FORT PIERCE, Florida, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Ryan Routh, a man accused of hiding in the bushes of a Florida golf course with a semi-automatic rifle to try to assassinate Donald Trump less than two months before the 2024 U.S. election that returned him to the presidency, was sentenced by a judge on Wednesday to life in prison.
Routh, 59, was convicted by a jury last September of five criminal counts, including attempted assassination after serving as his own defense lawyer at trial. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon handed down the sentence in Fort Pierce, Florida.
“It’s clear to me that you engaged in a premeditated, calculated plot to take a human life,” Cannon said.
Prosecutors had recommended a life sentence while Routh had asked the judge, a Trump appointee, to impose a 27-year term.
Prosecutor John Shipley said during the hearing that Routh’s crimes were aimed at “upending American democracy” and urged Cannon to send a message that political violence is unacceptable.
ROUTH DENIED TRYING TO KILL TRUMP
Shackled at the hands and wearing beige prison garb, Routh gave a rambling address focused on foreign wars and his desire to be exchanged with political prisoners abroad.
“I have given every drop of who I am every day for the betterment of my community and this nation,” Routh said.
Prosecutors said in a court filing that Routh’s crimes “undeniably warrant a life sentence” because he had plotted the assassination for months, was willing to kill anybody who got in the way and has expressed neither regret nor remorse.
In a court filing, Routh denied he intended to kill Trump, and said he was willing to undergo psychological treatment for a personality disorder in prison. Routh suggested jurors were misled about the facts of the case by his inability to mount a proper legal defense at trial.
Routh, who at the time of his arrest had resided most recently in Hawaii after previously living in North Carolina, also was convicted of three illegal firearm possession charges and one count of impeding a federal officer during his arrest.
Secret Service agents spotted Routh hiding in bushes a few hundred yards from where Trump was golfing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on September 15, 2024. Routh fled the scene and left behind an assault-style rifle but was later arrested.
SECOND ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
The incident occurred two months after a bullet fired by a gunman grazed Trump’s ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Both incidents came in the runup to the November 2024 election in which Trump regained the presidency after being defeated four years earlier by Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump, a Republican, turned the attempted assassinations into a campaign issue, saying the U.S. Justice Department under Biden could not be trusted with investigations.
Prosecutors said Routh arrived in South Florida about a month before the incident, staying at a truck stop and tracking Trump’s movements and schedule.
Routh carried six cellphones and used fake names to conceal his identity, according to trial evidence, and prosecutors said he lay in wait in thick bushes for nearly 10 hours on the day of the incident. Investigators on the scene found the assault-style rifle, two bags containing body armor-like metal plates and a video camera pointed at the golf course.
Routh pleaded not guilty in the case but fired his lawyers and opted to represent himself at trial despite lacking any formal legal training.
His meandering opening statement touched on topics including the origin of the human species and the settlement of the American West before he was cut off by Cannon, who warned him against making a mockery of the courtroom. Routh’s defense strategy focused on what he described as his nonviolent nature, but he offered little pushback as a parade of law enforcement witnesses detailed the evidence in the case.
Shipley told jurors that Routh’s plot was “carefully crafted and deadly serious,” adding that without the Secret Service’s intervention, “Donald Trump would not be alive.”
After the jury read the verdict, Routh appeared to try to stab himself with a pen several times and had to be restrained by U.S. marshals. His daughter yelled in court that her father had not hurt anyone and that she would get him out of prison.
Trump lauded the verdict in a post on his Truth Social site, writing, “This was an evil man with an evil intention, and they caught him.”
(Reporting by Jack Queen in Fort Pierce, FloridaEditing by Rod Nickel)
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