BREAKING: Charges filed against Kirk assassin (09-16-2025--Hour3)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. We have a bit of breaking news this from Utah County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Michael L. Smith Press release the arrest and booking of George Zen, former owner of the Hornets. Oh no, that's shin naymeway. George Zen, obstruction of justice and possession of child sex abuse material. On September tenth, the Utah Valley University, Zen was attending an event where shooting a curred. This is the murder of Charlie Kirk. Shortly after that shooting occurred and while people were fleeing the area, Zen was seen yelling that he had shot Charlie Kirk. UVU Police took Zen into custody and transported him to the UVU Police department. At that time, Zen was not cooperative with law enforcement and did not want to speak with investigators. Zen began to have a medical issue and was transported to a local hospital. While at the hospital, Zen did freely state that he was not the shooter, but yelled that he was the shooter to hinder law enforcements. Response, hmm, I wonder if he was in any of these discord chat groups. He just happened to be there, shot rings out, and he immediately thinks, I'm going to claim it was me, so this way the shooter can get away. While Zen was at the hospital, an FBI agent and an agent from the Utah State Bureau of Investigation met with Zen, who agreed to speak with them concerning the matter. Zen admitted that he had yelled that he was the shooter to allow the actual suspect to flee and to hinder law enforcement. During the interview, the agents asked to look at Zen's phone, and Zen agreed to let them. Zen told the agents that he uses his phone to view and abuse child sex abuse material and there may be some images on his phone. Those agents did see several images on the phone of prepubescent girls scantily dressed at that time. Special Victims Unit detectives were asked to take the matter over on September fifteenth, so yesterday, a search warrant was obtained for his phone. During a preliminary review of the phone, investigators did view over twenty images of children ranging from five to twelve years old in various stages of undress and sexual posing. There were several very graphic sexual text threads in which Zin shared the images with other parties. Zin admitted to investigators that he gets sexual gratification from viewing and sharing these images with others, and his preferred age group is five to twelve. I don't need to know that he is now currently being held in jail on second felony obstruction of justice charges and second felony sexual exploitation of a minor four counts. Of that no other information that he actually colluded with the shooter. Zin was in attendance and intentionally yelled he was the shooter and by doing so obstructed law enforcement from focusing on the actual shooter. See. So that's one of the things people who are like never Trumpers and are on the political left, they have been criticizing Cash Bettel because you know, the investigation took thirty three hours to find the shooter, which like, like I know, it felt like a long time. It was almost right, like a day and a half. It felt like a long time. And I too was constantly thinking, I hope they catched the shooter. I was happy to hear that they thought they got the shooter initially. But now all you people who were like, well, cares patio. He's so terrible. It took him thirty three hours to find the guy. First off, cash Pttel wasn't actually running any kind of ground operation out there at the time, right number one, number two, this guy's in, this pedophile, This guy obstructed the investigation, right, they thought they had their guy. He yelled, he did it. They thought they had their guy. They bring him in and how much time did he waste? Of theirs? And in the end, for what, they still got the shooter. And now they got you not just on the obstruction, but on your pedophilia. And you're going to spend the rest of your life in prison, I'm thinking. Because it's Utah, so that was the breaking news out of Utah. So that's I'm glad to know, Like what the background was on that guy. Because I had heard that he was just like some some crank that he had, like would go around to various events and stuff, and like people in the area knew him or something. So he was like he was a usual suspect, you know, kind of a guy, just like some political crackpot. A message from Russ. Can you please explain why the best examples that the left has against the right, whether it's Trump or Charlie Kirk, that all of these comments get twisted out of contacts, half truths, or total fabrications. Yeah, well, it's indicative of the fact that they don't have truth. They can only use lies these comments. Like, I didn't follow Charlie Kirk's career or his YouTube channel. I didn't watch a lot of his stuff. I would see him on occasion. He would appear on podcasts that I do watch or listen to, and I would see, you know, things that he had said. I followed him on Twitter. He followed me on Twitter, but he followed a lot of people on Twitter, and so I would see some of his stuff every now and again. I don't agree with everything. I don't agree with everybody. There's no person on this earth that I agree with all the time. So obviously I'm going to have a disagreement about him on some particular topic, and that's totally fine. I have a lot of people in this audience that disagree with me, and I disagree with them on certain topics, and that's totally fine. I'm like, it doesn't that doesn't matter to me. I do not require agreement, as Dennis Praguer always says, I see clarity, not agreement. I'm not trying to convince you that I'm right and you're wrong. Most people aren't convinced of that when you're in an argument anyway. I recognize that I've known that for fifteen years, twenty years since doing this. You don't get into debates with people to prove they're wrong. They're not going to change their minds. I do enter the debate to try to get other people who don't have an opinion yet to think that I'm making a stronger argument. That's what Charlie Kirk knew. Also, that's what a lot of people on the right. I mean, Charlie Kirk did not invent this idea of going to college campuses and doing these talks. Ben Shapiro was doing it before Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk did not invent the idea of you know, if you disagree, you go to the front of the line. Talk show radio hosts have been doing that for years. I remember I think Neil Boortz was the first one that I heard do it disagreement, go to the front of the line. Because the radio hosts want to have that debate. The good radio hosts want to have the debates. It makes good rates, number one, but number two, it's to help persuade people who don't have an opinion of the topic that my argument is better than yours. Also, I try to arm people with the information that they need when they go into their debates. So when they're sitting around the dinner table and the leftist in the family that's been told to you know, get in their faces at the gasoline stations by anti Maxine or to you know, turn the Thanksgiving dinner into a political knockdown drag out, that they have the information, They are aware of these arguments, they have heard the counter arguments, and so you would go in knowing what your niece with the face looking like a tackle box is probably going to say to you. You know what her arguments are going to be and when you approach it in a logical, rational way, then the screaming starts. Right. Yes, they get very upset, but you don't have to get upset like I'm just having a conversation with you and we just disagree, and that's okay. We can disagree, and that's what Charlie kirk knew also the humanity of his fellow people, and to say we can disagree, it's totally fine, but we got to have the conversation because if we don't, that's when the violence starts. 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Are you able to get this thing live? This is the Utah County District Attorney. Yeah, go ahead and bring it up. Which matches the known time of the shot. The individual arose and ran across the roof to the northeast. This discovery led to an intensive review of UBU surveillance recording crack and identify the suspect. Surveillance revealed the following At approximately eleven fifty one am. The suspect entered campus from the north. He is seen wearing a black shirt with an American flag in the center, a dark baseball cap, and large sunglasses. The surveillance, the suspect keeps his head down and rarely raises his head enough to get a clear image of his face. As he proceeds across the campus, he is seen walking with an unusual gait. The suspect walks with very little bending in his right leg, consistent with a rifle being hidden in his pants. This unusual gate continues until the suspect is seen crossing the railway, off the open walkway and onto the roof, where he leaves the camera's view. A camera later captures the suspect as he runs across the roof to the suspected shooting position. Immediately after the shot was fired, a camera captures the suspect running across the roof carrying an item whose shape is consistent with a rifle. The suspect is then seen climbing down from the roof. He appears to drop the item he was carrying as he hits the ground in a controlled fall. He then picks up the item and runs toward the northeast end of campus. Expanded crime scene investigation law enforcement officers followed the suspect's escape path to the northeast end of campus, where they believed the suspect left campus and entered. A wooded area. In that wooded area, investigator found a bolt action rifle wrapped in a towel. The rifle contained one spent round and three unspent rounds. This is consistent with the fax officers observed at the time of and immediately after the shootings. No shell casings were found on the roof, suggesting a bull action rather than an auto loading weapon, and only a single round was fired. Each round in the rifle contained an etched inscription as follows. The fired cartridge was etched No Tye's bulge? Oh woh, what's this? The second cartridge that was That was again not spent. The last three were not spent. We're not fired. The second hey fascist catch with arrow symbols. The third cartridge, Oh. Bella chow bella, chow bella chow chow chow. The fourth cartridge if you read this, you are gay. L m A oh. The rifle, ammunition, rounds, and towel were sent for forensic processing. DNA consistent with Robin with defendant was found on the trigger, other parts of the rifle, the fired cartridge, casing, two of the three unfired cartridges, and the towel. Law enforcement was unable to immediately locate the shooter, so they published photos of the shooter from the UVU surveillance cameras and asked for the public's help to identify him. Meanwhile, law enforcement continued to try to identify the shooter through other means the Washington County investigation. On the evening of September eleventh, twenty twenty five, as law enforcement continued their investigation, Tyler James Robinson went to the Washington County Sheriff's office with his parents and a family friend to turn himself in. Robinson's mother stated that the following to police. On September eleventh, twenty twenty five, the day after the shooting, Robinson's mother saw the photo of the shooter in the news and thought the shooter looked like her son. Robinson's mother called her son and asked him where he was. He said he was at home sick and that he had also been at homesick on September tenth. Robinson's mother expressed concern to her husband that the suspect shooter looked like Robinson. Robinson's father agreed. Robinson's mother explained that over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro gay and trance writes Oriented. She stated that Robinson began to date his roommate, a biological mele who was transitioning genders. This resulted in several discussions with family members, but especially between Robinson and his father, who have very different political views. In one conversation before the shooting, Robinson mentioned that Charlie Kirk would be holding an event at Ubu, which Robinson said was a stupid venue. For the event, Robinson accused Kirk of spreading hate. Robinson's father reported that when his wife showed him the surveillance image of the suspected shooter in the news, he agreed that it looked like their son. He also believed that the rifle that police suspected the shooter used matched a rifle that was given to his son as a gift. As a result, Robinson's father contacted his son and asked him to send a photo of the rifle. Robinson did not respond. However, Robinson's father spoke on the phone with Robinson, Robinson implied that he planned to take his own life. Robinson's parents were able to convince him to meet at their home. As they discussed the situation, Robinson implied that he was the shooter and stated that he couldn't go to jail and just wanted to end it. When asked why he did it, Robinson explained there was too much evil and the guy referring to Charlie Kirk spreads too much hate. They talked about Robinson turning himself in and convinced Robinson Robinson to speak with a family friend who's a retired deputy sheriff at Robinson's father. At Robinson's father's request, family friend met with Robinson and his parents and convinced Robinson to turn himself in. The family friend spoke to police and reported telling Robinson that it would be best if he brought all evidence with him to the sheriff's office to avoid police having to search his parents' home. The friend also asked Robinson if he had any clothes that were related to what he did. Robinson replied that he had disposed of the clothes in different areas. The roommate. Police interviewed Robinson's roommate, a biological male who was involved in a romantic relationship with Robinson. The roommate told police that the roommate received messages from Robinson about the shooting, and he did provide those messages to police. On September tenth, twenty twenty five, the roommate received a text message from Robinson which said drop what you're doing. Look under my keyboard. The roommate looked under the keyboard and found a note that stated quote, I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I'm going to take it. Police found a photograph of this note. The following exchange text exchange then took place. After reading the note, the roommate responded, what you're joking, right, Robinson? I am still okay, my love, but am stuck in Orum for a little while longer yet, shouldn't be long until I can come home. But I got to grab my rifle still. To be honest, I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you, roommate. You weren't the one who did it, right, Robinson, I am, I am, I'm sorry, roommate. I thought they caught the person, Robinson. No, they grabbed some crazy old dude, then interrogated someone in similar clothing. 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 out, but there's one vehicle, lingering, roommate, Why Robinson, Why did I do it? Roommate, Yeah, Robinson, I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out. 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 about them finding it. Roommate, how long have you been planning this, Robinson? A bit over a week. I believe I can get close to it, but there is a squad car parked right by it. I think they already swept that spot, but I don't want to chance it. Robinson again, I'm wishing I had circled back and grabbed it as soon as I got to my vehicle. I'm worried what my old man would do if I didn't bring back Grandpa's rifle. Ide k if it's had a serial number, but it wouldn't trace to me. I worry about Prince. I had to leave it in a bush where I changed outfits, didn't have the ability or time to bring it with. I might have to abandon it and hope they don't find prints. How the F will I explain losing it to my old man. Only thing I. Left was the rapple was the rifle wrapped in a towel. Remember how it was engraving bullets. The FN messages are mostly a big meme. If I see notice bulge UWU on Fox New, I might have a stroke. All right, I'm going to have to leave it. That really FN sucks. Judging from today, I'd say Grandpa's gun does just fine. IDK, I think that was a two a two K dollar scope. Wink wink. Robinson, Robinson again, Delete this exchange again, Robinson. My dad wants photos of the rifle, he says. Grandpa wants to know who has what. The Fed's released a photo of the rifle and it is very unique. He's calling me Rn not answering Robinson. Since Trump got into office, my dad has been pretty diehard. Maga, Robinson. I'm going to turn myself in willingly. One of my neighbors here is a deputy for the sheriff. Again, you are all I worry about. Love that came from Robinson roommate. I'm much more worried about you. Robinson. Don't talk to the media. Please, don't take any interviews or make any comments. If any police ask you questions, ask for a lawyer, and stay silent. The search for Robinson's residence, Police executed a search warrant on Robinson's residence. During that search, police discovered a shell casing with etchings like the etchings found on the shells in the rifle near Uvu. Police also found several target boards with bullet holes in Robinson's home. Now, as I stated in the beginning, when I. Read those allegations, these are allegations, and like the evidence set forth in this statement, those allegations, what you've heard from the media, even from state and federal officials, has not been tested in the crucible of a jury trial. I understand the public's desire. To know the facts. My own family members have pressed me for information. Why are we really to share the details of the investigation itself and comment on the case. Because I want to ensure a fair and impartial trial. I became a prosecutor because of my love for the ideals of this great country and the principles embedded in our constitution. The free exchange of ideas and opinions is critical to this great American experiment. But so too are the protections afforded to the accused found in the fifth and sixth Amendments. The right against self incrimination, the right to a speedy in public trial, the right to the effective assistance of counsel, the right to confront one's accusers, and the right to compel the attendance of witnesses. And, perhaps most importantly, under our constitution, the accused is presumed innocent until we the state, proved to an impartial jury of defendant's peers his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That jury cannot rely on our allegations, on what they hear in the news, or on what they hear from a public official. The jury is the sole trier of fact, and they will ultimately determine those facts based on evidence a trial judge has determined is admissible. Again, as prosecutors, we bear the burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but make no mistake, we welcome this burden. I'd like to now introduce. My trial to my trial team, who will be charged with prosecuting the case. This is a veteran and expert team of some of the state's best trial attorneys. Chad Grunander, who is one of my two chief deputies, Ryan McBride, and David Sturgel. On the far right, there, and those two were very much involved in preparing search warrants. Did a phenomenal job, work day and night to see that accomplished. Well after he was Robinson was taken into custody. Also Lauren Hunt, she is one of our special Victims prosecutors. And Chris Ballard, my second chief deputy, who will be handling motions. All right, So that's the announcement there from. That's the announcement there from Jeffrey Gray I believe his name is the Utah County Attorney, Jeffrey Gray. He announced the charges against the alleged murderer. They include aggravated murder, felony, discharge of a firearm, aggravating factors on first two counts due to political expression and the presence of children. This is according to Dana Lash, who typed this out in a tweet. Because I missed the first part of it. I didn't realize this was starting up obstruction of justice, substruction of justice by disposing the clothing. There's witness tampering charge from when he told the roommate to delete the messages. Another witness tampering charge for telling the roommate to stay silent and then commission a violent offense in the presence of a child, and that they will be seeking the death penalty against Tyler Robinson. All right, so you've heard me talk about Creative Video for almost a year. But did you know they also offer a game changing app for businesses that reward their teams with incentive trips. Well they do. It's called Incentive Trip Kit. If you want a business or work at one that offers these incentive trips, this is a mustap. It maximizes the impact and value of these motivational trips. It's a super easy to use app built just for your group, with private messaging, shared photos, important trip documents, even a find the group locator just in case somebody gets separated. And when I say it's private, I mean it. No personal emails, no phone numbers, no ads, no account sign ups. Everyone uses one shared login, so it's super easy, no hassles. During the trip, everybody can post their best photos and short video clips, and folks back at the office can even follow along. And then after the trip, Incentive Trip Kit turns those memories into a professional storytelling video you can use to motivate, inspire, and get people fired up for next year's trip. More fun, more memories, more ROI check it out now at incentive tripkit dot com or call Eric at eight eight eight five three three seventy six thirty seven Extension two O seven for the details. All righty there, so thank you. Sorry about blowing out the newscamp there, but I feel like this was important enough. The details that we got there from the prosecution. The text message exchange pretty well lays out a clear motive, a timeline, the security camera footage. This is the guy they got, They recovered the weapon, they got his DNA, they've got video, they've got an admission, they've got witnesses. He's cooked. Charlie cook Over at No not a pun, but coincidentally Charlie cook Over at National Review. He points out that with this information now being released, uh, there's no denying now this was a political murder, right And usually that's not the case. Usually, whether nominally on the left or the right, usually the perpetrator in this kind of a shooting is some crazy, incoherent whack job whose views are secondary to that. Basically, this one was not okay, And for people who are on the who are on the political left to deny it now at this point does you no service. All right, we're not saying you did the crime. However, denying that this is a political murder now just makes you look willfully obtuse or a liar. Winston Marshall, host of his podcast The Winston Marshall Show. I think he used to be the bass player for Mumforter and Sons, and then he he tweeted out that he read a book. I think the book was by Andy No and he got canceled, got kicked out of the band over it. Now he's like way more successful, which is saying something he said. This week would have been a good time for the political left to call out the far left and their violence. They should have done so without caveat what a bouttery or hesitation, But they have not. This has emboldened their radicals and it has sown irreconcilable distrust in the rest of us. Worse, still, pulling suggests that the majority of the left actually support such murder. Yeah, and that's really where I think democrats and media. But I repeat myself, they missed their moment. They had a moment, They had the opportunity over the last week, they had a chance to actually do the thing that they say. They do express empathy and kindness and unity and we should all come together and all of that stuff that we've heard, and they couldn't do it. If they ever could, they didn't have to agree with Charlie Kirk. They didn't have to come out and say, oh, I'm so sad. No, they didn't have to do any of that. I did not expect any of that. What I did expect was to say, this has no place in America. Jonathan Turley, Georgetown law professor, Yeah, sorry. George Washington University law professor, Constitutional law guy. He said, we do not have to know much about the shooter to recognize the rage. The person who killed Charlie did not view him as a father or even as a person. That is the transformative enabling effect of rage. In fact, Turley wrote a book called the Indispensable Right Free Speech in an Age of Rage, and he wrote about rage and the uncomfortable truth for many engaging in rage rhetoric. What few today want to admit is that they like it. They like the freedom that it affords, the ability to hate and harass without a sense of responsibility. It is evident all around us as people engage in language and conduct that they repudiate in others. We have become a nation of rage addicts, flailing against anyone or anything that stands in opposition to our own truths. Like all addictions, there is not only a dependency on rage, but an intolerance for opposing views. Indeed, to voice free speech principles in a time of rage is to invite the rage of the mob. Kirk was particularly hated for holding a mirror to the face of higher education, exposing the hate and hypocrisy on our campuses. Decades, faculty have purged their ranks of conservatives and libertarians. Faced with the intolerance of most schools. Polls show that a large percentage of students hide their values to avoid retaliation from faculty and their fellow students. Charlie chose to change all that. Turningpoint USA challenges people to engage and debate them. The response from some on the left has been to trash their tables threaten their students. Recently, at UC Davis police stood by and watched as TPUSA as a tent of theirs was torn apart. Charlie is only the latest such victim. He is unlikely to be the last. For months. Some of us have warned about the rise in rage rhetoric. Some believe they can ride a wave of rage back into power house. Minority leader Hakim Jeffries has called for people to take to the streets to save Demarcosse and posted a picture of himself brandishing a baseball bat. Like Wise, Governor Gavin Newsom declared, I'm gonna punch these sobs in the mouth. Various radical groups welcome such rage rhetoric rhetoric, particularly Antifa, the most violent anti free speech group in America. Antifa has long attack journalists and others with opposing views. Professor Mark Bray wrote a book Antifa, The Anti Fascist Handbook, noted that quote most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or anti authoritarian communists. From that standpoint, free speech as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy, unworthy of consideration. Democrat leaders have dismissed these dangers, or they've even embraced Antifa. That needs to end now, all right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.