Darrell Brooks, the Wisconsin man who drove his SUV into a crowd during a Christmas parade in Waukesha last year, has been given a life sentence for each person whose life he took—plus an additional 700 years.
MILWAUKEE, — Darrell Brooks will be in the Milwaukee County Courthouse Thursday for a final pre-trial hearing on several Milwaukee charges. This, just one day after finishing sentencing in Waukesha.
Brooks was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday in connection to the Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy.
Judge Jennifer Dorow sentenced him to six lifetimes in prison, one for each of the victims he killed during the parade attack. He was also charged with 17.5 years in prison for each of the 61counts of recklessly endangering safety.
While Brooks’ proceedings in Waukesha County have wrapped up, his time in a courthouse has not. In Milwaukee County, Brooks has three open cases, all of which have final pre-trial hearings today.
One of the open cases is for a 2020 incident, in which he is facing two 2nd-degree recklessly endangering safety charges and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon charge.
The second case is from a November 2021 incident, in which Brooks is accused of running a woman over with his car. He was out on a $1,000 bond for that incident when, three weeks later, he drove his SUV through the Waukesha parade.
In this case, Brooks is charged with resisting or obstructing an officer, felony bail jumping, 2nd-degree recklessly endangering safety, disorderly conduct, and battery.
Finally, Brooks will have a final pre-trial hearing for a third incident that happened on Dec. 6, 2021. According to a criminal complaint, Brooks contacted the female victim involved in the November incident, in violation of his bond agreement.
During the call, they discussed law enforcement’s request for her to consent to access her medical records in order to establish the injuries she suffered after she was run over, the complaint states.
Brooks called the woman a number of other times in the following days, as well as his mother.
The woman met with DA’s office investigators and confirmed that Brooks had called her, told her he loved her and made her feel guilty that he was in jail. She also told them Brooks made her feel afraid of him because he threatened her safety and security. She said Brooks knows people in Milwaukee who could threaten her safety.
That incident resulted in the following charges: intimidate a victim and threaten force, intimidate a witness, and felony bail jumping.
The jury found Brooks, who defended himself in court last month, guilty on all 76 counts stemming from the attack, according to CNN. Brooks also sat through two days of emotional statements from victims and family members of the slain before Judge Jennifer Dorow imposed the sentence which runs consecutively—meaning the 40-year-old will never see the outside of prison.
Brooks was also charged with 61 counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety with the use of a dangerous weapon. This was in addition to the six counts of first-degree intentional homicide with the use of a dangerous weapon charges.
“You have absolutely no remorse for anything that you do. You have no empathy for anyone,” Judge Dorow said. “Frankly, Mr. Brooks, no one is safe from you.”
As he continued to explain his actions, Brooks again addressed the court—this time for two hours, saying, in part, “The why, the how,” Brooks said. “How could life ever get this far away from what it should be? Regardless of what a lot of people may think about me, about who I am, about my family, about my beliefs, I know who I am. God knows who I am, and I don’t have any words of anger.”
He launched attacks at the Waukesha County District Attorney and others. Meanwhile, his grandmother Mary Edwards said, per CNN, that she hoped he would “sincerely and humbly apologize,” and offered her own apology.
Brooks did tell the court, “I want you to know not only am I sorry for what happened, I’m sorry that you could not see what’s truly in my heart, that you cannot see the remorse that I have. That you cannot count all the tears that I have dropped in this year.”