The defense of Charlie Kirk's accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, is expected to call on an expert witness who also worked for Bryan Kohberger's legal team at Friday's hearing on their motion to kick news cameras out of the courtroom, according to court filings.
California-based trial consultant Bryan Edelman, who has a Ph.D. in social psychology, conducted a telephone survey for the defense and reported his findings on March 13.
"It is Dr. Edelman's opinion that 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," Robinson's attorneys wrote in a filing last week.
ALLEGED CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSIN TYLER ROBINSON'S FINGERPRINTS, PALM PRINT FOUND NEAR ROOFTOP
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Edelman's testimony is expected to delve into pretrial publicity and public opinion connected to the case against Robinson, who faces the potential death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder and Kirk's shooting death.
Robinson, 22, is accused of firing the fatal shot from a rooftop at Utah Valley University as Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two, spoke to a crowd of about 3,000 in the campus' central courtyard.
In a summary of Edelman's opinions filed with the court, the defense suggested that social media algorithms promote prominent local news, making it harder for potential jurors to avoid pretrial coverage of a case, including online commentary.
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"Experimental research indicates that hostile or uncivil comments can affect readers' interpretations and perceptions," the defense wrote in the new filing. "In practical terms, the same news item may be encountered alongside inflammatory commentary that can heighten emotional response and shape impressions beyond the factual content of the reporting."
Robinson's lawyers, Kathryn Nester, Michael Burt, Richard Novak and Staci Visser, also argued that pretrial publicity impacts the jury pool and can increase the likelihood of guilty verdicts. Judges are often tasked with balancing the public's right to access court proceedings and a defendant's right to a fair trial.
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Edelman also worked on a controversial juror questionnaire on behalf of Kohberger's legal team. It included questions that Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson alleged were aimed at tainting the jury pool in that case.
Multiple people contacted for the survey called police, raising concerns about violations of a gag order meant to protect details ahead of trial.
Judge John Judge, who was presiding over Kohberger's case at the time, called it "ironic" that the defense survey could have tainted the jury pool, rather than allegations from the prosecution.
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Mark Calzaretta, a jury consultant and founding partner at Magna Legal Services, told Fox News Digital previously that surveys are common practice when the defense is seeking a change of venue.
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Kohberger's push for a change of venue out of Latah County succeeded, but he ultimately pleaded guilty in Ada County to avoid the death penalty weeks before his trial was scheduled to begin last year.
Robinson's defense has already tried to have the Utah County Attorney's Office disqualified from the case over an alleged conflict of interest. Judge Tony Graf Jr. denied the request.
Other high-profile cases Edelman has worked on include the murder trial of former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke and Buffalo supermarket mass shooter Payton Gendron.
Edelman's testimony is also expected to include topics related from a declaration he filed in Gendron's pending federal case, demographics in Utah County, where Robinson's trial is expected to be held, and the fairness of the jury selection process.
