Tyler Robinson's Shocking Confession: Text Messages Reveal Details of Planned Attack and Hidden Rifle

[00:02] All right, Agent. I want to I'm not

[00:04] going to go through every single

[00:05] message, but I do want to have you read

[00:07] aloud certain portions of them. And I

[00:09] apologize to counsel. They These are not

[00:13] actually given a page number. Um I have

[00:16] page numbers, but I'm happy to confer

[00:17] that that we're on the same page

[00:19] as we go.

[00:21] So, here we're looking at page one of

[00:23] State's Exhibit 16.1.

[00:27] If you could start If you could read

[00:30] a little more than halfway down

[00:34] where it begins Wednesday, 11:00 p.m.

[00:36] Will you start reading underneath that?

[00:39] >> Yes. Um

[00:40] So, this would have been

[00:42] uh from from Tyler. It says, "Drop what

[00:44] you're doing. Look under your keyboard."

[00:46] >> And I'm I apologize. Let me stop you

[00:47] there. How do you know that this that

[00:49] message would have been from Tyler

[00:51] Robinson?

[00:52] >> Uh that's just So, it any of the

[00:53] messages in gray would be from Tyler,

[00:55] and messages in blue would be from uh

[00:58] from Lance. It's just the way the iPhone

[01:00] uh

[01:00] dis- distinguishes the messages.

[01:03] And also, Lance I I Lance in his

[01:05] interview also acknowledges that um who

[01:08] was saying what.

[01:09] >> And up at the top, who do we see that

[01:12] this thread is is between?

[01:14] >> Uh uh Tyler.

[01:17] >> All right. Sorry to interrupt you. Uh so

[01:19] So, read that again starting from look

[01:20] under the keyboard.

[01:22] >> Uh

[01:23] so

[01:24] So, uh after that, then Lance responds.

[01:26] He says, "What?"

[01:28] And then he says, "You're joking,

[01:29] right?"

[01:30] And then Tyler says, "Fuck. I tried to

[01:33] delete that."

[01:34] >> If we could scroll down to page two.

[01:39] And if you can continue reading

[01:43] along.

[01:43] >> Okay. Uh then Tyler says, "I'm still

[01:46] okay, my love, but I'm stuck in Orm for

[01:48] a little while longer yet.

[01:50] Shouldn't be long until I can come home,

[01:52] but got to grab my rifle still. To be

[01:55] honest, I had hoped to keep this secret

[01:57] till I died of old age. I am sorry to

[01:59] involve you.

[02:01] And then Lance replies, you weren't the

[02:04] one who did it, right?

[02:05] And Tyler says, I am. I'm sorry.

[02:09] Then Lance says, I thought they caught

[02:11] the person.

[02:13] And then Tyler says, no, they grabbed

[02:15] some crazy old dude, and interrogated

[02:17] someone in similar clothing. I had

[02:19] planned to grab my rifle from the drop

[02:21] point shortly after, but most of that

[02:23] side got side of town got locked down.

[02:26] It's quiet almost enough to get out, but

[02:28] there's one vehicle lingering.

[02:30] >> We can scroll down to page three.

[02:35] Continue reading.

[02:36] >> Uh Lance says, why?

[02:39] And Tyler says, why did I do it? And

[02:41] Lance says, yeah.

[02:43] Tyler says, I had enough of his hatred.

[02:45] Some hate can't be negotiated out. If

[02:48] I'm able to grab to grab my rifle

[02:51] unseen, I will have left no evidence.

[02:53] Going to attempt to retrieve it again,

[02:55] and hopefully they have moved on. I

[02:57] haven't seen anything in the news about

[02:58] them finding it. Will update you

[03:00] shortly, or shortly will update you by

[03:02] midnight.

[03:04] And then Lance says, all right, stay

[03:05] safe.

[03:06] How long have you been planning this?

[03:09] >> Scroll down a little bit, please,

[03:10] Kimberly.

[03:12] >> And Tyler replies, a bit over a week, I

[03:14] believe. I can get close to it, but

[03:17] there is a squad car parked right by it.

[03:19] I think they already swept that spot,

[03:21] but I don't want to chance it.

[03:23] >> We can scroll down to page four, and

[03:25] continue

[03:28] reading

[03:30] about halfway down. I'll I'll stop you

[03:31] about halfway down.

[03:33] >> Uh this is while they were spot, but I

[03:35] don't want to chance it while they were

[03:36] parked there. If they'd found it, I

[03:39] imagine there would be more commotion.

[03:41] Again, I'm sorry for roping you into all

[03:43] of this. You shouldn't have to worry

[03:44] about this.

[03:46] And Lance replies, does anyone else

[03:49] know?

[03:50] Tyler says, not to my knowledge.

[03:51] >> All right, I'll stop you there.

[03:54] Uh let's move to page five. So, this

[03:56] should be page four, so just scroll down

[03:59] one, please, Kimberly.

[04:01] And if you could read starting

[04:07] Um

[04:09] Sorry, Kimberly, if you could scroll a

[04:10] bit more down.

[04:12] If you could read uh I don't know, about

[04:14] a a

[04:16] 1/3 of the way up that's that starts

[04:17] with guess.

[04:20] >> Okay.

[04:21] Uh Tyler says, "Guess I'm Guess I'm just

[04:24] sitting in my car watching reels for

[04:27] another hour hoping this guy [ __ ] off."

[04:30] >> And continue.

[04:31] >> And Lance says, "Are you okay still?"

[04:34] And Tyler says, "Yes, checking spot

[04:36] again now. Will

[04:40] >> Sorry, now we're on page six. Continue

[04:42] reading.

[04:42] >> Uh will update soon.

[04:44] He continues, "The squad car has moved

[04:46] further away enough that I should be

[04:48] able to move in.

[04:49] I backed off cuz I thought I heard

[04:51] footsteps, maybe a foot patrol, but the

[04:54] crickets here are so [ __ ] loud.

[04:57] Going to see if the if the road closer

[04:59] to campus is open so I can drive past

[05:01] and check [ __ ] out. Probably still

[05:03] closed off, though.

[05:05] Getting worried, hard to know for sure,

[05:07] but I'm not finding my rifle. Could be

[05:09] in the wrong spot."

[05:11] Lance says, "Do you you think they found

[05:13] it?"

[05:14] And Tyler says, "Don't know. They

[05:16] haven't published anything if they

[05:18] have."

[05:20] And then Lance says, "Why did you leave

[05:21] it behind?"

[05:25] >> Oh, sorry. Kimberly, if you could scroll

[05:26] down.

[05:29] >> Originally, also doesn't have a serial

[05:32] number.

[05:33] >> You can scroll to page seven.

[05:39] And also

[05:40] continue reading. I'll I'll stop you on

[05:42] this page in a little bit.

[05:44] >> Okay.

[05:45] Uh so, Tyler continues

[05:48] uh

[05:49] I I D E K if I had

[05:52] uh

[05:53] if it had a serial number, but it

[05:54] wouldn't trace to me. I worry about

[05:56] prints. I had to leave it in a in a bush

[05:59] where I changed outfits. Didn't have the

[06:01] ability or time to bring it with.

[06:03] >> And stop there, please.

[06:05] And then if we could go to the next

[06:06] page, page eight.

[06:11] And if you could start at the top.

[06:15] >> Okay, so Lance says, "Was your change of

[06:18] clothes there or was that also gone? Or

[06:21] did you bring those with you originally?

[06:23] Anyway, you could replace the gun or

[06:26] would he notice?"

[06:29] Then Tyler says, "Only thing I left was

[06:30] the rifle wrapped in a towel. I'll bet

[06:33] that canine sniffed it out.

[06:35] Uh,

[06:35] little snitching bastard. Replace it?

[06:38] Unlikely. I don't fully know what the

[06:40] gun was cuz it was old as [ __ ] and

[06:42] Gramps did some modifying. There was a

[06:45] four-digit serial on it. God only knows

[06:48] who it's registered to. Hopefully some

[06:50] dead guy who gave it to Grandpa."

[06:54] And he continues, "Remember how I was

[06:56] engraving bullets?

[06:57] The [ __ ] messages are mostly a big

[06:59] meme. If I see notices

[07:02] bulge UWU on Fox News, I might have a

[07:05] stroke."

[07:08] >> And then continue. I'll I'll stop you in

[07:09] a moment.

[07:10] >> He says, "All right, I'm going to have

[07:12] to leave it. That really [ __ ] sucks."

[07:14] >> Let me stop you there.

[07:15] And then if we could go on to the next

[07:18] page, page nine.

[07:22] And do you see the the first blue

[07:24] message we see on page nine? Uh

[07:27] can you start there?

[07:28] >> Yes. Uh,

[07:29] so Lance says, "Do you need it for

[07:31] hunting?"

[07:33] And Tyler says, "No, my dad wanted to

[07:35] use it to use a high caliber for the

[07:37] rifle hunt. Judging from today, I say

[07:40] Gramps' gun does just fine.

[07:42] I D K.

[07:44] I think that was a tooth

[07:45] a 2K scope.

[07:48] Uh Lance says, "Geez."

[07:51] And then Tyler says, "OMW home uh

[07:55] 3.5 hours." Lance says, "Drive safe."

[07:59] And then Tyler says, "Delete this

[08:00] exchange."

[08:01] >> And I'll stop you right there.

[08:03] And then sorry, we're on page nine. If

[08:05] we can scroll to page 15.

[08:21] And then the second grade message

[08:26] on page 15 if you could start there.

[08:29] >> Okay.

[08:31] So this is Tyler. I'm going to turn

[08:32] myself in willingly.

[08:34] One of my neighbors here is a deputy for

[08:36] the sheriff. We hope to keep things sort

[08:38] of quiet here.

[08:40] >> And then I'll stop you there.

[08:41] And we can remove uh

[08:44] the exhibit from the screen. Thank you.

[08:45] You can release.