By Julie Boseman - Oct. 26, 2022
Darrell E. Brooks was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide after driving his car in a rampage through a parade in Waukesha, Wis., in 2021.
Darrell E. Brooks was found guilty on Wednesday of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of six people he struck with his car on a terrifying rampage through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis., in 2021.
The verdict, delivered by a jury in Waukesha County, followed a chaotic three-week trial in which Mr. Brooks represented himself.
Mr. Brooks, 40, was found guilty of all 76 criminal charges, including 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety, six counts of hit-and-run causing death, two counts of bail jumping and one count of misdemeanor battery. Dozens of people at the parade were injured in the attack.
In Wisconsin, conviction of first-degree intentional homicide carries a mandatory life sentence.
The verdict, delivered after close to three hours of deliberations, brought to an end a circuslike trial that was filled with disruptions by Mr. Brooks. He frequently interrupted Judge Jennifer R. Dorow of Waukesha County Circuit Court, objected when witnesses referred to him by his name and ranted that his rights were being violated.
Mr. Brooks has declared that he is a “sovereign citizen,” claiming that laws and legal proceedings of the United States do not apply to him. Judge Dorow repeatedly ordered Mr. Brooks removed to a separate courtroom because of his behavior. While the verdicts were read, Mr. Brooks looked down at his lap and silently rested his forehead on his folded hands.
In a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Susan L. Opper, the Waukesha County district attorney, said that she was satisfied by the guilty verdicts and believed that Mr. Brooks had been held accountable for his actions.
“Although the defendant devastated our community, the people of the city of Waukesha, Waukesha County and beyond demonstrated tremendous resiliency,” she said, adding that Mr. Brooks faces “six consecutive life sentences plus 859 years of confinement.”
For Waukesha residents, the trial painfully revisited a day that had traumatized the city.
The attack occurred on a Sunday afternoon in downtown Waukesha, a quiet, prosperous suburb of 72,000 residents west of Milwaukee that celebrated the holidays with a Christmas parade that included marchers, floats and dancers along the town’s historic Main Street.
The parade was disrupted in a sudden, violent fashion by the arrival of a maroon Ford Escape, driven by Mr. Brooks at a high speed as he was fleeing a nearby domestic disturbance. Mr. Brooks toppled barriers, then turned directly toward the parade, charging into the spectators, dancers and marching band musicians, and ignoring pleas to stop.
Mr. Brooks fled the scene but was arrested in a residential neighborhood in Waukesha on the evening of the attack.
Throughout the first two weeks of the trial, prosecutors showed multiple video clips of Mr. Brooks driving his car into the parade, and called witnesses who described the horrific scene that had unfolded.
Adam Bonesteel, who was driving a parade float that day, recounted seeing Mr. Brooks’s vehicle veering around and striking Jane Kulich, 52. Her body flew up onto the hood of Mr. Brooks’s car, he said, fell to the ground and then was run over by Mr. Brooks again. She was one of the six who died from the attack.
“At that point, I was just focused on the body on the ground,” Mr. Bonesteel said. “But I remember hearing the roar of the engine again.”
The Rev. Matthew Widder, a Catholic priest who witnessed the attack, said that he first knew something was amiss when he heard shouts from the crowd.
“All of a sudden I kind of heard the screaming,” he said. “I turned to my left and there was an S.U.V. just flying down the road. My next experience would be kind of hearing it striking people.”
MU2's Take: I know this happened a while ago, I am having trouble letting it go. MSM had no such problem as evidenced by the minimal coverage it received despite the horrific nature of the crimes committed. I wonder if any of the victims were from another jurisdiction that could have imposed the proper death penalty verdict? Perhaps they could extradite him if so and truly rid this scumbag from our population. Life in prison is too good for him. Life in prison is too good for him. Life in prison is too good for him.
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