The bullet that killed conservative commentator Charlie Kirk may not match the rifle used by suspected killer Tyler Robinson, a bombshell new court filing states.
Robinson, 22, is facing capital murder charges and a potential death sentence for Kirk’s murder at Utah Valley University on September 10.
But his defense attorneys now argue that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ‘was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr Robinson.’
The defense team may now offer the ATF firearm analyst’s testimony as exculpatory evidence, they said in a motion filed on Friday to push the preliminary hearing back at least six months, Fox News reports.
It also notes that DNA reports filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and ATF will take time for the defense team to analyze because reports indicated that several different DNA samples were found on some items of evidence.
‘As these cases indicate, determining the number of contributors to a DNA mixture and determining whether the FBI and the ATF reliably applied validated and correct scientific procedures… is a complicated process which requires the assistance of various types of experts, including forensic biologists, geneticists, system engineers and statisticians, all of whom must review and evaluate’ several different categories, the filing states, according to Deseret News.
Robinson’s attorneys added that they have received about 20,000 electronic audio files, videos and written documents that prosecutors have presented as evidence in the case.