposed to say if there's probable cause to take Tyler Robinson to trial. The judge, that is his thing. And to the point of probable cause, the defense kept having to be kind of reigned back in when they were pressing, pressing, pressing, when the DNA rabbit hole went on for hours. And if you were confused, congratulations. The defense want it to be confusing. They want to go down this rabbit hole. And a lot of the times the prosecution came in and objected because they were saying, hey, this is not about innocence or guilt. This is about probable cause. But Judge Graff did let it go on for a while. Then at the very end, he kind of reined in Michael Burke, saying, hey, look, this is for probable cause. This information, what you're bringing up with the DNA charts may be relevant down the road to be looked at more extensively, but not for what we're all in this courtroom for right now in this preliminary hearing. So that is how day two wrapped up. It'll continue on into day three, and we're going to continue following it for you guys. We're going to stream it on daily wire platforms. I will be going home tonight and continuing to analyze this. I can come back in the morning with hopefully even more perspective for you as we gear up to hear day three of the preliminary hearing. It's expected to last five days. The state has said they have 40 to 50 exhibits. I have no idea how many exhibits we've gone through over the last two days, but nowhere near that many. So the hearing will continue to roll on. Thank you for being with us throughout the day. It was a long one today. Tomorrow will not be as long. It is scheduled to start at 1:00pm Utah time, 2:00pm Central, 3:00pm for our friends over on the East Coast. So we'll see you back here then.
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That's so Criminal.
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And that's where things ended inside the courtroom today. We're going to be back live tomorrow morning with continued coverage of the hearing. And if you can't catch it live, remember, we're going to have a recap every evening with all the details. I'm Lyndon Blake, and you've been listening to that's so Criminal.