Man found guilty of homicide in Waukesha Christmas parade SUV attack
A Wisconsin jury found Darrell E. Brooks Jr. guilty of first-degree intentional homicide during a Christmas parade attack in November 2021 that killed six people.
Brooks slammed an SUV into a crowd at a Christmas parade near Milwaukee. He injured at least 48 others. The 40-year-old was found guilty on all intentional homicide and reckless endangerment charges, as well as six counts of hit-and-run causing death, two counts of bail jumping and one count of misdemeanor battery, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Each homicide count carries a mandatory life sentence, according to the Associated Press. Each of his 61 counts of reckless endangerment carries a maximum sentence of 17 1/2 years in prison.
When the foreperson read the verdict of the homicide counts aloud, someone in the courtroom taunted Brooks with a vulgar heckle.
During the reading of the sixth homicide count, Brooks put his head in his hands and stayed in that position as the foreperson read the verdicts on the 70 other charges.
Brooks represented himself, leading to clashes between him and Judge Jennifer Dorow over his disruptive behavior throughout the three-week trial. He took off his shirt, shouted at the judge, refused to answer to his own name and accused prosecutors of being “slick” with evidence.
The judge several times threatened to have him removed from the courtroom for muttering under his breath in response to her rulings.
Brooks, who was deemed mentally competent, fired his public defenders two weeks before trial. He told Dorow he understood he was forfeiting legal expertise by choosing to defend himself in court, and repeatedly challenged the state’s jurisdiction over him.
He questioned witnesses who testified for the prosecution about their relationship to the state, and rather than put forth an alternate theory of the case, he returned to the defense that he is a “sovereign citizen.”
Legal experts said Brooks’s antics and apparent efforts to provoke the judge are not likely to help him in the event of an appeal, the Associated Press reports.
Dorow determined that the next hearing in the case would be Monday to discuss scheduling for a sentencing hearing.