On Wednesday, Darrell Brooks was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for his role in the 2017 Christmas parade SUV rampage that killed six and injured hundreds in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Six counts of first-degree intentional homicide with the use of a dangerous weapon were among the 76 charges on which the jury convicted 40-year-old Brooks guilty last month.
After two days of victim and family testimonials, Judge Jennifer Dorow sentenced Brooks to life in prison without the possibility of parole for each count of first-degree homicide. That the phrases will be delivered in order was a promise she made to me.
In addition, Dorow imposed hefty prison terms for the other seventy counts of guilt. On 61 separate counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety with the use of a deadly weapon, Brooks was found guilty and sentenced to a total of 1712 years in prison.
You don’t feel even an ounce of remorse for your actions. Dorow remarked, “You have zero compassion for human beings.” Mr. Brooks, you are a threat to society as a whole.
Brooks testified before the court for over two hours, expressing his inability to fathom the causes of this tragedy.
“The why, the how,” Brooks said. How did reality end up deviating so far from the ideal? I am confident in who I am and who my family and I are, regardless of what others may think. God knows who I am, and I have nothing to say in retaliation.
He initially said he wouldn’t “throw shots” because he was taking the “high road,” but then he slandered Waukesha County DA Susan Opper, telling her he’d never be able to respect “how you did your job” and that his transgressions were none of her business.
Grandma Mary Edwards hopes her grandson Brooks will sincerely and humbly apologize, and she says she is sorry “to those who have been hurt so badly by what has happened, this tragedy that has been caused by my grandson.” Brooks, speaking on his own behalf, has only issued a single expression of regret, declaring that nobody can understand the depth of his remorse.
To the judge, he said, “I want you to know that I am not only sorry for what happened, but I am sorry that you could not see what is truly in my heart, that you cannot see the remorse that I have.” I double-dog dare you to cry as much as I have this year.
The judge found that darrel brooks’ mental health was not the motive for driving into the crowd, despite testimony from his loved ones. Dorow concluded that Brooks had a good sense of right and wrong after administering four psychological tests. She said he lacked empathy and a conscience.
Do people with mental illness occasionally engage in horrific behavior? In a word, yes. This is not one of those cases, Dorow stressed. True, even excellent people can behave badly at times, but it’s also true that bad people can.
No amount of medical care will assist someone whose heart is set on doing harm.
Darrel Brooks has already announced his intention to appeal his conviction.
The government has asked for the maximum punishment to be given to Brooks for his actions on November 21, 2021.
The footage was viewed by you. As Opper puts it, “darrel brooks wasn’t driving through a throng of fifty people all at once and hitting them.” After scoring, he kept going. Two hits in a row, and they keep coming. The runner kept going down the block after hitting a triple. That’s not a fragment, your honor. He should receive consecutive sentences because his actions were deliberate, premeditated, and undertaken deliberately, just as he piled up victims as he carelessly drove down the road.
Dorow received a total of 76212 years in prison for reckless endangerment, plus an additional 3 years for two bail-jumping offenses and 9 months for domestic abuse. She said the lengthy sentence was necessary to keep the public safe. She claimed that doing so would “unduly depreciate the seriousness of these offenses,” which is why we need to tread carefully.
Dorow stated it best when he said, “honestly, you deserve it.” “It is needed – although largely symbolic, given the number of years that I have imposed here today,” Dorow said.
She stressed that the state’s Department of Corrections has the last authority in matters of mental health care for inmates.
On Tuesday, victims and their loved ones started speaking out about their ordeals. WTMJ reports that more than 40 people spoke, including the family of Milwaukee Dancing Grannies member Virginia Sorenson, who was one of three people killed in the incident.
“I will continue to struggle with the loss,” Sorenson’s husband David said.”
My family’s unconditional love and encouragement have allowed me to start putting my life back together again.
While some victims’ loved ones claimed they could forgive the offender in court, Sorenson urged the judge, I ask you to send this evil animal to life in prison with no chance for parole for the callous murder of my wife, as reported by WTMJ.
Alisha Kulich shared her mother’s anguish about missing her wedding, those of her brothers, and the births of her grandchildren because Jane Kulich, 52, was murdered during the procession.
“To paraphrase Alisha Kulich: “She won’t get to see me say my vows or get married to the love of my life.”
And since she’ll never get to meet my future children, they’ll never know what it’s like to have a doting grandma.
You know you can’t just keep hitting singles, right?
In addition to Sorenson and Kulich, the victims also included 8-year-old Jackson Sparks, 52-year-old Tamara Durand, 71-year-old Lee Owen, and 81-year-old Wilhelm Hospel. Sparks and his baseball team were on hand for the parade. Dancing Grannies Sorenson, Durand, and Owen were all killed, but Hospel, whose wife had escaped the attack, lived.
The prosecution showed proof that darrel brooks’s dangerous driving was intentional. When the police officer stepped in front of darrel brooks’ car and told him to stop, the criminal complaint alleges that Brooks looked “directly at him, and it appeared he had no emotion on his face.”
According to the complaint, a witness stated that Brooks did not attempt to slow down as the SUV sped past the officer and accelerated, halted at a crossroads, and then accelerated again, tires squealing, while “bodies and objects” flew.
In a last, tragic exchange, darrel brooks questioned the driver, “What would you do if your car suddenly broke down and you panicked and couldn’t stop?” Dorow removed a reference to a recall on the vehicle he was driving.
In June, darrel brook’s attorneys entered a not guilty by reason of insanity plea, but by September, they had withdrawn it. Dorow ceased speaking for Brooks after that and allowed him to make his own case.
At various moments during the trial, he interrupted Dorow to make completely irrelevant arguments. Unless it was Brooks’s turn to speak, Dorow would occasionally shut him in a room with a monitor and mute button. After interrupting the court twice on Wednesday, Brooks was taken to the room each times.
Darrel Brooks’ mother, Dawn Woods, reportedly expressed concern to the judge that her son lacked the mental capacity to adequately defend himself.
“He is not mentally stable enough to fully understand the big mistake he is making by wanting to represent himself,” she said. Given this, it’s obvious he can’t act as his own lawyer in court.
After being arrested and charged with domestic abuse less than two weeks before the march, Brooks was released on $1,000 bail. He was accused of running over the woman who claimed to be the mother of his child, according to court documents. The prosecution ultimately conceded that the bond sum was “inappropriately low.”
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