Verdicts were reached today in the trial of Darrell M. Brooks, the man accused of killing six and injuring dozens by driving through the Waukesha, Wisconsin, Christmas parade on November 21 of last year. Brooks was found guilty of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide, as well as 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety; six counts of hit-and-run causing death; two counts of felony bail-jumping, and one count of battery.
Brooks was actually out on a $1,000 cash bond when he committed the massacre, driving his mother’s Ford Explorer through the crowd of revelers. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm would later call it an “inappropriately low” bail recommendation.
Brooks also had an active arrest warrant from Nevada for statutory sexual seduction, where he was charged with having sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl and impregnating her. He is a registered sex offender in Nevada.
As the homicide verdicts were read, someone in the court, reportedly a family member of one of the victims, shouted, “Burn in Hell you piece of [expletive].” The man was admonished by the judge and removed from the courtroom.
Brooks kept his head in his hands as all 76 guilty verdicts were read, and remained quiet the entire time.
Sentencing will be scheduled on Monday, and is expected to occur sometime in the second week of November. Brooks faces a mandatory life sentence for each homicide conviction.
The verdicts mark the end of a tumultuous trial, in which Brooks fired his attorneys only a few days before it was set to begin and defended himself as a “sovereign citizen” — a person who believes that he is not subject to certain state or federal laws.
Toward that end, Brooks routinely interrupted the proceedings, peppering Judge Jennifer Dorow with inanities such as repeated requests for the court to prove “subject matter jurisdiction,” which the defendant claimed, even up until today, had not been proven.
Dorow gave Brooks an extremely long leash as he disrupted the proceedings any way he could, repeatedly begging for documents he’d already been given, questioning the judge’s authority, raising mostly inane objections to inquiries made by the prosecution, and repeatedly requesting a certified copy of Dorow’s oath of office.
He repeatedly said that he did not “consent” to be called by the name Darrell Brooks.
During his closing argument, he attempted to bring up the subject of jury nullification, after being warned not to repeatedly by the judge.
Instead of holding Brooks in contempt when he became extremely unruly, Dorow removed him to an adjacent courtroom, where he could watch the proceedings on monitors and participate from there. When Brooks would become unruly in the other courtroom, the judge had the ability to mute him so that the trial could keep going.
Many believe that Dorow allowed Brooks so much leeway to show any appeals court that the Waukesha County court bent over backwards to allow him his constitutional rights, but Brooks’ antics during the trial may have been an attempt to bait the judge into a misstep that could be used in an appeal.
“I’m unaware of any issues that Dorow has created or anything like that,” said Thomas Grieve, a Madison-based criminal defense attorney. “I think the judge has done a fantastic job of patiently addressing all of Mr. Brooks’ issues, which seem to have no end. He has gotten what he wanted. He has made his bed and tucked himself into it throughout this entire process. Now he’s facing the consequences of it.”
On Tuesday, an anonymous Reddit post from someone claiming to be a juror in the case caused a brief disruption. Later, the user with the handle “Justice4Darrell” claimed the post was a “prank” and it was removed from the platform.
While the post seemed to be in favor of Brooks, he nevertheless attempted to use it today to cast doubt on the trial.
“I’m still very concerned, this whole Reddit thing,” Brooks said this morning. “After having the chance to fully read it and look at some of the language that’s in it … it’s very concerning.”
Brooks requested a mistrial over the incident, but the judge quickly shut down any concerns about the post, saying it was being investigated by the sheriff’s department.
The jury had been sequestered and had all of their electronic devices taken from them.
