Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - FBI Questions Trans Roommate of Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

Tyler Robinson, 22, is accused of murdering conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Now Robinson's romantic relationship with his roommate is being investigated. Governor Spencer Cox confirmed Robinson's roommate is a man who is transitioning from male to female. Cox said the roommate is cooperating with the FBI as messages the roommate sent on Discord are coming under scrutiny as the director of the FBI discussed evidence he said links Robinson to the crime. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the latest in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code CRIMEFIX at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: http://incogni.com/crimefixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Chris McDonough https://www.youtube.com/@TheInterviewRoomProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. He is not cooperating, but all the people around him were cooperating, and I think that's very important. New details are emerging about the 22-year-old man accused of murdering conservative activist Charlie Kirk. His family has collectively told investigators, that he subscribed to left-wing ideology and even more so in these last couple of years. The FBI director revealing new information about the evidence he claims links Tyler Robinson to the crime as Kirk's widow breaks her silence.

The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry. I go through all of it. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Tyler Robinson is on suicide watch at the Utah County Jail and he's not talking, at least not to the cops. The 22-year-old, he's in custody and will be formally charged tomorrow with aggravated murder and other crimes related to the murder of Charlie Kirk. It was less than a week ago that Kirk was sitting under a tent at Utah Valley University in Orem, answering a question from a student about mass shootings committed by transgender people. when an assassin's bullet struck him in the neck. Kirk bled out almost immediately and the crowd ran in terror and fear, and Kirk's staff tried desperately to save his life. Local and federal authorities launched a manhunt for the shooter, combing through video, and they landed on this man in a black shirt, hat and jeans as the suspect. Twenty-two-year-old Tyler Robinson's father recognized him and called a family friend who was both a U.S. Marshal and a minister.

Tyler's father confronted him, and according to reports said he'd rather take his own life than be arrested. Tyler's father turned him into Washington County authorities three hours south of where the murder took place. The 33-hour manhunt ended without incident. Tyler's friends told the New York Times they had joked about how the man in the surveillance images looked like him, and Tyler responded that it was his doppelganger trying to get him into trouble. More on this whole discord connection to the investigation in a moment. But first, I want to tell you what we're learning about Tyler. The governor of Utah confirms that Tyler was in a romantic relationship with his roommate, a man who's been interviewed by the FBI. Now, we know the roommate's name, but we're not naming him

because he's not charged with the crime. Here's Governor Spencer Cox talking about Tyler's relationship with his roommate. There were reports yesterday that we can confirm that his roommate was indeed a boyfriend who is transitioning from from male to female. That's that's information that the FBI had had mentioned yesterday. We can't confirm that as well and that that that he is cooperating with with authorities as well. So this is really another piece of the puzzle that could lead to determining the motive in this case. Tyler Robinson was in a relationship with a man who was transitioning from male to female and he had told family members he didn't like Charlie Kirk because he spread hate. FBI director Cash Patel was on Fox and Friends

this morning and talked about evidence that has been collected that he says links Robinson to the crime. And what we did once I got there along with the deputy on the ground, around 5 p.m. local on September 11th was walk the entire crime scene, including the foots the suspect himself took. And what we learned was there was evidence, DNA evidence that could be collected and had been including a screwdriver that was found on the rooftop. And I can report today that the DNA hits from the towel that was wrapped around the firearm and the DNA on the screwdriver are positively processed for the suspect in custody. I cover a lot of really scary crime stories here on Crime Fix.

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and you should, take your personal data back with incognite. Use the code crime fix below on the screen and get 60% off an annual plan. Now back to Discord. This platform is popular among young people and gamers for messaging. A Discord spokesperson tells me that Tyler Robinson had a Discord account but that he did not plan or discuss murdering Charlie Kirk on the platform. The New York Times, as I mentioned, had reported about Tyler's friends joking with him on the platform about the shooter looking like him and that Tyler had said it was his doppelganger trying to get him into trouble. But I can tell you that Discord has confirmed that Tyler's roommate discussed the shooting after the fact on the platform with another user who wasn't Tyler. The roommate said that Tyler had left a note discussing retrieving the weapon and the bullets and the planning of Kirk's murder. Here's Cash Patel on this note.

And we have evidence to show what was in that note, which is, and I'm going to summarize basically saying, the suspect wrote a note saying, I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take it. That note was written before the shooting. Evidence of existence, we now have learned, existed before the shooting was in the location. in the suspect and partner's home. But we have since learned that the note, even though it has been destroyed, we have found forensic evidence of the note and we have confirmed what that note says because of our aggressive interview posture at the FBI.

Right now, the FBI and the governor say the roommate is cooperating. Reddit posts from last year show the roommate discussed taking hormones as part of the transition process and feeling some anxiety about doing so. Discord issued the following statement. when I contacted them. They said during our investigation, Discord identified an account belonging to the suspect. We have not found or received any evidence that the suspect planned this incident on Discord or promoted violence on Discord. The messages referenced in reporting about weapon retrieval and planning details were not Discord messages and likely took place on a phone number-based messaging platform. We continue to work closely with the FBI and local authorities and will continue to deliver prompt responses to their requests for assistance. Now, the question remains, if Tyler Robinson is indeed the shooter, how did he come to the decision to murder a man in cold blood on a college

campus? I'm so concerned about this radicalization piece, and that's what we're trying to understand. Again, this person made a choice, and it was this person's choice, and this person will be held responsible, and we have to make different choices. And we also have to figure out how it came to be that a kid with a 4.0, with a 34 on the ACT, with a full-ride scholarship at my alma mater, who didn't even last a semester, drops out and ends up doing something like this. We need to understand that and we need to figure out how to stop it. As the investigation unfolds and prosecutors prepare to formally charge Tyler Robinson with aggravated murder and other crimes, Charlie Kirk's wife, Erica, spoke over the weekend for

the first time about her husband's murder. she is now a widow left to raise two young children who will only know their father through videos and stories that they are told. The evildoers responsible for my husband's assassination have no idea what they have done. They killed Charlie because he preached

a message of patriotism faith, and of God's merciful love. They should all know this. If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country.

In this world, you have no idea. you have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry to everyone listening tonight across America the movement my husband built will not die it won't I refuse to let that happen. It will not die. All of us will refuse to let that happen. No one will ever forget my husband's name and I will make sure of it. It will become stronger, bolder, louder, and greater than ever. My husband's mission will not end, not even for a moment. So I want to bring in somebody who has been

on the ground in Utah investigating this case. He is Chris McDonough, the host of the interview room, and he's also a retired homicide detective. So, Chris, we're learning a lot, a lot of new details about Tyler Robinson that could go to motive in this case. We've found out that Tyler, it appears, had a transgender partner who was going from male to female and was living with this person. This was his significant. and other yeah and Jeanette I mean this is obviously still a very fluid investigation for the authorities and this partner that Tyler Robinson is living with has apparently been cooperating with the authorities

giving them information about the not only their relationship but potentially about post incidents and or information about the shooting. There was a lot of chatter. And in the affidavit, it talks about how the roommate showed the investigators' messages from Discord. Discord is saying, you know, we don't think those are from our server. Oh, you know, those are not how those messages display on our server. Maybe there are other messages. However, they do say that the roommate,

talked about this with a third party after the shooting about the weapon retrieval, a note that Tyler allegedly wrote talking about weapon retrieval, the bullets, the planning of this. They say Tyler didn't discuss the planning of this or any radicalization or anything like that on discord, but the roommate was discussing this with a third party after the shooting. How critical is that? Because it doesn't sound like the roommate went to the cop. you know, and said, oh, my God, my boyfriend shot and killed Charlie Kirk.

I mean, it doesn't sound like he did anything until the cops came knocking on his door. And he's like, okay, here's my phone. Yeah, you know, that's going to be a big piece of this investigation, that digital, you know, footprint, for lack of a better term. there is a whole underground, you know, basically world that takes place online. And if he has revealed any of that information before the incident, before Charlie Kirk was shot, or post-incident, that data and those types of conversations are going to be critical to his mindset and to helping the investigators, you know, put another piece of this point. What's so confounding about this is that we have a kid, and this can happen to anybody, but we have a kid who was 18 years old, straight A student, 34 on the ACTs, got a big time scholarship, I guess, to Utah State University, takes a leave of absence.

The school can't say why because of FERPA in the fall of 2021. He does like one semester, and he never goes back. He's in technical college now. And then now he ends up being a suspect in a massive homicide investigation, an assassination, a public assassination of a political figure. So I know the cops are more worried about just proving the case. But when we look at motive here, how are we going to unpack that and figure that out? Obviously, the digital footprint and what he was talking about online, I think is going to be a major part of that. Yes. And also some of the dynamics in relationship to who's in his inner circle.

That will be family relationships. That will be, you know, friends, friends of friends, you know, acquaintances, you know, who had, you know, they're a thumbprint, for lack of a better term, on Tyler Robinson. And who are his influences? You know, is he into gaming? if so, what type of gaming and what type of platforms is he hanging out on? I mean, there's what, you know, Twitch, there's a whole bunch of, you know, like we were talking about a second ago, this underworld that his generation basically finds, you know, his society. And they want to get into that society. And this is a really shift in our culture because, you know, these kids are so comfortable living in that world.

And here you have a young man who has these amazing, you know, 80, you know, scores. He's in the top 1%. He has an amazing intellect. Yet he's, you know, finding his social connections potentially underground. It's going to be really important for investigation and for the investigators to flush that out. little by little they're getting more and more evidence i mean this was actually if we look at it pretty sloppy he's on video walking around um they've got him you know they say jumping off the roof they say that's him in the video cash petel is now saying they've got his DNA on a screwdriver found

at the scene and on the towel that the gun was wrapped in ditched in the woods little by little the evidence is adding up, and then the ATF is apparently processing the firearm. We've got all that physical evidence, which is really important to the investigation. What are you seeing on the ground in Utah? You've been there. You've been pounding the pavement and kind of shaking the bushes and the trees to see what falls out. Yeah, so I think, you know, I went to where the, we'll call it the sniper's nest, right? where he was perched.

And you could clearly see, you couldn't see exactly where he was based on, you know, the positioning I was in because they had, they still had the scene shut off. But you could clearly see it was, it was a straight shot, probably 150 to 200 yards at the most. The screwdriver is significant because if he's using that 30-od six

and it has a large scope on it, then that screwdriver is going to be used to adjust that scope in relationship to, you know, wind, if the target is moving, you know, and so there's a lot of variances. But if he brought that tool, then he was thinking ahead in relationship to that. And then when he comes off of that building, you could see where he landed in that grass. There's a white tent behind that building that they look like they were taking, I wasn't there at the moment, but looked like they had recovered some footprint, is my understanding. And then he wrapped, the weapon was wrapped in a towel, and then that weapon was, he crossed the street and placed into the wooded area there, and then he fled up into the neighborhood.

One of the interesting variances that my understanding is still going on is they don't have a complete digital, footprint on the car yet. So they've recovered the car at his house in St. George, and the FBI is working through the data on that vehicle because, you know, as an investigator, one of the questions you're going to ask is, was that car stationary during the shooting or was it moving? And if it was moving, of course, that is a dynamic into the investigation that, you know, could potentially change whether or not there are other people involved and or aware of what was taking place.

You've been doing this a long time. So do you think that there possibly were people who were aware of what he was going to do? Or do you think he kept this to himself despite talking in advance about how much he didn't like Charlie Kirk? Do you think that maybe he is a lone wolf who kept this to himself? Or do you think there were probably other people who were? aware of it because there are some social media posts out there dated before Charlie Kirk spoke saying something big was going to happen tomorrow. Whether or not those are related to this,

we don't know. Well, you know, from an investigative position, right, you always have to keep your mind open. You never know until, you know, hopefully the best evidence is the suspect tells you themselves. Yes, this, this and this and that. Okay. But until that time, you always have to keep the possibility of, are there accomplices and or people that were aware of this? And they just kept their mouth shut, i.e. they didn't believe he was going to do it. And next thing, you know what he does it. And now those witnesses start to come forward. And perhaps I think what's happening in the investigation right now, because it is fluid. are those types of individuals coming forward saying, hey, you know, this is what I heard,

this is what I thought, but I couldn't believe he was going to do it. Oh, my gosh, he did it. And so, you know, a lot of those people do come forward. But it is the ones, you know, like his partner, potentially, you know, who he has a relationship with. They're staying together. They live together. You know, you can't just hide this stuff. okay it becomes very apparent that as the investigation starts to unfold and unpack not only the digital evidence but the behavioral evidence as a whole then you know you that's when you really start paying attention to the those next to him and in the inner circle it will be interesting to see how it unfolds what do you think we're going to learn from this do you think

that we're going to learn that he was spending so much time online and maybe in chat, I don't know if chat groups is really the right word anymore, but, you know, on forums or whatever that are, you know, feeding his anger and stuff like that. Do you think that that's what we're going to find out? You know, that's a possibility. I think we're seeing, you know, just in general, right there there's a shift going on in our culture and you know charlie kirk you know he stood for you know freedom of speech for lack of a better term i mean college universities are the places where you know diverse opinions and you know objectivity that's where you go to debate and you know here you're in the he's in the public square and he's debating people that

agree or disagree with him and you know a shot you know it takes him out and destroys that messaging that we have to really sit back and think about you know what's going on here and are we do we have a generation of you know people all of us we're all in this together but is there is this generation you know, writing, messaging on shell casings, you know, projecting something, you know, from pre-war II, right? 1933 to 1939. I mean, the messaging, you know, with Mussolini and, you know, the resistance, the Italian resistance against fascism. I mean, are we back in the 30s, you know, pre-war War II? I hope not. But, you know, I hope that we find out at the end of this, that this, that we can all continue to just have differences of opinions. And we can agree

to disagree that violence is not the answer. But we've learned through history, though, unfortunately. And I know the investigators are taking this into consideration, you know, because I would, you know, if this was my case, we have to ask ourselves, you know, why is this taking place? You know, we have, we have in the middle of Manhattan, a gentleman walking down the street, he's executed from behind, okay? And what's the messaging there? It's similar to this problem, you know, the, the showcasing their handwriting on them. And now we have this incident. Is this copycat incident from the first one, from Luigi. Okay.

So all those motivations will be examined, but I really hope that this doesn't escalate into something even further, you know, because it'll be the detriment of free speech. It really will be. I couldn't agree with you more. If you disagreed with Charlie Kirk, go up to the mic and debate him. Shooting him is not what we do in this country. And I hope this has to stop. We do not execute people for having different opinions and for disagreeing with them.

At least we're not supposed to. So it's just horrific to me. And at the end of the day, whether you disagreed with Charlie Kirk or agreed with him, this was still a father and a husband and a human being. And it's just, it's sickening. Chris McDonough, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it. Thank you, Anshanet.

Appreciate it. So Tyler Robinson remains in the Utah County Jail. He is scheduled to appear to make his first court appearance on Tuesday. And law and crime will have that covered for you. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm An Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Thank you.