A Utah man who was simply sitting in the crowd when Charlie Kirk was shot says he spent weeks in hiding, applied for refugee status in another country, and watched his home and car get vandalized — all because a podcaster convinced her audience he was somehow involved in the killing. Robert L. Hild Jr. filed a federal defamation lawsuit Monday against Candace Owens, alleging her sprawling conspiracy series about the September 10, 2025 assassination falsely painted him as a co-conspirator tied to foreign actors and what she allegedly called a “gothic and communist underground.”
Hild filed the suit, Hild v. Candace Owens, LLC et al., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah Central Division, naming Owens individually along with her corporate entities Candace Owens LLC and GeorgeTom Inc., according to PacerMonitor. GeorgeTom Inc. owns and operates candaceowens.com, according to the lawsuit as reported by ABC4 Utah. Hild is seeking both punitive and compensatory damages and has alleged defamation, invasion of privacy, and infliction of emotional distress.
An Audience Member Turned Into an Online Suspect
Hild, described in the complaint as a private citizen, attended Kirk's Turning Point USA American Comeback Tour stop at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, seated roughly 15 to 20 yards from where Kirk was expected to speak, according to ABC4's report. He was there with a friend, Shaner Broderick. After Kirk was shot, video footage captured Hild in the crowd, and he and Broderick ran to the home of Broderick's grandmother, where Phil Lyman — a former member of Utah's House of Representatives and Broderick's relative — later arrived, the outlet reported.
As law enforcement searched for the gunman and collected surveillance footage from area residents, TMZ acquired security video showing the presumed suspect behind the grandmother's house, and the FBI released photos of the suspect pulled from campus surveillance, per ABC4's account. Hild had walked part of the suspected shooter's escape route, and Broderick later posted selfies of the two of them retracing that path — images Owens would go on to use in her podcast. Tyler Robinson ultimately turned himself in to authorities.
Owens' Podcast Series and the Photo Comparisons
Owens, who runs the independent podcast Candace, posted more than 150 episodes about Kirk's assassination, each running at least an hour, according to the lawsuit as detailed by ABC4. The suit alleges she promoted theories implicating foreign actors, the U.S. military, the Utah government, Utah Valley University, Kirk's former head of security, and even Erika Kirk. In an episode titled “They Are Lying About Tyler Robinson,” Owens allegedly used Broderick's photos and compared Hild's image to FBI photos of the suspect, according to the complaint.
Owens also allegedly contacted a Utah Valley University student known as “Nick,” described in the suit as a former Orem City Council candidate, and on September 30, 2025, posted a photo comparing Hild and Broderick with Benjamin Netanyahu, per the lawsuit. She reportedly said, “because I got to identify that guy in the blue hat,” and claimed Hild resembled a blurred figure climbing a stairwell — imagery federal filings say doesn't hold up. Court filings cited by the Washington Examiner show campus surveillance photos of Robinson in the UVU stairwell were logged at 11:51 a.m. on September 10, 2025, while separate video placed Hild in the audience, 15 to 20 yards from the stage, at the same event.
Threats, Vandalism and a Retraction Request
The fallout, Hild alleges, included reputational damage, verbal attacks, and physical threats. People reportedly placed bets on whether Hild was the real shooter, and at least one political influencer publicly apologized to him after realizing he had no connection to the shooting. Owens' followers allegedly posted personal information about Hild and his family, and his home and vehicle were vandalized, according to the complaint. Police reportedly suggested Hild not stay at his own house.
Hild says he hid for the first five to six weeks after Owens identified him, eventually applying for refugee status in another country and leaving Utah for several months out of fear for his safety, the lawsuit states. He asked Owens to retract her comments, but she reportedly refused, and the suit alleges she continued linking him to the shooting even afterward. ABC4 reported it contacted Owens for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
A Second Major Defamation Suit Over Kirk Coverage
Hild's filing is the second major federal defamation action brought against Owens over her assassination commentary. In April, Charlie Kirk's former head of security, Brian Harpole, sued Owens in Tennessee, alleging she falsely linked him to the assassination plot using what he called fabricated informant claims and seeking more than $75,000 in damages, as Hoodline previously reported. Owens has since asked a federal judge to dismiss that suit, arguing her statements were protected opinion, public debate, or rhetorical hyperbole rather than factual claims, according to The Times of India, which reported she framed calls for security personnel to be fired as performance judgments rather than provable facts.
Owens also faces a separate, higher-profile defamation lawsuit from French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron, who filed a 219-page complaint in Delaware Superior Court in July 2025 after Owens repeatedly claimed on her show that Brigitte Macron was born male, according to PBS News. The Macrons retained the law firm Clare Locke LLP and are seeking both actual and punitive damages tied to Owens' eight-part series “Becoming Brigitte.”
Where the Kirk Case and Legal Standards Stand
Meanwhile, the underlying criminal case has moved forward through official channels. A Utah state judge ordered 23-year-old Tyler Robinson to stand trial on aggravated murder charges carrying the death penalty following a five-day preliminary hearing in Provo, PBS News reported. Prosecutors introduced DNA evidence found on a rooftop screwdriver and towel connecting Robinson and his roommate to the crime scene, and Robinson remains in custody.
An independent review commissioned by Utah Valley University, released this month, concluded campus officials acted in good faith, though it found Turning Point USA had insisted on holding the September 2025 event outdoors despite campus police security warnings, according to The Guardian. The review examined thousands of pages of records and included more than 70 interviews.
Because Hild is a private citizen rather than a public figure, he faces a lower legal bar than someone like Harpole: proving simple negligence rather than the “actual malice” standard — knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth — that public figures must show, per Global News. Owens has operated as an independent publisher with no corporate editorial oversight since her March 2024 departure from The Daily Wire, according to Britannica, which noted the split followed ideological friction and antisemitism controversies at the network. Amid the mounting litigation, family members have reportedly urged Owens to step back from public life, with former security personnel telling The Root that protecting her has grown more difficult amid intense public backlash.
