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Tyler Robinson is the prime suspect in the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, and is being held on suspicion of aggravated murder.
The 22-year-old student was taken into custody on Thursday night following a 33-hour manhunt after Kirk, 31, was shot and killed as he spoke onstage at Utah Valley University campus.
Robinson is being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily harm, and obstruction of justice over the shooting.
If he is convicted, Robinson could end up spending his days in a Salt Lake City prison, which has reportedly been riddled with problems since it opened three years ago.
So what prison could he end up in if found guilty?
What prison could Tyler Robinson end up in?
Robinson was captured after a relative and family friend alerted local authorities he had confessed to them or ‘implied he had committed the murder,’ Utah Governor Spencer Cox said.
The relative who turned him in was reportedly his dad, who is thought to have spoken to a church minister, who then alerted the authorities.
Mr Cox described Kirk’s murder a ‘watershed in American history,’ comparing it to the rash of US political assassinations in the 1960s.
If Robinson is convicted, he will be taken to Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.
The facility was opened in July 2022 to replace the previous 70-year-old state prison and is located roughly five miles from Salt Lake City International Airport.
It houses 3,600 beds, some with floor-to-ceiling windows to allow inmates plenty of natural light and views of the mountains.
The 200-acre prison has both male and female inmates and even houses those on the state’s death row. It offers different levels of security from the general population to maximum.
The facility, which cost one billion US dollars, was designed to provide inmates with an environment that helps in recovery and rehabilitation offering mental health, medical and geriatric care, Daily Mail reports.
Inside the Utah death row prison
Being in a state where capital punishment is a legal penalty, the Utah State Correctional Facility is the only prison in the state authorised to carry out executions.
The primary method of execution is lethal injection, but a firing squad may be used as an alternative, which is legal under Utah law.
The first execution in the new execution chamber was carried out in 2024.
Taberone Honie was the first inmate to be executed in the facility on August 8 last year, which also marked the first execution in Utah since 2010.
US President Donald Trump was the first to announce Robinson’s arrest and has called for the suspect to face the death penalty, but there is still speculation over what sentence Robinson could be given if he is convicted.
Prison problems
Despite being open for three years, the prison has already been plagued by a scabies outbreak, drug issues and understaffing problems.
In March 2025, the prison was under lockdown after the Utah Department of Health and Human Services said 140 inmates received treatment for scabies – a contagious skin infestation caused by tine mites.
Local news also reported three visitors were arrested for bringing drugs in to the facility, meanwhile prison officials said some correction officers were assaulted.
Fox 13 News Utah reported in February 2023 that the Utah State Correctional Facility staff admitted to having understaffing issues.
Kirk was shot in the neck in what local authorities believed was fired by a shooter on the roof of a building.
Investigators are still working to understand what led the suspect to that rooftop and officials have yet to identify a precise motive for the shooting.
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