Darrell Brooks was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of extended supervision on Wednesday after he drove his vehicle into a crowd of revelers within Waukesha, Wisconsin, last year, killing six people and injuring many.
A clean victory for the prosecution, the jury decided to find Brooks, 40, who was found guilty in March on the 76 charges arising from the assault, including six counts of first-degree intent to murder with a deadly weapon.
After two days of testimony from relatives and victims After hearing from family members and victims, Judge Jennifer Dorow imposed the mandated sentence, directing Brooks to be sentenced to life with no possibility for longer-term supervision for all first-degree murders. The sentences will be consecutive, according to the judge.
Dorow also handed down sentences that total hundreds of years for the other 70 cases in which Brooks was found guilty. She sent Brooks up to 17 1/2 years in prison for all 61 charges of recklessly putting safety at risk by using a dangerous weapon.
“You are completely unremorseful for what you do. You are not sympathetic towards anyone else,” Dorow said. “Frankly, you, Herr. Brooks, no one is safe from your wrath.”
Brooks spoke for over two hours, explaining to the court that he was struggling to comprehend why this tragic incident occurred.
“The what, the why, and the how,” Brooks said. “How can life get this far from what it ought to be? Whatever some people say about me and who I am, my family, or my faith, I am my identity. God knows what I’m like, and I’m not carrying any expressions of anger.”
Attack on the Waukesha Christmas parade
He said he would never “throw a shot” at anyone as he was determined to follow his “high road.” However, he then denounced Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper’s credibility by saying that he’ll never be able to respect “how you carried out your duties” and claimed that Opper’s crimes weren’t her concern.
Brooks, her grandmother, Mary Edwards, said she requested that Brooks “will humbly and with sincerity apology,” as well as expressed her apology “to all those devastated through what happened in this tragedy which my son brought on.” Brooks, who was himself in the picture, only apologized once and said that nobody could see his pain.
“I would like to let you know that not only am I truly sorry for what I did, but I’m also sorry that you did not understand what’s inside my heart, that you don’t see the remorse that I feel,” he told the court.
Although Brooks’s family members spoke about his mental health issue in his hearing, Judge Dorow ruled that mental health issues didn’t make him a risky driver in the midst of a huge crowd. In citing the opinions of four mental health assessments, Dorow said Brooks understood the distinction between right and wrong. Brooks is not remorseful, nor does he have compassion for anyone, she added.
“Do people with mental sickness sometimes execute heinous crimes? They can. It’s the exception to those instances,” Dorow said. “There are many occasions often good people make bad choices; however, there are also times when evil people do terrible things.
“There is no medicine to treat or cure a soul set on evil.”
Brooks has stated previously that he plans to appeal against his verdict.
Prosecutors requested that Brooks be sentenced consecutively to the maximum amount allowed in the November 21st, 2021, attack.
The prosecution asked for the most torturous penalties
“You have seen the videos. He wasn’t driving into a huge crowd of fifty people all at a time and slamming them with his car,” Opper said. “He hit one and then kept going. Hit two continued. Hit three, and continue until you reach the street. This is a string of sentences you respect. This is deliberate volitional, willful conduct that justifies consecutive sentences one over the other, much like the victim was stacked up when driving down the road with no regard for another driver.”
Darrell Brooks was given six consecutive life sentences and more than 700 more years in jail.
Alongside the seven 621/2 years sentence for reckless danger, Dorow added three years each for two bail-jumping convictions and the nine-month sentence for battery in domestic situations. She explained that a lengthy prison sentence is required for the community’s security. Anything less is to “unduly diminish the severity of these crimes,” she said.
“It is necessary – even though it’s mostly symbolic, considering the amount of time I’ve put in place here this day – since you deserve respect,” Dorow said.
She stated that treatment decisions for mental illness could be left to the State Department of Corrections officials.
The victims’ families spoke out on Tuesday about their suffering and loss. In the group of over 40 who delivered statements were the relatives of Virginia Sorenson, part of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies troupe, which lost three members during this attack. WTMJ reported.
“I will always be a victim of this loss,” stated Sorenson’s spouse, David. “I am fortunate to have my family take care of my needs and wrap me up in affection to allow me to begin to build a new life that I have now.”
Some victims who addressed the court stated that they would forgive the killer. Sorenson told the judge, “I ask you to sentence this animal to prison for life with no possibility of parole for the heinous death of my beloved wife.” WTMJ reported.
Alisha Kulich, the granddaughter of Jane Kulich, who was killed in the parade, lamented her mother would miss numerous milestones in her and her sibling’s and Jane Kulich’s grandchildren’s lives, as reported by the station.
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Alisha Kulich said, “She won’t be able to watch me say my vows or marry the one I’ve always wanted to marry. And she won’t get to meet my future children, so they won’t know what it’s like to have an indulgent aunt.
Alongside Sorenson and Kulich, Jackson Sparks, 8, Tamara Durand, 52, Lee Owen, 71, Lee Owen, 71, along with Wilhelm Gospel, 81, was also killed. Sparks took a walk with his baseball team in the parade. Durand Owen and Durand Owen were Dancing Grannies, along with Sorenson Gospel and Gospel. Gospel was the spouse of the Dancing Granny, who survived the attack.
Prosecutors have provided evidence to show Brooks deliberately drove through the crowd. In an indictment, the officer who stopped in front of Brooks’s car, and ordered the driver to slow down, stated that Brooks was looking “directly at him, and it was apparent that he displayed no emotion in his eyes.”
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The vehicle sped past the officer and then accelerated. It stopped at an intersection, after which it accelerated once more – tires squealing – before accelerating again and moving in a zigzag pattern as “bodies and other objects” flew through the air, the complaint states. At the same time, another witness claimed Brooks tried to stay clear of cars, not people and did not attempt to slow down.
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In a tearful conclusion discussion, Brooks posited what could happen when the car malfunctioned and could not stop, and the driver panicked. Brooks claimed that there was a recall on the car that he was driving. However, Dorow deleted the comments from the document.
Then, in June, Brooks admitted to pleading not guilty due to the cause of insanity. However, his public defense team removed it at the end of September. They then stopped representing Brooks, and Dorow allowed Brooks to be the representative himself.
He was a tyrant and disruptive in court. He often spoke over Dorow to present absurd arguments. Dorow sometimes forced Brooks into an area separate from the courtroom, where he could participate through a monitor but was silenced unless the time came for him to speak. Brooks was twice removed from the room on Wednesday following a dispute with the judge.
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Dawn Woods, Brooks’ mother, begged the judge not to let Brooks defend himself because of worry that he was unable to do it, according to WTMJ. He isn’t mentally stable enough to see the serious error he is making in trying to represent his own interests, the speaker claimed. “That alone ought to be enough to convince him that he can’t be the sole attorney for himself.”
Brooks was arrested in a domestic violence case and released from jail on bail of $1,000 just two weeks before the parade. According to court papers, Brooks was accused of crashing into the girl who claimed she had a child with him. Prosecutors later admitted that the bail was set “inappropriately too low.”
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