Tyler Robinson’s legal team is bringing in expert witness Dr. Bryan Edelman, who played a significant role in securing a change of venue in the Bryan Kohberger murder case in 2024.
Robinson, 22, has been charged with murder for allegedly assassinating conservative commentator Charlie Kirk back in September 2025 on Utah Valley University’s campus during a Turning Point USA event.
Edelman is a co-founder of the trial consulting group “Trial Innovations” and will give expert testimony at the April 17 evidentiary hearing about cameras in the courtroom, The Post Millennial reported.
A defense motion stated that Edelman believes “the modern internet and social media ecosystem — especially algorithmic curation and personalization — has fundamentally altered how news is consumed and makes local, high-profile publicity substantially harder to avoid for residents of the locality where the events giving rise to the case occurred and the case is being tried.”
He will also reportedly testify about polling results related to the case and speak to the demographics of Utah County’s adult population, from which the jury pool will be drawn.
Robinson’s defense team claimed that modern online content can “bias juror judgments, increase the likelihood of guilty verdicts in experimental settings, and contribute to memory and source-monitoring errors, including misattributing pretrial information as trial evidence.”
As for Edelman’s resume, he testified in favor of a change of venue for Kohberger, who was ultimately sentenced to life in prison after killing four University of Idaho students in 2022.
Edelman’s testimony did, however, help Kohberger secure a change of venue with the case being moved to Ada County.
“People here have demonstrated they would experience fear, stress, panic in this community,” he testified in the case, according to The Post Millennial. “There’s significant rumors and misinformation that have been spread and people have been exposed to in this community. There’s a feeling of pressure to convict.”
Edelman is based in California and holds a Ph.D. in social psychology.
He also conducted a telephone survey for the defense team before reporting his findings on March 13, per Fox News.
Robinson’s attorneys — Kathryn Nester, Michael Burt, Richard Novak, and Staci Visser — have argued that the pretrial publicity affects potential jury pools, resulting in more guilty verdicts.
Recently unsealed records revealed letters and messages between Robinson and his roommate, Lance Twiggs, in which he mentioned “an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk.”
“If you are reading this per my text, then I am so sorry. I left the house this morning on a mission, and set an auto text. I am likely dead, or facing a lengthy prison sentence. I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I took it,” he wrote.
“I don’t know if I will/have succeeded, but I had hoped to make it home to you,” Robinson continued.
“I wish we could have lived in a world where this did not feel necessary. I wish I could have stayed for you and lived our lives together.”
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
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