Wisconsin Man Guilty of 76 Counts in Deadly Waukesha Christmas Parade Tragedy

A Wisconsin man accused of killing six people and injuring many others by driving an SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha last year has been found guilty of dozens of counts against him, including six of first-degree intentional homicide. The homicide charges each carry with them a mandatory life sentence.

Darrell Brooks faced 76 charges in the carnage last November in Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb. He was found guilty on all counts by a jury Tuesday.

Prosecutors allege Brooks got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend on the streets of Waukesha as the parade was starting Nov. 21, fled in his SUV and drove it into the parade.

Six people were killed, including 8-year-old Jackson Sparks, who was marching in the parade with his baseball team, and three members of the Dancing Grannies, a group of grandmothers that dances in parades. Dozens of other people were hurt, some severely.

In addition to the homicide counts, Brooks faced 61 counts of reckless endangerment. Each reckless endangerment count carried a maximum sentence of 17 1/2 years in prison.

The jury got the case Tuesday and deliberated for a total of 3 hours and 15 minutes into Wednesday morning before announcing they had reached a verdict.

As a verdict was read in court, someone was forced to leave the courtroom after an outburst that involved shouting at Brooks he should "burn in hell."

Brooks initially pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease but withdrew the plea in September without explanation. Just days before his trial began Oct. 3, he dismissed his public defenders and elected to represent himself.

Brooks struggled to mount a defense, launching into meandering cross-examinations, refusing to recognize his own name or the court's jurisdiction over him and muttering under his breath that the trial wasn't fair.

He got into such intense arguments with Judge Jennifer Dorow that several times during the lead-up to jury selection she moved him into another courtroom where he could watch the proceedings via video and she could mute his microphone when he became disruptive.

Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper focused on Brooks' intent during her closing arguments as Brooks' monthlong trial wound down Tuesday. His failure to stop after hitting the first person in the parade shows he intended to kill people, she said.

“Just stop driving. That’s it. It’s really that simple. Not one person had to be hurt that day if he would have just stopped driving,” Opper said. “He plowed through 68 different people. Sixty-eight. How can you hit one and keep going? How can you hit two and keep going? How can you hit three and keep going? It didn’t faze him a bit. He kept going until he got to the end and there were no more bodies to hit.”

She noted, too, that he abandoned the SUV at the end of the parade and tried to change his appearance by shedding his sweatshirt and sandals. She showed the jury several still photographs of Brooks behind the wheel of the SUV in the parade wearing the sweatshirt. She also noted police found the key to the SUV in his pocket.

She concluded her remarks by playing a video of what she said was “the carnage” Brooks caused in the parade.

The livestream The Associated Press has been using to view the trial proceedings did not pan to the video, but Judge Jennifer Dorow appeared to wince at one point while viewing it, and Deputy District Attorney Lesli Boese appeared to choke back tears.

Brooks watched and listened to Opper's closings from the other room. He objected several times to her statements, arguing that she can't know what his intent was. Dorow overruled him each time.

Dorow allowed Brooks back into the main courtroom to deliver his closing to jurors face to face. In a rambling, repetitive speech, he tried to raise doubts about whether the SUV's throttle malfunctioned and whether the driver simply panicked. He lamented how he hasn't been able to see his children since he was arrested and insisted he's not a murderer.