A Wisconsin man was convicted Wednesday of killing six people when he drove his SUV through a Christmas parade last year, ending a trial in which he defended himself erratically and sometimes confrontationally.
The jury found Darrell Brooks guilty of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide. He faces a mandatory life sentence on each count.
The jury got the case Tuesday and deliberated for a total of three hours and 15 minutes into Wednesday morning before announcing they had reached a verdict.
Brooks drove his Ford Escape vehicle into the Christmas parade in Waukesha in suburban Milwaukee on Nov. 21, moments after fleeing a domestic disturbance with his ex-girlfriend, prosecutors said.
Six people were killed, including 8-year-old Jackson Sparks, who was marching in the parade with his baseball team, and three members of the Dancing Grannies, a group of grandmothers that dances in parades. Dozens of other people were hurt, some severely.
Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper focused on Brooks’s intent during her closing arguments as Brooks’s month-long trial wound down. His failure to stop after hitting the first person in the parade shows he intended to kill people, she said.
“Just stop driving. That’s it. It’s really that simple. Not one person had to be hurt that day if he would have just stopped driving,” Opper said. “He plowed through 68 different people. Sixty-eight. How can you hit one and keep going? How can you hit two and keep going? How can you hit three and keep going? It didn’t faze him a bit. He kept going until he got to the end and there were no more bodies to hit.”
She concluded her remarks by playing a video of what she said was “the carnage” Brooks caused in the parade.
The live-stream The Associated Press has been using to view the trial proceedings did not pan to the video, but Judge Jennifer Dorow appeared to wince at one point while viewing it, and Deputy District Attorney Lesli Boese appeared to choke back tears.
Brooks initially pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease but withdrew the plea in September without explanation. Just days before his trial began Oct. 3, he dismissed his public defenders and elected to represent himself.
Dorow scheduled a hearing for Monday to set a sentencing date. Victims and their families are expected to make statements then.
Frequent court disruptions
Brooks unsuccessfully argued before trial began that he was a sovereign citizen, the movement in which adherents express they are not subject to the laws of the federal government or law enforcement agencies.
He has spent every day of the trial arguing with Dorow, refusing to recognize his own name and insisting the state has no jurisdiction over him. Multiple times, the judge has had bailiffs move him to another courtroom where he could watch the proceedings via video but she could mute his microphone when he became disruptive.
Day 69:52A researcher tracking the sovereign citizen movement says it’s time to take the threat it poses more seriously
When the Freedom Convoy occupied downtown Ottawa last winter, a video circulated of a group of protesters deputizing themselves as peace officers. The idea that they have the authority to do that comes from the Sovereign Citizen Movement, a fringe, anti-government movement which empowers its followers to reject all government authority and make up their own laws. In Canada, the leader of the movement is Romana Didulo, who has declared herself the queen of Canada. Christine Sarteschi has been tracking the sovereign citizen movement in the US, Canada and around the world and she says we should take the movement more seriously.
When asked to begin presenting his case, Brooks attempted to call “the state of Wisconsin” as a witness.
The judge allowed him to give his closing arguments to the jury in person on Tuesday. He tried to argue that the SUV had been recalled due to a throttle malfunction. After Opper objected — a Wisconsin State Patrol vehicle inspector testified earlier in the trial that the vehicle was in good working order, including the brakes — he suggested the driver might have panicked. He noted that some witnesses testified they heard the SUV’s horn honking.
He didn’t quite acknowledge he was the driver but said that at night when he’s alone in his cell he often asks questions how “this” happened. But he has never asked himself if “this” was intentional because he knows it wasn’t. He didn’t explain what he was referring to with the word “this.”
“Throughout this year I’ve been called a lot of things,” Brooks said. “And to be fair I am a lot of things. A murderer is not one of them.”
“You need to look in the mirror, Mr. Brooks,” Opper said during her rebuttal. “Your actions are that of a murderer. “
Prosecutors allege Brooks got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend on the streets of Waukesha as the parade was starting Nov. 21, fled in his SUV and drove it into the parade. Opper told the jury that she doesn’t know why Brooks entered the parade other than he was enraged.
For all the latest World News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
