It could not be more obvious that the judge in the murder case against Charlie Kirk's accused killer is new to the bench. Testimony in the preliminary hearing was derailed on Wednesday amid arguments over the admissibility and redactability of video-recorded police interviews with Lance Twiggs, who was defendant Tyler Robinson's roommate and romantic partner before Robinson was jailed for shooting Kirk at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025.J Judge Tony F. Graf Jr. always gives the attorneys huge amounts of time to argue, and he did that Wednesday afternoon before retiring to his chambers to review the interview himself. His responsibilities test his ability to compromise: He is both the fact finder and the evidence gatekeeper in this hearing, so he reviews information to decide if it's relevant, then must disregard what he deems irrelevant. He comes across as stern and in charge on the outside and extremely nervous and unsure of himself on the inside. The sprawling discussion yesterday made putting together a clip about his ruling on Twiggs' interview tough. He specified which portions of Twiggs' interview can't be played publicly. Robinson's lawyers said prosecutors plan to portray Twiggs' statements as a confession, so none of it should be publicized to protect Robinson's right to a fair trial. Lauren Hunt, a deputy attorney with the Utah County Attorney's Office, said prosecutors want only the audio played in court "but we never intended to visually put them on the monitors.""I believe that was the media's position ... if I remember correctly, is that they want everything auto audio and visually displayed, but the state's position is just we just want the audio played," Hunt said. Graf said "in the abundance of caution, and to protect the jury pool ... from hearing potentially inadmissible evidence. I'm ordering that the audio cannot be published in the courtroom or on camera from page 19, timestamp 3255 until timestamp 3548." "In other words, the state may publish the audio for all portions of the interview other than that one portion, and when I say audio, I mean audio and video, so both," the judge said. He said one reason for the edits is Rule 403 of the Utah Rules of Evidence, which allows for judges to eliminate needlessly cumulative evidence. "I'm balancing all these competing rules, the constitutional rights, as well as transparency, and sometimes it is an imperfect balancing act, but I'm trying to act in the interest of justice in making this balancing act, and for transparency to actually be transparent, and so that is the ruling of the court as it relates to state's Exhibit 16," Graf said. You can watch the entire discussion on my YouTube channel or Facebook page. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox appointed Graf to the 4th Judicial District bench in Provo in May 2025. Previously, Graf served on the City Council in Toole, Utah, and was a deputy district attorney in Davis County. He also led the Utah County Attorney’s Office’s Special Victims Unit and was a deputy district attorney in Salt Lake County. He also worked as an assistant attorney general in American Samoa, a deputy district attorney in Lincoln County, Nevada; and a special assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. He earned his law degree from the University of Utah. #law #court #crime - @meghannmcuniff