Attorneys representing the alleged killer of six people during a Waukesha, Wisconsin, Christmas parade in November of 2021 were denied by a Wisconsin judge the opportunity to delay the trial until 2023. As of this writing, the trial is scheduled to begin in October of this year, although the judge left open the possibility for an additional month for the defense to prepare its case.
Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow denied a request by Darrell Brooks’ attorneys to delay the trial by an additional six months. The attorneys, Jeremy Perri and Anna Kees, had filed a motion with Dorow to delay the proceedings, claiming they needed more time to study the more than 300 videos and recordings of the tragedy.
“I am going to deny the request for a continuance,” Dorow told the court.
Kees and Perri argued that another six months was simply not enough time for them to go through the mountainous evidence presented.
“The scale of this case is uniquely large and complex, considering the number of allegations and the volume of discovery,” Kees and Perri wrote in their motion for a continuance, adding that “the inability or failure to provide sufficient time for counsel to properly prepare for the trial” could be construed as an infringement of Brooks’ constitutional rights.
“What we are doing is trying at this early stage, to avoid an issue where we’re at trial and we aren’t prepared to offer Mr. Brooks his thorough defense that he’s entitled to,” Perri said.
District Attorney Susan Opper countered: “To have to tell these victims we’re not going to do anything on this case for another year is really hard to swallow.”
Kees and Perri are also seeking to move the trial to another venue, claiming that it will be impossible for Brooks to receive a fair trial in Waukesha County, where the massacre occurred. Dorow ruled that she wants to see the results of a questionnaire that was sent to prospective jurors before ruling on a change of venue.
Victims and family members of victims in the massacre were given the chance to comment on the possibility of delay and, not surprisingly, they were against it.
“My grandmother was one of the ones that was struck and killed by Darrell Brooks in the Waukesha parade. I was incredibly close to her and her life was ripped away from myself, my family and my grandmother’s friends without so much as the chance for the ability to even say goodbye,” said the granddaughter of one victim.
The mother of two victims noted: “The six killed did not have a choice of how much time they had left on this Earth. The more than 60 injured did not have a choice of how much time to enjoy the quality of life they may never regain.”
One victim argued that what many need most is closure on the horrific events of that day: “As I believe, closure is the biggest thing that the victims of this case and the case itself needs.”
Brooks, 40, of Milwaukee, is currently in the Waukesha County Jail on a $5 million cash bail, awaiting trial on 83 separate counts related to the incident. Six were killed in the terrorist incident and over a hundred were injured. Brooks is a career criminal with ties to an Islamic terror group, and has pled innocent to all counts.
If convicted, he faces life in prison for the horrific crimes.
The six dead victims — Jackson Sparks, 8; Tamara Durand, 52; Jane Kulich, 52; LeAnna Owen, 71; Virginia Sorenson, 79; and Wilhelm Hospel, 81 — don’t have the chance to continue living in prison or otherwise. What might each of them had given for a few extra months of life on this Earth?
