Law&Crime Sidebar - Most Powerful Moments from Darrell Brooks' Sentencing Trial

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

Darrell Brooks, the man convicted of killing six people and injuring dozens more at the Waukesha Christmas Parade last year, was sentenced this week to six life sentences plus more than 700 yeas in prison. Family members of the victims spoke tearfully about their loss. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Law&Crime's Executive Producer, Cathy Russon, about the emotional two-day hearing, Brooks' apology and his mother's comments.GUEST:Cathy Russon: twitter.com/cathyrussonLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. views shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. I can honestly say, I have never felt the hatred I do for one person like I do this man. Families, grieving their loved ones, addressed Daryl Brooks, the man who drove his SUV into a Christmas parade killing six people, won a child and injuring dozens more. November 21st

was a day that was supposed to be fun and filled with laughter and smiles. Instead, it became a nightmare full of fear, screams, and tears. Daryl Brooks misbehaving in court again, insulting the D.A. who won his conviction.

I don't believe you're that bright. And Judge Jennifer Doro, throwing the book at Daryl Brooks. He is fueled by anger and rage. Some people unfortunately choose a path of evil. And I think Mr. Brooks, you are one of those such persons. I'm Anjanette Levy, and welcome to Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast, where we are recapping the sentencing hearing of Daryl Brooks. and it was an emotional hearing. Daryl Brooks, of course, is now convicted of killing six people and injuring dozens more at the Waukesha Christmas parade last November. It was just about a year ago,

and it was a tragic, tragic event. And the reason that we had this trial was because of the six people who were killed, one of them being a child. Their names were Virginia Sorensen, Leanna Owen, Tamara Durand, Jane Kulik, William Hospital, and eight-year-old Jackson Sparks. Kathy Russson, is the executive producer of the Law and Crime Network, and she is here with us to talk about what we watched over the last couple of days. Kathy, thanks for coming on. This was a really awful, sad thing to watch after watching this trial that became such a spectacle with Daryl Brooks basically just acting out every other day. I mean, the circus. We could truly say this trial became a circus because of Daryl Brooks. And it all got brought back to where it needed to be

with these victim impact statements. And I have to say, Anjanet, I always think that I'm not really that affected. I've been doing this a long time. I've seen a lot of autopsy photos. I've heard a lot of horrible testimony. I could not stop the tears two days ago. I couldn't stop. I was sitting here in my office and I kept getting teared up because we lost the horrificness of what Daryl Brooks did because of how Daryl Brooks acted in the courtroom. And I think you're right about that. And it became It's such a spectacle, such a circus that people tuned in thinking, what is this guy going to do next? And these people, these victims sat there and they testified and they were questioned by him. And it was like he thought I kind of got the impression that he thought this was his last hurrah. And one of the things that really was strange throughout his trial was the fact that he would say, I don't recognize that name or I don't go by that name or he'd say his name was Dorell Brooks. I mean, people were actually calling him Dorell Brooks. But look at what happened at the beginning of the sentencing hearing when, the parties were asked to introduce themselves. Good morning, Your Honor.

My name is Daryl Brooks, Jr. I'm here for this matter by special appearance. It is not my intention to bring any controversy to you, Your Honor, your court today. I'm wondering how I may settle this matter. So, Kathy, we now have the answer. His name is actually Daryl Brooks. I mean, what do you make of all of us?

that. As a person who has watched trials for many years, we've seen defendants defend themselves, never seen a defendant say, I don't go by that name. I don't acknowledge that name. Now we know he's Daryl Brooks. Well, I've seen a little bit of that because if you have any familiarity with sovereign citizens, that is very standard for them. He claimed to be a sovereign citizen in a pretrial hearing when he fired his attorneys and they have a certain jargon. They don't follow the laws of the states. They're very complicated and also they don't always all follow the same rules as each other. But in part of that, he doesn't recognize the name Daryl Brooks. And so he kept saying he was a third party representative for the person listed on the indictment. I mean, just crazy stuff.

The whole trial, and every time he would object, I object to being called that name. I object to being called that name over and over again. Then he's convicted and we get the first day of sentencing and she says, your appearances for the record. He said, Your Honor, I'm Daryl Brooks. We're like, wait, what? Today he's Daryl Brooks. Yes. And he wanted to know. how he could resolve the matter. And the only way he was going to resolve the matter was going to prison. And before he went to prison formally, we heard from the victim's families, one of them, eight-year-old Jackson Sparks. Let's listen to his mother, Sherry Sparks. She addresses the court and explains what happened and what she went through that day, learning that her son had been

hit and later died. Our family is forever changed. We are hurt, angry, traumatized, and broken. November 21st was a day that was supposed to be fun and filled with laughter and smiles. Instead, it became a nightmare full of fear, screams, and tears. My boys were walking in the Waukesha Christmas parade with their baseball teammates, friends, and coaches. It was a chilly and windy day that day, so we all layered up and prepared to kickstart our holiday season. We met up with our Blazers group, decorated the truck, prepared the buckets of candy and flyers for the boys, took some group photos, and then I left to go find my seat near the end of the parade route and wait for our group while enjoying the parade.

I had no idea then the nightmare that was coming my way, nor did I know that it would be the last time I would hear Jackson's voice and see his smile. I wish I would have known then that the hug he gave me before I went to sit down was the last hug I would ever get from him. I would I've held on to him a lot longer. Kelly Grabo also spoke. Her daughter, Delia, was seriously injured. She also testified at the trial. There are so many times when I close my eyes,

I still see my baby girl laying in the street helpless, not moving, just staring in complete shock, not even recognizing her own grandparents when they came to her side. Seeing that look in her eyes will forever be embedded in my mind. As a parents, we are supposed to be able to protect our children, and that day many of us were reminded of the ugly in this world that no matter what we do there will always be monsters like Dorel Brooks

that are lurking around corners just waiting for a chance to play those parts in our nightmares yet even after causing this much pain and destruction he wasn't even happy with that he didn't stop there he took it upon himself to be his own representation knowing full well he would be given the chance to question us as victims and rip open the wounds once again and show no remorse.

I can tell you, sitting on the stand that day, reliving the horrific events, having him look in my direction, brought up so many memories and emotions of that night. Hearing his voice made me cringe with disgust and anger. He changed our adelae that day. He stole her innocent, happy look on life and replaced it with fear and hate that no child at the now age of 10 should ever feel. Although those feelings are warranted, she was forced that day to see the ugly in this world also.

And her joyous outlook on the holiday season was stolen. I'm not sure if she will ever again attend another parade, let alone a Christmas parade. Kathy, we are both moms hearing these mothers talk about one, her son was murdered, the other her daughter is recovering, but just hearing the pain, that this man has caused them. Really, I don't know, it's cathartic for them. They get to address the court, and that is their right. But the judge, I think, pretty much knew already what she was

going to do with this case. Oh, of course. This is the time. This is the time to finally let these parents say. They've tried not to say what they wanted to say. They didn't want to cause a mistrial. We saw that in the Parkland shooting case as well. These brave parents that have the most terrific thing happened to them. As Jeanette, I say it all the time. It's the one thing I don't think I can recover from is losing a child as a mom. And also, I could not hold back. I don't think I could sit in the courtroom with Darrow Brooks. I think I would have been thrown out of that courtroom. So this is their time to finally say what they wanted to say. And honestly, they did it better than I could have ever done it. I probably would have been the one jumping over and trying to get to him. Yeah, I often think how do

these people get through this. I don't understand how they get through it because I can't imagine losing a child or a loved one to homicide. But these people, they get through it and they carry on. Leanna Owen was a grandmother who was killed and her two sons spoke. Let's listen to Matt Owens. He spoke to the court and had some choice words for Daryl Brooks. On November 21st, you killed my mother.

And in this courtroom, I watched you run her down and her broken body slide across a concrete. This woman loved and she was loved. You ran her down like she was. nothing. And since that day you have shown no remorse, you'd offered no explanation for your atrocities. It offends me that you're sitting here breathing while she is not. You are a monster. You deserve contempt and death. Sadly, with no death penalty in this state, I can only hope they lock you away someplace so deep the rats chewing your fingers at night. As for me,

this will never be over until the day I'm pissing on your grave. I think it would be fair to say that for your crimes, even God hates you. Kathy, I wonder what you make of that whole thing at the end where he padded his chest and then Daryl Brooks did it back. I mean, it almost felt like he was mocking this man. Well, this is why. So earlier in the day, Darrell Brooks kept doing this as people were talking and he was rubbing his chest.

It was all very weird and deliberate. So at first it's almost like, you know, you see people pound their chest and then thank God, you know, you see athletes do that a lot, that kind of, at first you think he's doing that, but then he's rubbing his chest, then you think he's trying to soothe himself. Like, you couldn't make sense of why the chest thing. So these, these guys picked up on that. So when it was his turn to speak, he's like, you know, every time. And so he did it, he did it mocking Daryl Brooks. He did this. And so after that, Daryl Brooks did it even more the rest of the day. The guy has no conscious at all, none. It was so sickening when I saw him do that. I was taken aback.

But I've been taken aback so many times watching this case. It's hard for. me to see how he could do anything more egregious or anything worse. I love something else. I'm sorry, I'll say something else about those sons that spoke. I love their, both their comments. During the trial, part of the sovereign citizen thing is they want the state of Wisconsin. The state of Wisconsin is the person that charged him. He wanted the state of Wisconsin to get on the stand. And he kept saying, who is the plaintiff? Who is the plaintiff? There is no plaintiff. He used that word over and over again. One of those sons got up and said, I am the plaintiff. And then more followed after that.

And that was some great moments for me in the courtroom. They're like, Daryl Brooks, look at me. I'm the plaintiff. I'm the victim in this. What I find interesting about that, too, is when I was sitting in the courtroom, listening to him say that the couple of days I was up there, I thought to myself, the state of Wisconsin is made up of the people. So the state of Wisconsin is like the D.A. is in there representing the people of the state

of Wisconsin. So it just never made any sense to me, but I digress. One man got so upset about Daryl. Brooks kind of arguing with the judge the other day that he had to be removed from the courtroom. Take a listen. I'm not. I'm not attempting to cause a controversy. I just wanted to know that once again trying to derail what's happening. And you always talk about somebody trying to derail something as if that that was the plan. Like somebody coming here to derail something.

Mr. Brooks, I'm advising you to be quieter. I will clear this courtroom. And under Illinois versus Allen, you will lose your right to be present while the remainder of these individuals give their statements. Okay. Well, come on with it. Once they start, I expect you to be quiet. Come on with it, because that's what you've been waiting to do the whole time. Listen up, and this much she has to say. All right. God.

Sir, you're going to have to be removed. I'm sorry. I can't tolerate that from anyone. So, Kathy, you and I know, it doesn't matter. Even if Daryl Brooks is making a complete fool of himself, you can't have an outburst in the courtroom. The judge removed this gentleman, even though he was upset. She still can't have that going on in her courtroom. Okay.

well, look, I disagreed with this. And I have, I have, I, I'm not happy about this at all. And I'll tell you why. I do understand that. I do understand in courtrooms around the country, you're going to get immediately ejected if you shout out like that, right? But I won't say, I won't say immediately because sometimes that doesn't happen. But in this case, this, these family members have had to put up with his clowning in that courtroom forever. And they have watched her not throw him out and let him scream at her, talk back at her, basically threaten her, stare her down, and she waits forever to throw him out because she's trying to preserve the rights and she's trying to not get this case overturned. I get all that. There was no jury present. There was no jury present. And you let that

that dad was mad that Darrell Brooks was speaking to the judge the way he was and that she was, he was interrupting the DA. So he said, shut up and listen to her, right? I believe in that instance, judge Dorrell could have said that's it no more one more outburst and i'll have you removed i do not believe she needed to remove him there was no jury there and they had been through weeks of watching darrell brooks do whatever he wanted in that courtroom so i was not happy with that i loved judge dorrell through this most of this trial and she has the patience of a saint a saint but i was not happy with that i thought she should have let him stay in and just giving him a warning i think you're probably right about that but maybe she was just trying to keep it from turning into a thing where other people fed off of it

and she didn't want other people jumping up. I don't know. Let me just say one more thing about that. Yes, go ahead. Immediately she ejects him, okay? And then Daryl Brooks is still going off on a complete tirade. And it takes her a few minutes to eject Daryl Brooks. And they were back to back. Now, I will just say that after the break, after she removed Daryl Brooks, whatever, she did let the man come back yet. So at least that happened. Yeah. And I think we can all understand this man's anger and the cursing. I mean, come on. I was there for two days. And after about hour three of hearing him say grounds every time the prosecution objected, I was like, get me out of here. I mean, I felt for those families, I would look over. And they were sobbing in the courtroom. And he's kind of making a mockery of the whole proceeding. Don Woods is Daryl Brooks's mother. And Daryl Brooks had actually said he had a long list of people who were going to speak on his behalf. but it ended up only being his mother, Don Woods, and his grandmother. And his mother, Dawn, talked about how Daryl Brooks has mental illness. Mental illness cannot be eradicated with prison virus.

Mental illness is going to always be there. It's invasive. With treatment and therapy, medication, and hospitals and institutions that specialize in the treatment, of mental illness, it can be controlled. What else can we do as a society to help those who suffer from mental illness? How about showing a little compassion, empathy? Kathy, I thought this was interesting because she's talking about the need for empathy and for lawmakers to act.

But Daryl Brooks doesn't appear to have any empathy. So I think it's hard for these people to have empathy for someone, even if they have some mental health issues such as personality disorders. But this guy doesn't show any genuine remorse. How can anybody have empathy for him? Look, I'm a mom. And so people when they see these trials, watch these trials, a lot of people get angry that the moms or the dads will get up there and defend the monster, really, because Daryl Brooks

really is a monster. but I'm a mom. I'm not going to defend my child's bad acts. I'm going to want them to pay. There's consequences for all actions. I believe that. But I can't, I'm just not going to go at her. I'm just not going to go at her about that. This is his mother. She does believe he's mentally ill. And as a mom, by the way, you're going to need to believe that this person that you raised, right, that you're responsible for turned out to be such a monster. You're going to need to fully buy into the fact that mental health, mental illness is involved in this. So, I sort of give her a pass on that. And I will say it was his mom, his grandma, and then a best friend also from Nevada. He actually had three people. He started out with more than 20 and we whittled down to three. Right, right. And I do feel badly for Don Woods. I saw her on the news up there. And I felt badly watching her speak like this to the court. She loves her son. She wants what's best for him. But I just think maybe that was not possibly the right place for that message. I don't know because there are just so many people who've been impacted by this. Judge Doro ended up removing Daryl Brooks. Of course, he couldn't contain himself and he started

arguing with her yet again. So let's take a look. As a your honor, as a public survey, I have the right to ask questions of your honor. I'm going to ask you one more time. And if you refuse to sit down, then you are in direct disobedience of a court order. Sit down and be quiet so I can make the appropriate record. Can you tell me what the, um, the court order is? He's not going to obey. He's now forfeiting his right to be present. He will go into the other courtroom. I didn't say I wasn't going to obey.

We'll be in recess until he's there. Kathy, did you ever think that Daryl Brooks would make it through this sentencing hearing without being ejected from the courtroom? Absolutely 100%. No, of course he was going to get ejected. But here's this guy who had just spent two full hours giving his own comments to the judge that were, it was painful to listen to. I stopped reporting about it on Twitter. and just started almost being comedic relief on Twitter because it was so ridiculous. But all of that theme of him was he's taking the high road.

These victims had the right to say what they did, like a totally different person, reminding the day before when the victims were speaking, he was rolling his eyes, smirking, laughing. I thought his eyes would roll back at his head at some point. Now, when he's speaking, he's just, he's a man of, he testified of Jesus Christ. He testified about, and that he said that he is repentant. All this stuff, right? And then fast forward a few minutes. And that's what he does because he cannot control himself. I kept set it all along. People are like, why do you think he did what he did? I said he got in a fight with his girlfriend and he has no impulse control. Daryl Brooks does what Daryl Brooks wants to do. He can't control

his anger and he just does what he wants to do. And that was a perfect example. He can flip on a dime like that as soon as he's not getting what he wants. He's very childlike. Yeah, very much so. Well, let's take a look at some of those comments from the two hours. We're not going to watch two hours. of comments from Daryl Brooks, but let's take a look at a little bit of what he said about the victims in this case. I want each and every victim in this incident, family members, those who lost loved ones, those who are still healing, I want you to know that no matter how you felt during this this year, no matter how you felt yesterday, I want everyone to know also the community of Waukeshaw. I want you to know that.

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 listen to all the phone calls that I've made to my family. That you cannot hear all the prayers that I've said in myself, that you cannot count all the tears that I've dropped.

Kathy, what struck me about this was the fact that Daryl Brooks made this all about himself and the tears that he has cried and things like that. So obviously, we knew the judge was going to throw the book at him. She was not going to show any leniency with the sentencing. Your thoughts on his comments right there, just talking about all of the tears that he has shed. Well, look, we kept waiting for the apology, right? And even when his grandmother's spoke. She spoke right to him and said, you need to take responsibility. You need to apologize today. So it kept waiting for it. So all of a sudden he said, I apologize basically for what happened that day, not for what I did. And then that was it. That two seconds was it. And the rest of the two hours

was me, me, me, I, I, I, poor Daryl Brooks, poor me, poor me, this is why I, this is what's happened to me. That's the whole thing for two hours. It was all about him. And I didn't see a tear, by the way. So he kept acting like he was crying. And, you know, the joke was he kept staring at the ceiling. We're like, as he's staring at the lights to try and bring tears to his eyes, this guy is just unbelievable. Just unbelievable. He really is. And I think Judge Jennifer Doro, who you said has the patience of a saint, believes the same that he's unbelievable. And she doesn't believe he's mentally ill. Listen to what she said before sentencing him. You know, in addition, before I get to that, I've also had over my 11 years on the bench of coming face-to-face with evil on occasion.

There are many times, many times good people do bad things, but there are times when evil people do bad things. There is no medication or treatment for a heart that is bent on evil. child trauma, bipolar, indifference, physical abuse of a child, or even childhood trauma did not cause Daryl Brooks to commit the acts for which he will be sentenced here today. It is very clear to this court that he understands the difference between right and wrong and that he simply chooses to ignore his conscience. He is fueled by anger and rage.

Some people unfortunately choose a path of evil. And I think Mr. Brooks, you are one of those such persons. As a mom, my heart breaks for your family, for your mom and for your grandmother. The son that she raised, the grandson that your grandmother knew, the hopes and dreams they had for your life, they're gone. And I think it's perhaps far easier for them to blame a mental illness than to perhaps come to grips with their son did

very, very bad things due to very bad motivations. She's been really commended Kathy, Judge Doro for her restraint in this case. And it did seem like she allowed him to do a lot that was kind of crazy. I mean, she kind of had the penalty box, the extra courtroom. But she doesn't believe he's mentally ill. She said she thinks he's evil. Well, look, she had four evaluations done on this guy. Early on, he pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect, which is not guilty by reason of insanity. And when that happens, the judge needs to order evaluations. He had four in four different evaluations. All of them came back saying he knows right from wrong, that to that. He had personality disorders at best. So she, she started out, I was applauding. I was sitting here in my office applauding

her by saying mental illness did not contribute to what happened that day you darrell brooks chose the path of evil and that is what happened that day and he couldn't believe it you know she's been treating him with kit gloves this entire trial just trying to get through the trial make sure there's nothing overturned right and i think in darrell brook's head he thinks she likes him because during also parts of the trial he almost acted like he was flirting with her he'd go judge judge durham the just the god, this guy, this guy is so creepy. So I think he thought that. And then when she started saying what she really thought about him, his face, he was like cocking his ear like this. Like, what is she saying right now? Said exactly what we have all known. And I'm glad that she said it.

You did not do this because you were mentally ill. You did this because you chose a path of evil. Daryl Brooks certainly thinks that he's a charmer. But we'll see if that charm works for him in prison, because that's where he is going now. Six life sentences. and plus 700 years, so he is never going to see the light of day again. Kathy Russon, executive producer of the Law and Crime Network, thank you so much for coming on and giving us your insight and your thoughts. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. It is produced by Sam Goldberg and Logan Harris. Bobby Zoki is our YouTube manager. Alyssa Fisher is our booking producer, and Kiera Bronson handles our social media. You can download and listen to Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google and wherever else you get your podcast. And of course, you can watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel anytime.

I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and we will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this Law and Crime series. Add free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.