Preliminary Hearing
The preliminary hearing in State of Utah v. Tyler Robinson (Case No. 251403576) ran across four sessions in July 2026 before Judge Tony F. Graf, Jr. in the Fourth District Court in Provo. This is the stage where the State must show probable cause to bind the capital case over for trial — and where the inconclusive ATF ballistics, the rooftop perch, the autopsy, and the Lance Twiggs phone and video evidence were first tested under oath and cross-examination.
Each day below links to a full, color-coded transcript of that session's proceedings — every speaker in their own color, every named person, exhibit, and location hyperlinked to its investigation page. Robinson is charged, not convicted; the testimony is quoted, not adopted as fact.
The Four Days
Day 1 — Rooftop & Autopsy
Officer Bagley describes the Losee Center rooftop perch; Agent Hull authenticates surveillance video and autopsy evidence.
Day 2 — Forensics & Cross
Agent Hull's surveillance cross-examination; FBI DNA analyst Bakker examined on the towel, screwdriver, and Robinson–Twiggs evidence.
Day 3 — The Twiggs Video
Agent Brian Davis testifies on Robinson's surrender; the parties fight over publishing Twiggs' recorded video interview.
Day 4 — Ballistics & the Rifle
Davis reads the Twiggs confession texts; Faumuina details the rifle recovery; ATF's Karner defends inconclusive ballistics; the State rests.
What the Hearing Decides
A preliminary hearing is not a trial. The judge does not decide guilt; he decides only whether the State has shown enough evidence for the case to proceed. That lower bar is why the defense spent four days attacking the reliability of the State's forensics rather than offering an alternative story — most sharply through ATF firearm examiner Samantha Karner, whose bullet-jacket comparison to the seized Mauser was inconclusive, and through repeated challenges to the chain of custody on the phone, the Discord messages, and the rooftop DNA.
The evidentiary spine the State built runs across the four days: the rooftop shooting position and campus surveillance (Day 1), the DNA and surveillance forensics (Day 2), Robinson's surrender and booking with the disputed Twiggs interview (Day 3), and the confession texts, rifle recovery, and ballistics (Day 4). Readers weighing the case against Tyler Robinson should read the transcripts alongside the ATF inconclusive fragment and the Miranda / Discord timing analyses.
After the State rested on Day 4, Judge Graf set a bind-over briefing schedule with oral argument in September 2026 — meaning the decision on whether Robinson stands trial was deferred, not delivered, at the close of these sessions. Watch the Court & Trial index and the 2026 timeline for the ruling.