The Waukesha Christmas Parade Killer has officially been sentenced by a judge to life in prison with no chance at parole for the killing of six people along with the injuring of multiple dozens more after he slammed his SUV into a large crowd attending the Waukesha Christmas parade in the Wisconsin suburb last year.
Jennifer Dorow, the Waukesha County Circuit Judge in question, issued a sentence to the 40-year-old man on over 76 charges, which includes a total of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and 61 counts of reckless endangerment, and each of those homicide counts sporting a mandatory life sentence.
The six victims were identified as Jackson Sparks, 8; Tamara Durand, 52; Jane Kulich, 52; LeAnna Owen, 71; Virginia Sorenson, 79; and Wilhelm Hospel, 81.
“You have absolutely no remorse for anything that you do,” exclaimed Dorrow, as reported by The Associated Press. “You have no empathy for anyone … no one is safe from you.”
The accused slammed his red Ford Escape through a large crowd assembled to take part in the festivities surrounding Waukesha’s annual Christmas parade back on November 21, 2021. As explained by local police forces, the alleged attacker wildly swerved back and forth in a “zigzagging motion” as he made his way through the assembled crowd, highlighting his direct and intentional targeting of innocent lives.
Via the criminal complaint, CNN reported that one officer explained that the defendant looked “directly at him, and it appeared he had no emotion on his face” as he moved in front of the car in an effort to stop the ordeal.
The defendant spoke out in apology to the victims and to the community of Waukesha when he took a period of two hours to speak in court.
“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,” he stated, as reported by The Associated Press. “That you cannot see the remorse that I have.”
The defendant expressed to the judge that he grew up hungry, poor, and with no father in a vermin infest apartment building as he severely struggled to deal with issues regarding his mental health since childhood, and was the victim of physical abuse. Both his grandmother and mother pushed for the man to be put into a mental hospital instead of prison, making the claim that since the age of 12 he had been bipolar.
The judge highlighted opinions and passages coming from four separate evaluations of his mental health from the defendant’s doctors and summed up “that mental health issues did not cause him to do what he did” on that fateful night, “and frankly did not play a role.”
Susan Opper, the Waukesha County District Attorney, expressed to the judge that the defendant should be given the “absolute maximum sentence on all counts, consecutive.”
“You saw the videos,” stated the attorney, as reported by CNN. “This wasn’t him plowing into one large group of fifty people at one time and hitting them — it was linear. He hit one, kept going. Hit two, kept going. Hit three, kept going. All the way down the street. That’s consecutive sentences, your honor.”
The lawyer went on to state that the actions seen were “intentional, willful, volitional conduct that warrants consecutive sentences stacked one on top of the other just as he stacked victims up as he drove down the road in complete disregard for any other person whatsoever.”