A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison.
US district judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts.
“It’s clear to me that you engaged in a premeditated, calculated plot to take a human life,” Cannon said.
She added: “Your plot to kill was deliberate and evil. You are not a peaceful man. You are not a good man.”
Routh also received a consecutive seven-year sentence for one of his gun convictions.
Shackled at the hands and wearing beige prison garb, Routh gave a rambling address in court 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.
Cannon broke in and said none of what he was saying was relevant, and gave him five more minutes to talk.
Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the then Republican presidential candidate played golf on 15 September 2024 at his West Palm Beach country club.
At Routh’s trial, a Secret Service agent assigned to protect Trump on the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and run away without firing a shot.
Cannon’s courtroom erupted into chaos in September shortly after jurors found Routh guilty on all counts, including attempting to kill a presidential candidate and several firearm-related charges. Routh tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen, and officers quickly dragged him out.
Routh’s sentencing had initially been scheduled for December, but Cannon agreed to move the date back after Routh decided to use an attorney during the sentencing phase instead of representing himself as he did for most of the trial.
Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum filed last month that Routh has yet to accept any responsibility for his actions and that he should spend the rest of his life in prison, in accordance with federal sentencing guidelines.
“Routh remains unrepentant for his crimes, never apologized for the lives he put at risk, and his life demonstrates near-total disregard for law,” the memo said.
That point was again made before Cannon’s sentencing. “American democracy does not work when individuals take it into their own hands to eliminate candidates. That’s what this individual tried to do,” assistant US attorney John Shipley told the judge.
Routh’s defense attorney, Martin L Roth, had asked the judge for a variance from sentencing guidelines: 20 years in prison on top of a seven-year, mandatory sentence for one of the gun convictions.
“The defendant is two weeks short of being sixty years old,” Roth wrote in a filing. “A just punishment would provide a sentence long enough to impose sufficient but not excessive punishment, and to allow defendant to experience freedom again as opposed to dying in prison.”
At his sentencing, Roth argued that “at the moment of truth, he chose not to pull the trigger”. But Cannon pushed back, noting Routh’s history of arrests, to which Roth replied: “He’s a complex person, I’ll give the court that, but he has a very good core.”
Routh’s attempt on Trump’s life came just nine weeks after the then presidential candidate narrowly survived an attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. There, Thomas Crooks, 20, fired eight shots at Trump, with one bullet grazing his ear, Crooks was then shot dead by Secret Service countersnipers.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting
