Man found guilty of homicide in Christmas parade SUV attack in Wisconsin (2024)

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 court records. “Bail jumping” refers to when a person intentionally fails to comply with the terms of their bond.

Each homicide count carries a mandatory life sentence, while each of his 61 counts of reckless endangerment carries a maximum sentence of 17 and a half years in prison.

Marshall Sorenson, son of 79-year-old victim Virginia “Ginny” Sorenson, said his 5-year-old daughter handed him a necklace with a small container holding some of his mother’s ashes and told him to bring it to the sentencing.

“She was here today,” Sorenson said of his mother at a news conference Wednesday with the district attorney and survivors and victims’ family members.

Tyler Pudleiner, a band member still healing from the attack, said justice had been served.

“We’re stronger than him, and it’s been proven today,” he said at the news conference.

The mayor and city administrator declined an interview with The Washington Post, but a city representative sent a statement that began: “Over the past several weeks, many in our community have had to re-live the trauma of last year’s Christmas Parade tragedy. We know the pain and horror that this has brought for so many. Today, we are glad that the trial is over and that justice will be served for all those impacted by this tragedy.”

The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.

As the judge 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 judge read the verdicts on the 70 other charges.

Brooks represented himself, leading to a series of 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, at times refused to answer to his own name and accused prosecutors and Dorow of being “slick” with evidence and rules of procedure.

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 to stand trial, essentially forced his public defenders to withdraw less than two weeks before the trial after telling them he wished to represent himself. He told Dorow he understood he was forfeiting legal expertise by choosing to act as his own counsel.

During trial, Brooks repeatedly challenged the state’s jurisdiction over him and questioned witnesses who testified for the prosecution about their relationship to the state. Rather than put forth an alternate theory of the case, he returned to the defense that he is a “sovereign citizen.”

Waukesha District Attorney Sue Opper said Brooks representing himself did change their legal strategy because it forced them to ensure the record of events and procedure was perfect.

She said he can make a mistake and get a new trial, but they have to deal with the repercussions.

“He did everything he [could] except claim that the dog ate his homework, and he tried to turn this into his story,” she said at the news conference.

Opper said that before calling up witnesses, her team would discuss every night whether it was absolutely needed for them to testify, and therefore face cross-examination by Brooks.

“We were so, again, not personally offended, but professionally offended that he would insult the process and insult the victims, accuse them of financial gain for their testimony,” she said. “It was just so offensive, that we were conscious of that in our decision-making and how can we minimize this for the best of everyone by still provide a compelling story.”

Asked about the chances of an appeal, she said: “I fully expect him to take advantage of his rights as a convicted defendant in this case,” before immediately adding that “I am very confident in the record that Judge Dorow made and his decision to represent himself.”

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. By waiving the right to an attorney, defendants who wish to represent themselves accept something of a “buyer beware” warning, according to Julius Kim, a Wisconsin-based criminal law expert who closely followed the Brooks case.

“The record was pretty clear he was made aware of all those risks,” Kim said Wednesday. “In the trial, if he realizes midstream he’s in over his head, that could be a situation where a Court of Appeals says, ‘Well, you kind of made your bed.’ ”

A potential path for an appeal, while still narrow, rests on whether Brooks was actually competent to serve as his own counsel. In Wisconsin, defendants may be evaluated both for competency in standing trial and in acting as their own defense, Kim said. A judge has discretion as to whether they order a separate evaluation of a defendant’s competency to represent themselves or rely on previous relevant examinations, which in Brooks’s case were made in relation to an insanity plea entered earlier in the case and later dropped.

“The judge was in her right to make a decision based on circ*mstantial evidence that Mr. Brooks was competent to represent himself,” Kim said. “But an appeals court may question not whether he was in over his head, but if it became apparent to the judge that he was suffering from mental deficiencies that made him unable to effectively communicate with the judge and the jury.”

Kim praised Dorow’s management of the case but called it “frustrating” to see Brooks argue with her.

“He didn’t realize how lucky he was to have Judge Dorow on his case,” Kim said, noting Dorow not only served as an assistant prosecutor in Waukesha County but also has experience in criminal defense, previously in private practice.

Dorow determined that the next hearing in the case would be Monday to discuss scheduling for a sentencing hearing.

In a break with nearly 60 years of tradition, Waukesha’s Christmas Parade will take place two Sundays after Thanksgiving, Dec. 4, rather than before, according to the city and the Waukesha Chamber of Commerce.

“However, this year we must consider lessons learned as we move forward from last year’s tragic event,” the city’s website says. The parade route will now be a “closed perimeter-based route.”

The city has also changed the special-event permitting process and used federal funds on “technology, training and equipment to provide enhanced safety for special events while allowing events such as the parade to continue.”