It’s been a year since Charlie Kirk was fatally shot, and Utah County has so far paid $1.6 million to the public defenders who represent the man accused of pulling the trigger. And the criminal case is far from over.

The county has already exhausted the $1 million that state lawmakers earmarked to help pay for Tyler Robinson’s defense. The rest has come from its public defense budget or a rainy day fund, Utah County Commissioner Skyler Beltran said.

And the bill will continue to grow. A trial date hasn’t been set, and Robinson’s attorneys have indicated that they are preparing to file and argue numerous motions before trial.

County officials previously acknowledged that they’re paying more for defense attorneys for Tyler Robinson than for defendants in other death penalty-eligible cases, saying the increased attention and public scrutiny of the case called for it. Beltran said in a recent interview that the defense costs for Robinson so far are “about in line with what we anticipated.”

Robinson, now 23, is facing seven criminal charges, including aggravated murder, in connection with Kirk’s Sept. 10, 2025, death.

Given that Robinson can’t afford his own attorney, Utah County has no choice but to foot the bill for his public defenders. That’s because when someone is charged with a crime, it’s their constitutional right to have an attorney in the courtroom representing them — and it’s the government’s job to cover the cost if they can’t pay for it.

In Robinson’s case, the judge last week made a key decision when he determined there was enough evidence to move the aggravated murder case forward to trial. His ruling came after a weeklong preliminary hearing in July, where prosecutors presented evidence that they say shows Robinson used his grandfather’s rifle to fire a single shot from atop a Utah Valley University building toward a crowd of thousands gathered for Kirk’s Turning Point USA event.

This part of the court case was time intensive, Beltran said, so county officials expected more billings from Robinson’s defense lawyers. But with that decision behind them, Beltran said he’s optimistic costs will be lower for now.

“It goes in a wave,” he said. “We kind of hit the peak expense. Now we’ll have a little less expenses before trial, and then trial will be expensive.”

Robinson has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and six other charges. A trial date might be set at his next court hearing in October, but Robinson’s defense team indicated that they may not be ready to finalize dates yet as they consider what kind of motions they want to file ahead of trial.

In this next phase of the court case, both prosecutors and the defense will file pretrial motions that 4th District Judge Tony Graf will rule on. This essentially sets the ground rules about what evidence or witnesses can be presented to the jury during the trial.

All of that work comes at a cost — one that, under Utah’s public defense system, falls to Utah County.

There is a state-managed fund that counties can pay into, a sort of insurance policy from which county officials can request money if they have a death penalty-eligible case. But Utah County doesn’t pay into that pot — and instead uses its own money to contract with individual attorneys in death penalty-eligible cases.

It is getting some state help, though. Beltran confirmed that the Utah Legislature earmarked $1 million during this year’s session to help with defense costs, after the county had requested $2 million.

When asked if Utah County has considered paying into the state-managed fund, Beltran said the county tried to join a few years ago, but was denied.

The Utah Indigent Defense Commission oversees that fund. Matthew Barraza, the commission’s executive director, disputed that Utah County was turned away.

Barraza said that county officials approached the commission in 2024 and tried to enter the fund, but they wanted access to money immediately to pay for the defense in a death penalty case that had already been filed against a truck driver named Michael Jayne. He is accused of intentionally crashing into a police car and killing an officer.

“The fund acts similarly to an insurance policy,” he said. “Payment into the fund allows participating counties to draw upon the fund for future capital cases.”

The commission decided at that time that Jayne’s case wasn’t eligible for the fund because it had already been filed. But Barazza said they did not entirely turn Utah County away — he said he reached out to the county manager with additional questions about defense costs the county had in recent death penalty cases.

He said he never heard back, and Utah County never followed up on its pending application.