Court Weighs Evidence in Utah Valley University Shooting Case

The court ruled that Lance Twiggs’ testimony will be admitted in its entirety for the court’s consideration. About 17 minutes of Twiggs’ 37-minute testimony will be redacted from the media. The defense is arguing that much of the video is the state’s lawyer’s words, followed by Twiggs’ agreement, rather than Twiggs’ original testimony.

The defense also claims that portions of the video are irrelevant and that certain sections would cause prejudice against their client. The defense argues that televising Twiggs’ testimony to the media would infringe upon Robinson’s constitutional rights.

It was under this consideration that the court redacted some of the testimony.

The prosecution has stated they plan to publish more text messages and Discord chats than were published in the original filing. The defense is arguing that this will infringe upon Robinson’s constitutional rights. The defense argues that the publication, broadcast, or discussion of the text messages in open court violates their client’s 14th Amendment due process rights.

They base their argument on the Supreme Court case Estes v. Texas, which holds that the broadcast of pretrial hearings violates a defendant’s constitutional right to due process. A later Supreme Court case, Chandler v. Florida, found that states could choose to broadcast and photograph criminal proceedings.

Robinson’s case is in a Utah district court room. Both parties are preparing bench memos regarding their arguments on the admission of five screenshots, which will be ruled on Thursday morning, in the interest of time.