Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Picture of the Waukesha hero and man who screamed “Burn in Hell you piece of shit!” in courtroom as Man who drove SUV into Waukesha Christmas parade found guilty of intentional homicide goes viral.
Darrell Brooks was found guilty of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide on Wednesday for driving his SUV into a crowd of Christmas parade attendees in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last November, killing six people and wounding dozens more.
He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for the convictions.
Brooks, 40, also was convicted of 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety with the use of a dangerous weapon, six counts of fatal hit and run, two counts of felony bail jumping and one count of misdemeanor domestic battery – a clean sweep for the prosecution.
Brooks represented himself in court and has been combative throughout the trial, repeatedly speaking over the judge to make inane and outlandish arguments. Yet as the stream of guilty verdicts were read Wednesday, he looked down, put his head on his hands and sat silently.
The trial comes less than a year after he drove a red SUV through the crowd in Waukesha’s Christmas parade on November 21, killing an 8-year-old boy and several members of the “Dancing Grannies” group.
“Burn in Hell you piece of shit!”In his own closing arguments, Brooks attempted to raise questions about the vehicle and about his intent. He repeatedly said there had been “misconceptions” and “lies” told about him during the trial.
“I’ve never heard of someone trying to intentionally hurt someone while attempting to blow their horn while attempting to alert people of their presence,” Brooks said.
Jurors deliberated on Tuesday night for just under two hours and then resumed again on Wednesday morning before quickly reaching its verdicts.
The family of Virginia Sorenson, the 79-year-old killed in the attack, thanked the jury for the verdicts.
“We have been praying for this day for a long time,” her son Marshall Sorenson said.
“This morning my five-year-old daughter came up to me and handed me this necklace with my mom’s ashes in it and she told me to take my mom with us for the sentencing so she was with us today,” he continued. “My mom always used to tell us when we were kids and our family, she always said, ‘Angels watch over you guys,’ so I just want to say, ‘Angels watch over you guys,’ and turn on those blue lights tonight.”
In court, a series of videos and witnesses detailed the disturbing sights of the SUV ramming through the parade route.
“The band had just passed us, a red SUV … going maybe 30, 40 miles per hour, just went straight over the Waukesha South (high school) band,” said Kyle Jewell, a spectator who tried unsuccessfully to catch up to the SUV to stop it. “And it’s not like it stopped, it went over … it looked like it went in the air, like over a pretty big object, and it was just like a big old speed bump and kept going.”
Nicole White, who prosecutors said was the first person struck by Brooks’ vehicle, testified she sustained injuries to her spine and tailbone and suffered ligament damage to her right knee.
“I just remember being struck by the vehicle from behind on my back and then I fell to my knees and kind of rolled under the vehicle,” White said.
Darrell Brooks, 40, was convicted of all 76 charges against him for the November 2021 incident, which included six counts of first-degree homicide and 61 counts of reckless endangerment.
Each of the six homicide counts carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. During the reading of the verdict, Brooks sat with his head in his hands.
According to the criminal complaint, Brooks drove through the crowd of parade-goers during the incident and “appeared to be intentionally moving side to side, striking multiple people, and bodies and objects were flying from the area of the vehicle.” A witness told police the car drove in a “zig-zag motion.”
“It was like the SUV was trying to avoid vehicles, not people,” the witness said. “There was no attempt made by the vehicle to stop, much less slow down.”
Throughout the trial, Brooks was frequently disruptive — so much so that the judge reportedly had to call numerous recesses. He was eventually removed from the courtroom and made to watch the proceedings over video from a separate room. At times, he refused to answer to his name, claimed to be a “sovereign citizen” to whom laws do not apply, and even removed his shirt.
In his closing argument Tuesday, Brooks claimed the accusations against him were “misconceptions” and “lies,” CNN reported.
“What if the vehicle couldn’t stop because of malfunction? What if the driver of the vehicle was unable to stop the vehicle?” Brooks said. “Because of that fact, what if the driver may have panicked? Does that make the driver in a rage and intent on killing people?”
But Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper hit back against Brooks’s claims, urging the jury to focus on the evidence. “There are 68 victims in this case, folks. That’s not an accident,” she reportedly said.
“He reached speeds of approximately 30 mph,” Opper added. “That’s intentional. He plowed through 68 different people, 68. How can you hit one and keep going? How can you hit two and keep going?”
Brooks remained uncharacteristically silent during the verdict reading, raising his head only during the polling of the jury. Asked by the judge whether he was satisfied with the polling, Brooks placed his head back in his hands, quietly replying, “No.”
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