Darrell Brooks was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of extended supervision Wednesday for driving his SUV into a crowd of Christmas paradegoers in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last November, killing six people and injuring dozens.
Brooks, 40, was found guilty by a jury last month of all 76 charges stemming from the 2021 Christmas parade attack, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide with the use of a dangerous weapon.
On Wednesday, after two days of impassioned statements from victims and family members, Judge Jennifer Dorow imposed the statutory sentence, ordering Brooks to serve life in prison without the possibility of extended supervision on each of six counts of first-degree murder. degree. the use of a dangerous weapon. The sentences will run consecutively, the judge said.
“You have absolutely no regrets about anything you do. You have no empathy for anybody,” Dorrow told Brooks. “Honestly, Mr. Brooks, no one is safe from you,” he continued.
Brooks spoke for more than two hours Wednesday afternoon, telling the court that he too is struggling to understand why this tragic incident happened.
“That’s a question I wrestle with myself,” Brooks said. “The why, the how. How could life ever be so far from what it should be? Regardless of what many people may think about me, about who I am, about my family, about my beliefs, I know who I am. God knows who I am. And I have no words of anger,” he continued.
During his remarks, Brooks, who represented himself, apologized only once to the victims and the Waukesha community, saying no one can see the remorse he feels.
“I want you to know I’m not only sorry for what happened, I’m sorry you couldn’t see what’s truly in my heart. That you can’t see the remorse I have,” Brooks told the court. “That you can’t count all the tears I’ve shed this year.”
Dorow also spoke at length about Brooks’ mental health, a topic his family members spoke about during the hearing.
“I believe that mental health issues did not cause him to do what he did on November 21, 2021. And frankly it did not play a role,” the judge said, citing excerpts and opinions from four mental health evaluations of Brooks by doctors. .
Prosecutors asked the judge Tuesday to sentence Brooks to the maximum sentence for all convictions stemming from the attack.
“He deserves the absolute maximum sentence on all charges, consecutively,” Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper told the judge.
“You saw the videos. He wasn’t the one plowing into a large group of fifty people at once and beating them up. It was linear. Hit one, continue. Strike two, continue. Hit three, continue. All the way down the road. These are consecutive sentences, your honor. This is intentional, willful, willful conduct that warrants consecutive sentences stacked on top of each other, just as he stacked the victims as he drove down the road with no regard for any other person,” Opper continued.
The jury also found Brooks guilty of 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon, six counts of hit-and-run with death, two counts of felony bail jumping and one count of misdemeanor domestic battery.
The victims and their loved ones had a chance to speak Tuesday about what they have lost and endured.
Among the more than 40 people who gave statements in court were relatives of Virginia Sorenson, a member of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies troupe that lost three of its members in the attack, WTMJ reported.
“I will continue to struggle with the loss,” said Sorenson’s husband, David. “I’m lucky to have a family that cares for me and wraps me up in love so that I can start to piece together the broken life that I have now.”
While some victims in court said they were willing to forgive the killer, Sorenson told the judge, “I’m asking you to send this evil animal to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the brutal murder of my wife,” WTMJ reported.
Dancing grannies talk about their love of what they do months before parade tragedy 01:55 – Source: CNN
Alisha Kulich, the daughter of 52-year-old Jane Kulich, who was killed in the parade, mourned that her mother will miss so many milestones in her life and that of Jane Kulich’s grandchildren and siblings, the station reported.
“He won’t get to see me say my vows or marry the love of my life,” said Alisha Kulich. “And she’ll never get to see my future children and they won’t know what it’s like to have a grandmother who spoils them.”
In addition to Sorenson and Kulich, Jackson Sparks, 8, Tamara Durand, 52, Lee Owen, 71, and Wilhelm Hospel, 81, were killed. Sparks walked with the baseball team during the parade. Durant and Owen were Dancing Grannies, along with Sorenson, and Hospel was the husband of a grandmother who survived the attack.
Prosecutors provided evidence showing Brooks intentionally walked through the crowd. In a criminal complaint, a police officer who drove past Brooks’ vehicle and ordered him to stop said Brooks looked at him “directly and it looked like he had no emotion on his face.”
The SUV passed the officer and accelerated, stopped at an intersection, then accelerated again — tires screeching — and began zigzagging as “bodies and objects” flew, the complaint said, adding that another witness said Brooks he was trying to avoid vehicles, rather people, and made no attempt to slow down.
In a tearful argument, Brooks speculated what the reaction would be if the car malfunctioned and couldn’t stop and the driver panicked. He claimed there was a recall on the vehicle he was driving, but Dorow noted the observations from the record.
“It reached speeds of about 30 miles per hour. This is intentional,” the prosecutor said. “He plowed through 68 different people. Sixty eight. How can you hit one and move on? How can you hit two and keep going?’
A jury also returned guilty verdicts on 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon, six counts of deadly hit and run, two counts of felony bail jumping and one count of misdemeanor domestic battery. It was a clean sweep for the prosecution.
In June, Brooks entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, but his public defenders withdrew it in September. They then withdrew from representing Brooks, and Dorrow allowed Brooks to represent himself.
He was belligerent and disruptive at trial, often speaking to Dorrow to make strange arguments. Dorrow occasionally put Brooks in a separate room where he could participate via a screen and was muted unless it was his turn to speak. Brooks was sent to that room twice Wednesday after speaking to the judge as she asked him to stop.
The SUV hits the parade during the Wisconsin Holiday Parade
Brooks’ mother, Dawn Woods, expressed concern that her son was not capable of defending himself and asked the judge not to allow it, WTMJ reported.
“He’s not mentally stable enough to fully understand the big mistake he’s making in wanting to represent himself,” she said, according to WTMJ. “That alone is enough to see that he is not fit to be his own lawyer.”
Brooks had been charged in a domestic abuse case and was released from jail on $1,000 bond less than two weeks before the parade. He was accused of running down a woman who claimed to be the mother of his child, according to court documents. Prosecutors later acknowledged that bail was “inappropriately low.”
