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Darrell Brooks receives 6 consecutive life sentences plus more than 700 additional years in prison for Waukesha Christmas parade attack | CNN

Published

2 years ago

November 16, 2022

Darrell Brooks receives 6 consecutive life sentences plus more than 700 additional years in prison for Waukesha Christmas parade attack | CNN

CNN
—

Darrell Brooks was sentenced to life in jail with out the potential of prolonged supervision on Wednesday for driving his SUV right into a crowd of Christmas parade attendees in Waukesha, Wisconsin, final November, killing six individuals and wounding dozens extra.

Brooks,40, was discovered responsible by a jury final month on all 76 counts stemming from the 2021 Christmas parade assault, together with six counts of first-degree intentional murder with using a harmful weapon.

On Wednesday, following two days of impassioned statements from victims and relations, Choose Jennifer Dorow imposed the statutorily mandated sentence, ordering Brooks to serve a life sentence with out the potential of prolonged supervision for every of the six counts of first-degree intentional murder with using a harmful weapon. The sentences will run consecutively, the decide mentioned.

Along with six consecutive life sentences for first-degree intentional murder, Dorow additionally imposed sentences Wednesday for Brooks totaling tons of of years of extra confinement for the remaining 70 counts he was discovered responsible on final month.

She sentenced Brooks to 17.5 years for every of the 61 counts of first-degree recklessly endangering security with using a harmful weapon.

“You’ve got completely no regret for something that you simply do. You don’t have any empathy for anybody,” Dorow instructed Brooks. “Frankly, Mr. Brooks, nobody is secure from you,” she continued.

Brooks spoke for greater than two hours Wednesday afternoon, telling the courtroom that he too struggles to grasp why this tragic incident occurred.

“That’s a query I wrestle with myself,” Brooks mentioned. “The why, the how. How may life ever get this far-off from what it must be? No matter what lots of people could take into consideration me, about who I’m, about my household, about my beliefs, I do know who I’m. God is aware of who I’m. And I don’t have any phrases of anger,” he continued.

Throughout his remarks, Brooks, who represented himself, solely as soon as apologized to the victims and the group of Waukesha, saying that nobody can see the regret he feels.

“I would like you to know not solely am I sorry for what occurred, I’m sorry that you might not see what’s really in my coronary heart. That you just can not see the regret that I’ve,” Brooks instructed the courtroom. “That you just can not depend all of the tears that I’ve dropped on this 12 months.”

Dorow additionally spoke at size on Brooks’ psychological well being, a subject his relations spoke about through the listening to.

“It’s my opinion that psychological well being points didn’t trigger him to do what he did on November 21 of 2021. And albeit didn’t play a task,” the decide mentioned, citing passages and opinions from 4 psychological well being evaluations of Brooks from docs.

Prosecutors requested the decide Tuesday to condemn Brooks to the utmost sentence for all convictions stemming from the assault.

“He deserves absolutely the most sentence on all counts, consecutive,” Waukesha County District Legal professional Susan Opper instructed the decide.

“You noticed the movies. This wasn’t him plowing into one giant group of fifty individuals at one time and hitting them. It was linear. He hit one, saved going. Hit two, saved going. Hit three, saved going. All the way in which down the road. That’s consecutive sentences, your honor. That’s intentional, willful, volitional conduct that warrants consecutive sentences stacked one on prime of the opposite simply as he stacked victims up as he drove down the highway in full disregard for every other individual in any way,” Opper continued.

Victims and their family members got the chance to talk Tuesday about what they’ve misplaced and endured.

Among the many greater than 40 individuals delivering statements to the courtroom have been relations of Virginia Sorenson, a part of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies troupe that misplaced three of its members within the assault, WTMJ reported.

“I’ll proceed to wrestle with the loss,” mentioned Sorenson’s husband, David. “I’m fortunate to have household look after me and wrap me in love in order that I can begin to glue collectively the shattered life I now have.”

Whereas some victims addressing the courtroom mentioned thaey have been keen to forgive the killer, Sorenson instructed the decide, “I ask you to ship this evil animal to life in jail with no probability for parole for the callous homicide of my spouse,” WTMJ reported.

Dancing Grannies speak about love of what they do months earlier than parade tragedy

01:55

– Source:
CNN

Alisha Kulich, the daughter of 52-year-old Jane Kulich, who was killed attending the parade, lamented that her mom will miss so many milestones in her and her siblings’ – and Jane Kulich’s grandchildren’s – lives, the station reported.

“She received’t get to see me say my vows or get married to the love of my life,” Alisha Kulich mentioned. “And he or she received’t ever get to see my future youngsters, and so they received’t know what it’s prefer to have a grandma who spoils them.”

From top left clockwise, Lee Owen, Tamara Durand, Virginia Sorenson, Jackson Sparks, Jane Kulich and Wilhelm Hospel.

Along with Sorenson and Kulich, Jackson Sparks, 8, Tamara Durand, 52, Lee Owen, 71, and Wilhelm Hospel, 81, have been killed. Sparks was strolling together with his baseball crew through the parade. Durand and Owen have been Dancing Grannies, together with Sorenson, and Hospel was the husband of a Dancing Granny who survived the assault.

Prosecutors supplied proof displaying Brooks deliberately drove by way of the group. In a legal grievance, an officer who stepped in entrance of Brooks’ automobile, ordering him to cease, mentioned Brooks seemed “immediately at him, and it appeared he had no emotion on his face.”

The SUV handed the officer and accelerated, stopped at an intersection, then accelerated once more – tires squealing – and started zig-zagging as “our bodies and objects” flew, the grievance mentioned, including that one other witness mentioned Brooks was attempting to keep away from autos, relatively than individuals, and made no try to decelerate.

In a tearful closing argument, Brooks posited what can be the response if the automobile malfunctioned and was unable to cease and the driving force panicked. He claimed there was a recall on the automobile he was driving, however Dorow struck the remarks from the report.

“He reached speeds of roughly 30 miles per hour. That’s intentional,” the district legal professional mentioned. “He plowed by way of 68 completely different individuals. Sixty-eight. How will you hit one and preserve going? How will you hit two and preserve going?”

A jury additionally handed down responsible verdicts on 61 counts of recklessly endangering security with using a harmful weapon, six counts of deadly hit and run, two counts of felony bail leaping and one depend of misdemeanor home battery. It was a clear sweep for the prosecution.

In June, Brooks entered a plea of not responsible by motive of madness, however his public defenders withdrew it in September. They then withdrew themselves from representing Brooks, and Dorow permitted Brooks to characterize himself.

He was belligerent and disruptive at trial, typically talking over Dorow to make outlandish arguments. Dorow at instances put Brooks in a separate room, the place he may participate through a monitor and was muted until it was his flip to talk. Brooks was twice despatched to that room Wednesday after speaking over the decide as she demanded he cease.

waukesha parade suv marching band angela o'boyle chen

SUV strikes marching band throughout Wisconsin vacation parade

Brooks’ mom, Daybreak Woods, expressed concern that her son was not able to defending himself and requested the decide to not permit it, WTMJ reported.

“He isn’t steady mentally sufficient to totally perceive the massive mistake he’s making by desirous to characterize himself,” she mentioned, in accordance with WTMJ. “That alone must be sufficient to see he’s not able to being his personal legal professional.”

Brooks had been charged in a home abuse case and was launched from jail on $1,000 bail lower than two weeks earlier than the parade. He was accused of working over a lady who claimed to be the mom of his baby, in accordance with courtroom paperwork. Prosecutors later acknowledged the bail set was “inappropriately low.”

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‘Absolutely Ridiculous’: Democrats Seethe at Schumer for Backing G.O.P. Spending Bill

Published

1 hour ago

March 16, 2025

Press Room

‘Absolutely Ridiculous’: Democrats Seethe at Schumer for Backing G.O.P. Spending Bill

Many Democratic lawmakers continued to express deep frustration at Senator Chuck Schumer on Sunday for having broken with most of his party to allow a Republican spending bill to pass, as the Democratic base increasingly demands stauncher resistance to President Trump’s far-reaching agenda.

Mr. Schumer, a New York Democrat and the Senate minority leader, joined nine other Democrats in allowing the bill to come to a vote, which averted a government shutdown. It was an abrupt reversal from Wednesday, when he said he would oppose the bill.

Explaining his sudden shift in position, Mr. Schumer argued that a shutdown would empower Mr. Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “A shutdown would shut down all government agencies, and it would solely be up to Trump and DOGE and Musk what to open again, because they could determine what was essential,” he told The New York Times in an interview. “So their goal of decimating the whole federal government, of cutting agency after agency after agency, would occur under a shutdown.”

But to critics within his own party, he had squandered the leverage provided by the standoff to negotiate a bipartisan spending bill that would reclaim some of Congress’s power.

“He is absolutely wrong,” Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, told CNN on Sunday. “The idea that Chuck Schumer is the only one that’s got a brain in the room and the only one that can think through all of the pros and cons is absolutely ridiculous.”

The stream of criticism that Mr. Schumer has faced since his vote comes as the Democratic Party is divided on how best to oppose Mr. Trump’s agenda while facing dismal polling numbers. An NBC poll released on Sunday showed that just 27 percent of voters had positive views of the party, while a majority of its base expressed disappointment at the Democrats’ fractured response.

Ms. Crockett has called on her Senate colleagues to consider ousting Mr. Schumer as minority leader, suggesting that “a younger, fresher leadership” is what “many Americans may be looking for.”

Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, told MSNBC that the House minority leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, “got blindsided” by Mr. Schumer. House Democrats — all but one opposed the bill — had voted against giving Mr. Trump “a blank check,” Mr. Clyburn said. On Friday, Mr. Jeffries dodged repeated questions on whether he still supported Mr. Schumer as the leader of Senate Democrats.

Another House Democrat, Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan, was a little more understanding, saying that Mr. Schumer had “sent out mixed signals.” But she stressed that even the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest labor union representing federal workers, whose members would be furloughed during a government shutdown, opposed the stopgap bill.

“People are scared, and they want us to do something,” Ms. Dingell said on CBS. “They want to see Democrats fighting back.”

Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, did not denounce Mr. Schumer but pleaded for a change in tactics and for a more steadfast resistance against the Trump administration.

“The way the president is acting using law enforcement to target dissidents, harassing TV stations and radio stations that criticize him, endorsing political violence, puts our democracy at immediate risk,” Mr. Murphy said on NBC. Over the past few weeks, Mr. Trump has revoked security clearances of lawyers who argued against him, dismantled congressionally funded news agencies and pardoned those convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mr. Murphy added, “If you are a Democrat in the Senate or in the House you have to start acting with urgency.”

Prominent House Democrats, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, had pressed their Senate colleagues to block the bill. But more than a handful of Democratic senators joined Mr. Schumer in helping Republicans bring the bill to a vote: Dick Durbin of Illinois, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, as well as two who have announced plans to retire, Gary Peters of Michigan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Senator Angus King, the Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, also voted yes.

Some Democrats, including Representatives Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Haley Stevens of Michigan, refrained from openly criticizing Mr. Schumer’s shift. They said Democratic infighting after the bill’s passage would only emphasize the divisions within the party. They warned that it would also draw voters’ attention away from Trump trade policies that have dampened the stock market and imbued uncertainty into the broader economy — developments that Democrats said could play to their advantage.

Ashley Etienne, a former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, told CNN that Democrats should not save Mr. Trump and Republicans from themselves. “Get out of the way,” she said. “Donald Trump said he was better for the economy. Let him prove it.”

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US says Trump and Putin to speak in next few days on Russia-Ukraine war

Published

3 hours ago

March 16, 2025

Press Room

US says Trump and Putin to speak in next few days on Russia-Ukraine war

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Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to hold a call about the Russia-Ukraine war in the coming week, a US official said, as Washington seeks to broker a ceasefire deal.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday told CNN he had a “positive” meeting with Putin and that the Russian and Ukrainian parties “are today a lot closer” in negotiations.

“I expect that there’ll be a call with both presidents this week and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians,” he said.

The comments come after the US and its G7 partners on Friday warned Moscow that they could expand sanctions and use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, as Trump seeks to win over Putin to his ceasefire proposal. The joint statement followed a week in which Kyiv signed up to the 30-day truce but Moscow signalled reluctance to do so immediately.

Witkoff told CNN he had witnessed improvements in ceasefire negotiations. The sides were previously “miles apart,” he said.

Following talks in Saudi Arabia led by US national security adviser Mike Waltz and US secretary of state Marco Rubio as well as Witkoff’s “equally positive” meeting with Putin, “we’ve narrowed the differences between them and now we’re sitting at the table,” he added.

The White House and Russia’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The envoy told CBS that negotiations were complex, involving multiple angles and a large swath of territory, including a “main area of confrontation” in the Kursk region, a nuclear reactor supplying electricity to Ukraine and access to ports.

“There’s so many elements to the implementation of a ceasefire here,” Witkoff said, adding that it “involves how to get people to not be fighting with each other over a 2,000 kilometre border”.

He also seemed to dismiss a statement made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who argued that Russia “does not seem to be sincerely seeking peace”.

Witkoff declined to comment on Macron’s remarks, but added: “I think it’s unfortunate when people make those sort of assessments, and they don’t have, necessarily, first-hand knowledge . . . I saw a constructive effort over a long period of time to discuss the specifics of what’s going on in the field”.

Asked when he thinks there will be a deal, Witkoff cited Trump, who has said it would take weeks.

“I don’t disagree with him,” the envoy told CNN.

News

Trump Guts Voice Of America News Agency, Musk Says “Nobody listens to them anymore.”

Published

3 hours ago

March 16, 2025

Press Room

Trump Guts Voice Of America News Agency, Musk Says “Nobody listens to them anymore.”

Voice of America staff were locked out of their offices on Saturday—unable to complete planned reporting—after President Donald Trump signed an executive order gutting the government-run news agency that the White House has referred to as “radical propaganda.”

VOA was founded in 1942 in part to counter Nazi propaganda.

The move impacts all full-time staffers at the VOA and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and Television Martíore, and is poised to have a devastating effect on practically all operations under the United States Agency for Global Media—the parent entity of VOA and the department targeted by Trump’s Friday evening order.

According to the agency, which is fully funded by federal dollars, broadcasters and their sister networks reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week, “often in some of the world’s most restrictive media environments.”

“I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” VOA director Michael Abramowitz wrote in a LinkedIn post. He shared that his entire staff of 1,300 journalists, producers, and assistants had been put on administrative leave, including himself. “Even if the agency survives in some form, the actions being taken today by the Administration will severely damage Voice of America’s ability to foster a world that is safe and free and in doing so is failing to protect U.S. interests,” he said.

A statement released by the White House following the executive order details news coverage by VOA as justification for the defunding, including an article defining white privilege after the murder of George Floyd, a story about whether Russia perpetuated allegations against Hunter Biden to benefit Trump, and a segment on LGBT migrants.

“It’s a relic of the past,” Ric Grenell, Trump’s special envoy for special missions, wrote on X in February. “We don’t need government-paid media outlets.” Trump’s billionaire donor and Department of Government Efficiency advisor Elon Musk wrote on his social media platform: “Yes, shut them down … Nobody listens to them anymore.”

The order, entitled “Continuing the Reduction Of The Federal Bureaucracy,” called for multiple other departments to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Minority Business Development Agency.

In December, Trump announced that Republican Kari Lake, a former news anchor who ran twice for office in Arizona on a MAGA platform and lost both times, was his pick to serve as director of Voice of America—though that didn’t happen. A couple of months later, Trump named her a senior adviser to the USAGM.

On Saturday morning, Lake took to X, shared a link to the executive order, and told employees to check their emails—where they would find news of being terminated.