FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A person convicted of making an attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced Wednesday to life in jail.
U.S. District Choose Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s destiny in the identical Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors discovered him responsible on all counts.
Prosecutors had requested for all times with out parole, saying Routh is unrepentant and has by no means apologized. A protection legal professional introduced in for his sentencing requested for 27 years, noting that Routh is already turning 60.
Routh additionally obtained a consecutive seven-year sentence for considered one of his gun convictions.
Routh’s sentencing had initially been scheduled for December, however Cannon agreed to maneuver the date again after Routh determined to make use of an legal professional through the sentencing section as a substitute of representing himself as he did for many of the trial.
Prosecutors mentioned in a sentencing memorandum that Routh has but to simply accept any duty and will spend the remainder of his life in jail, in accordance with federal sentencing pointers. He was convicted of making an attempt to assassinate a significant presidential candidate, utilizing a firearm in furtherance of a criminal offense, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm as a felon and utilizing a gun with a defaced serial quantity.
“Routh stays unrepentant for his crimes, by no means apologized for the lives he put in danger, and his life demonstrates near-total disregard for legislation,” the memo mentioned.
Routh’s new protection legal professional, Martin L. Roth, requested for a variance from sentencing pointers: 20 years in jail on high of a seven-year, necessary sentence for one of many gun convictions.
“The defendant is 2 weeks wanting being sixty years previous,” Roth wrote in a submitting. “A simply punishment would offer a sentence lengthy sufficient to impose adequate however not extreme punishment, and to permit defendant to expertise freedom once more versus dying in jail.”
Prosecutors mentioned Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump earlier than aiming a rifle by way of shrubbery because the Republican presidential candidate performed golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Seaside nation membership.
At Routh’s trial, a Secret Service agent serving to shield Trump on the golf course testified that he noticed Routh earlier than Trump got here into view. Routh aimed his rifle on the agent, who opened hearth, inflicting Routh to drop his weapon and run away with out firing a shot.
Within the movement requesting an legal professional, Routh supplied to commerce his life in a prisoner swap with individuals unjustly held in different nations, and mentioned a proposal nonetheless stood for Trump to “take out his frustrations on my face.”
“Only a quarter of an inch additional again and all of us wouldn’t should take care of all of this mess forwards, however I at all times fail at all the pieces (par for the course),” Routh wrote.
In her resolution granting Routh an legal professional, Cannon chastised the “disrespectful charade” of Routh’s movement, saying it made a mockery of the proceedings. However the choose, nominated by Trump in 2020, mentioned she needed to err on the facet of authorized illustration.
Cannon signed off final summer time on Routh’s request to characterize himself at trial. The U.S. Supreme Courtroom has held that felony defendants have the suitable to characterize themselves in court docket proceedings, so long as they’ll present a choose they’re competent to waive their proper to be defended by an legal professional.
Routh’s former federal public defenders served as standby counsel and have been current through the trial.
Routh had a number of earlier felony convictions together with possession of stolen items, and a big on-line footprint demonstrating his disdain for Trump. In a self-published e book, he inspired Iran to assassinate him, and at one level wrote that as a Trump voter, he should take a part of the blame for electing him.