A year ago, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in front of thousands of people while taking part in a debate at Utah Valley University.

Kirk, a 31-year-old political provocateur, was struck in the neck by a .30-06 caliber round allegedly fired by Tyler Robinson, then a 22-year-old Utah resident, using his grandfather’s Mauser Model 98 bolt-action rifle.

Video of the assassination quickly spread across social media, triggering a massive search for the gunman. Authorities later released disturbing footage they said showed the suspect moving through campus, climbing onto a rooftop and firing the fatal shot.

Robinson was taken into custody two days after the killing, and prosecutors have since detailed what they describe as a substantial body of evidence linking him to the attack.

According to prosecutors, that evidence includes multiple alleged confessions, including statements made to Robinson’s transgender roommate and lover, Lance Twiggs, as well as DNA recovered from the sniper’s perch and the murder weapon.

Twiggs went on to testify against Robinson, and alleged that Robinson cried to him after the shooting and admitted he ‘wished he hadn’t done it.’

The shocking testimony led a judge to rule earlier this month that Robinson will face a murder trial. The 23-year-old pleaded not guilty to all seven charges brought against him, including a charge of aggravated murder creating risk of death to others, which carries the death penalty. 

Robinson is next due in court on October 23, where Utah District Judge Tony Graf is expected to set a trial date. 

On the anniversary of Kirk’s death, here the Daily Mail looks through the evidence from the fateful shooting on September 10, 2025, and the high-profile investigation. 

THE CONFESSIONS 

Prosecutors allege that Robinson has made a number of direct confessions to shooting Kirk, including in a handwritten note left for Twiggs inside their home in St. George, Utah when he left for the day of Kirk’s shooting.

He allegedly told Twiggs, who went by Luna at the time, in a text to ‘drop what you’re doing and look under my keyboard’, and Twiggs testified that he found a confession note.

The note read, ‘Luna, If you are reading this per my text, then I am so sorry. I left the house this morning on a mission and sent an auto-text. I’m likely dead or facing a lengthy prison sentence’, prosecutors said.

Robinson allegedly wrote that he ‘had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I took it… I wish we could have lived in a world where this was not necessary.’

Prosecutors say that was not Robinson’s only confession, as he also allegedly admitted to being the shooter in group chats on the messaging platform Discord. 

Robinson allegedly told friends in the group chat, ‘It was me. Look at the pictures from the surveillance footage. It was me. I’m serious.’

In another message, he allegedly wrote: ‘Hey guys, I have bad news for you all. it was me at UVU yesterday. I’m sorry for all of this. I’m surrendering through a sheriff friend in a few moments.’

Text messages Robinson allegedly sent Twiggs in the aftermath of the shooting have also been put forward by prosecutors, including alleged confessions while police were actively searching for him near the UVU campus.

When Twiggs said he found the handwritten confession, he texted Robinson, ‘What? You’re joking right?… You weren’t the one who did it right?’, court filings showed.

Robinson allegedly replied, ‘I am, I’m sorry.’

Robinson’s message continued, ‘I had planned to grab my rifle from my drop point shortly after, but most of that side of town got locked down.

‘It’s quiet, almost enough to get but, there’s one vehicle lingering.’

Robinson allegedly then discussed trying to get rid of the rifle used to shoot Kirk, writing: ‘If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence.

‘Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything in the news about them finding it. Will update you by midnight.’

Twiggs then asked Robinson how long he had been planning the shooting, to which he replied: ‘A bit over a week, I believe.’

Prosecutors say Robinson also confessed to the shooting to his parents, telling his father he would ‘rather kill myself than turn myself in’. Twiggs testified that Robinson tearfully admitted to the shooting in the hours after Kirk was killed. 

ROBINSON’S TRANSGENDER LOVER’S TESTIMONY

In July at Robinson’s pre-trial hearings, prosecutors presented bombshell footage of Twiggs giving testimony to police about the suspect. 

ALSO READ: Lindsay Clancy Juror Says Jury Let Her Down After Mistrial

In the police interview, given in April 2026, Twiggs said he first met Robinson in person in 2023 when they moved in as roommates, and they began dating roughly two months later. 

He recalled on the morning Kirk was assassinated, Robinson left early in the morning and claimed he had to work a long shift.

Twiggs said he didn’t hear from Robinson again until 11pm that night, when Robinson told him to look under his keyboard to find the handwritten note about his ‘opportunity’ to kill Kirk.

Twiggs recalled Robinson returning to their home by the next morning, and said Robinson was pacing around the home while avoiding questions as he tried to grill him about Kirk’s assassination. 

Twiggs claimed Robinson eventually admitted to the assassination, began crying and told Twiggs ‘he wishes he hadn’t done it.’ 

Authorities said Twiggs quickly cooperated with investigators and offered his DNA for testing, which was allegedly found alongside Robinson’s DNA on a towel wrapped around the rifle. 

Twiggs, who has not been charged with any crime connected to Kirk’s death, also provided messages Robinson had texted following Kirk’s assassination. 

THE SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE

At Robinson’s pre-trial hearings in July, prosecutors presented new surveillance footage which allegedly showed Robinson prowling the UVU campus in a Dodge Challenger on the day of the shooting.

After exiting the Dodge Challenger, the suspect was said to have been walking with an apparent limp – keeping his right leg straight as he climbed stairs on the way to a ‘sniper’s perch’ on a nearby rooftop.

Footage presented by prosecutors also showed a figure running across the rooftop, crouching down for some time, before sprinting away moments after Kirk was killed.

In the 48 hour manhunt, authorities released images of the suspected gunman, seen wearing a dark graphic T-shirt, dark hat and jeans from the UVU campus.

According to prosecutors, the father texted Robinson at that moment and said, ‘Tyler, is this you? This looks like you.’

EVIDENCE FROM THE SCENE 

In the footage allegedly showing Robinson on campus on the day of Kirk’s assassination, the suspect was seen walking with a limp as he made his way to the rooftop. 

Prosecutors allege that this limp was because Robinson stuffed his grandfather’s Mauser Model 98 rifle down his pants leg in order to smuggle it on campus.

Following the shooting, authorities say they found the rifle in a wooded area near where Kirk was shot and, according to police, a towel wrapped around the weapon tested positive for Robinson’s DNA.

Investigators have also claimed to have found bullet casings engraved with political messages in the gun.

One read: ‘Hey fascist! Catch!’, and another referenced a transgender furry meme, ‘notices bulge OwO.’

Another referenced the Italian anti-Fascist song ‘Bella Ciao’, and another read: ‘If you are reading this, you are gay.’

Robinson pleaded not guilty to shooting Kirk when a judge formally moved his case forward to trial earlier this month. 

The 23-year-old pleaded not guilty to all seven charges brought against him, including a charge of aggravated murder creating risk of death to others, which carries the death penalty. 

Utah District Judge Tony Graf rejected Robinson’s attorneys’ request to remove that charge, saying he approved the count based on the positions of nearby witnesses close to where Kirk was killed.

Robinson is next due in court on October 23, where Graf is expected to set a trial date. 

The NIL era in college sports has sparked no shortage of debate, from big-money deals to concerns about competitive imbalance. But amid the noise, Penn State defensive tackle Siale Taupaki’s journey offers a very different perspective on why some athletes are still fighting to stay on the field.

Taupaki is now in his eighth season of college football, a detail that might usually invite raised eyebrows from critics of extended eligibility. In his case, however, the motivation behind continuing his college football career is far more personal than chasing headlines or luxury perks.

“My parents are still struggling,” Taupaki told reporters Tuesday, a comment that has gained wider attention throughout the week. “I’m broke, so while everybody else is still trying to buy their next pendant or buy their next car, I’m really just trying to fill in all the holes that I have back at home.”

The 25-year-old Penn State lineman was raised in California after his parents moved to the United States from Tonga, the Pacific island nation they once called home. His upbringing, and the sacrifices tied to it, have resonated with fans and observers who see his story as a reminder of the human side of college athletics.

Last month, The Reading Eagle detailed Taupaki’s difficult path, including a stretch of four years in which his family was unhoused in Oakland, California. After being evicted when he was in seventh grade, the family later had to leave a relative’s home because of overcrowding, beginning a period of moving from one hotel to another.

At one point, the Taupaki family, which includes three other children in addition to Siale Taupak, secretly lived in a church. 

MORE STORY: Influencer Who Confronts Alleged Pedophiles Faces Charges

The journey left an indelible mark on him and the responsibility he’s taken for helping his family. 

Taupaki was previously at UCLA before transferring to Penn State, and he was able able to spend seven years with the Bruins football program. Since he redshirted as a true freshman, he had an extra year of eligibility because of COVID and dealt with injuries. 

He called the eighth season of college football a “big opportunity” for him to help his family. 

“I really try to take advantage and take full advantage of the opportunity that I can with the platform because I come from nothing,” Taupaki said. “When I go home, I’m not even a football player. I’m still a son, so everything that I’ve got to do beforehand and [after], I’ve got to do it based off my parents.” 

Last weekend, he started in the Nittany Lions’ season opener against Marshall and assisted on one tackle.

A juror in the closely watched Massachusetts murder trial of Lindsay Clancy said she believes the panel “let down Lindsay,” describing the difficulty of keeping the deaths of the children separate from the legal question jurors were asked to decide.

Clancy was tried in the January 2023 strangling deaths of her three young children. Prosecutors said she sent her then-husband, Patrick, to get medication and takeout before the children were found unconscious in the basement. When Patrick returned home, he discovered Clancy injured outside following an apparent suicide attempt. Two of the children died that night, and the third was flown to a Boston hospital, where the child died days later.

The case ended in a mistrial last week after jurors could not reach a unanimous decision. Eleven members of the panel supported finding Clancy not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility — Massachusetts’ equivalent of an insanity defense — while a single holdout believed she should be found criminally responsible.

“Everybody says you’re not supposed to feel like you failed, but you have a task to come out unanimous. And we tried everything we could to get to that end. And I feel like we let down Lindsay,” Paula, 65, one of the jurors in the majority, told WCVB.

Clancy’s legal team did not dispute that she killed her children but argued that she should not be found criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. Clancy also admitted in court filings to killing her three children, but claimed that severe mental illness left her not criminally responsible.

Paula said the jury’s majority believed that Clancy needed help and that the healthcare system failed her, adding that she thinks the medical community should do more to support women with postpartum mental health issues.

“There was a clear indication that the medical community failed her and not just her, but her whole family, because something like that affects the whole entire family. And if everybody can be educated in a better way, then it will help the whole family unit,” Paula said.

After attorneys made their arguments, Paula said the jurors were sent to deliberate with 297 pieces of evidence, including Patrick’s emotional 911 call, which she said some jurors had trouble listening to during deliberations.

“We all tried to help each other. It was hard to separate the children from what our task was, and it was very emotional,” she said.

The jurors polled themselves at the start of deliberations, at which point eight believed Clancy was not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility, two thought she was guilty and two were undecided, Paula said.

The majority eventually came to the belief that Clancy was not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility.

Prosecutors argued during trial that Clancy was criminally responsible for the killings despite evidence that she suffered from mental illness.

“We did not start out 11 to one,” Paula said. “Everybody had different opinions and different reasons and different ways that they got there.”

Paula said the majority had a hard time understanding why the one holdout wanted to vote to convict Clancy.

“We did not feel that he was following the law because he admitted that he had doubt at different times, that he had doubt about the case that was presented, and the way that the rule read to all the rest of us is if we had doubt, then we could not convict her of first-degree murder or second-degree murder or manslaughter,” Paula said.

The foreperson then sent a note to the judge saying the jury could not reach a verdict and accusing the holdout of refusing to apply the law on reasonable doubt.

Judge William Sullivan called up each of the jurors and individually asked them if they could apply the law as he had explained it, and they reportedly answered in the affirmative.

“The judge has to believe that people are telling him the truth. And so, you know, 11 people told the truth and one maybe didn’t. And I will never know why,” Paula said.

Paula said she believed it would have been worth restarting deliberations with an alternate if the court had removed the holdout.

“If our holdout juror had given us evidence to support his reasoning, we would have felt differently about what we told the judge,” Paula said.

Other jurors have also spoken out in recent days to take issue with the holdout’s position.

“He had the hardest time getting off the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children,” juror Kellie Farina previously told NBC10 Boston.

On Thursday, Clancy’s defense filed a motion arguing the prosecution failed to meet its burden and asked the judge to enter a required finding of not guilty, which the defense argues would prevent a retrial.

A surrogate who declined to terminate a pregnancy has asked the US Supreme Court for emergency intervention in a rapidly unfolding custody dispute involving the now four-week-old baby, who was delivered with a severe congenital heart condition.

McKenna West, 28, submitted the urgent appeal on Wednesday, escalating a closely watched surrogacy and abortion rights fight that has drawn backing from Republican officials and prominent anti-abortion organizations.

West and her legal team have been seeking authority for the surrogate to make medical and legal decisions for the infant, who has remained with his biological parents since his birth on August 12.

According to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail, West was removed from the Texas case on September 2, a move her attorneys say stripped her of access to updates about the child and left her without legal standing to defend an order requiring that his treatment continue.

She is now asking the nation’s highest court to pause a California court order naming Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the baby’s legal parents. West refers to the child as Gabriel, while the couple calls him Rumi.

West argued in the application that the ‘judgement was entered in a gross violation of federal due process that warrants this court’s review and reversal.’

She claimed she was ‘[hauled] into California court on two days notice, without proper service’ when the judge made the ruling. 

West, a mother of her own two biological children, is ultimately seeking final custody or conservatorship because she believes the couple will not provide the child with life-saving care, citing their request for an abortion at 23 weeks.

Her lawyers claim in the filing that the child could be removed from the Texas hospital where he received surgery soon after he was born for hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a life-threatening condition that prevents normal blood flow to the organ.

Ahmed and Gilkar may even take the child back to their home state of California for hospice ‘despite his treatable condition’ by September 17. 

‘Without a stay, the Commissioning Parties may halt life-saving care for Baby G before this Court can even consider a petition for certiorari, much less rule on the merits,’ the petition reads. 

‘And that can happen before [West] gets word of anything.’

The petition goes on to argue ‘time is of the essence,’ after the couple’s own attorney said in an August court hearing that the newborn was in critical condition and appeared to be ‘suffering from potential complications.’

Surrogacy is not regulated at the federal level. Each state has its own laws, which can leave room for gaps in interpretation. 

The Supreme Court is not obliged to hear the case.

Ahmed and Gilkar have not responded to the Supreme Court filing. 

They have previously said West violated the surrogacy contract, and they obtained a restraining order preventing her from seeing or holding the child.

At an August 25 court hearing in Dallas, Gilkar even claimed West was trying to take their baby away.

ALSO READ: Juror Says Lindsay Clancy Holdout Reenacted 3 Kids’ Killings

‘He’s our child,’ Gilkar said, wiping away tears.

She explained at the court hearing how she went through eight failed rounds of In vitro fertilization and had to have a hysterectomy.

‘This was our only option,’ Gilkar said of her and her husband’s decision to seek a surrogate. ‘We’ve never wanted anything more than this baby.’

The court also saw the surrogacy agreement West signed where she agreed to allow the parents to terminate the pregnancy if there were ‘fetal abnormalities.’

By April, the surrogate mother learned the baby in her womb was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome which he might not survive.

Yet West refused to get an amniocentesis test that would have told doctors definitively if the unborn baby was a candidate for the open-heart surgery that would be necessary to keep him alive, Gilkar and Ahmed’s lawyer argued.

Gilkar has since admitted she and her husband asked West to terminate the pregnancy due to the complications with the baby’s heart condition, but denied they ever refused or intended to refuse medical care to the child.

Health complications then started the moment baby Rumi was born, requiring him to be resuscitated. 

‘When they tried to give him medicine, the tube came out and he stopped breathing and a chaplain was called,’ Gilkar sobbed. ‘He’s suffering a lot.’

Additionally, Rumi has undergone genetic testing, blood work and echocardiogram as well as that two-day open heart procedure called the ‘Norwood.’

However, the surgery was delayed by days because West did not get the amniocentesis test while pregnant.

Due to his constant need for medical attention, the biological parents had only held Rumi a handful of times since he was born. 

‘He’s the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. He’s the love of our lives,’ the biological mother said while still wearing her orange hospital bracelet.

Without treatment, hypoplastic left heart syndrome can lead to death within days or weeks. Surgical repairs are not necessarily cures and additional surgeries or heart transplants may be needed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The odds of the Supreme Court granting the appeal are low, said Marla Neufeld, an attorney who represents parents, surrogates and donors but who isn’t involved in this case. 

Emergency relief is usually extraordinarily difficult to obtain and the Supreme Court doesn’t usually get involved in family disputes, she said.

Yet West’s lawyers argued in the petition that ‘the stakes of the decisions… are enormous.’ 

‘In these extraordinary circumstances – where a life hangs in the balance – the Court should grant certiorari and summarily reverse to re-affirm the federal due process limits on state-court personal jurisdiction,’ they wrote.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Gilkar and Ahmed’s attorney for comment.