Jury convicts Routh of trying to assassinate Trump. He then tries to stab himself with pen.
Routh told jurors it was not in his "heart" to kill the then-GOP presidential nominee. Prosecutors said the only reason Routh chambered a round in the rifle was precisely to shoot at Trump.
Hannah PhillipsFORT PIERCE — Minutes after jurors convicted him of trying to assassinate Donald Trump, Ryan Wesley Routh tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen.
The jury of five men and seven women was filing out of the courtroom on Sept. 23 when Routh, unshackled, grabbed a pen from a desk and thrust it toward himself. U.S. Marshals tackled the North Carolina man and dragged him from the courtroom. As they did, his daughter, Sara, pleaded with her father not to hurt himself.
"Dad, I love you!" she screamed from the back of the courtroom. "I'll get you out. He didn't hurt anybody!"
Bailiffs later returned Routh to the courtroom in handcuffs to finish the proceedings. There was no blood visible on his white shirt. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered him to return to court for sentencing on Dec. 18.
In addition to the attempted assassination charge, jurors found Routh guilty of assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime, possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The first charge alone carries a potential life sentence.
The verdict concludes a nearly two-week trial in which prosecutors called upon 38 witnesses to testify about what they described as Routh's "deadly serious" plot to kill Trump. Routh called only three witnesses, including a firearms expert and two longtime acquaintances who described him as kind and nonviolent.
Though Routh declined to testify himself, prosecutors often used his own words to build their case against him. They read aloud excerpts from his private writings, text messages and internet search history, all of which portrayed a man intent on stopping voters from choosing Trump to be president a second time.
"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of the government," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley, quoting Thomas Jefferson. "Not one man with some weird agenda and a gun."
Routh to jurors: Shooting Trump 'was never going to happen'
What prosecutors described as a narrowly averted assassination attempt, Routh suggested was nothing more than peaceful protest.
"To merely have a weapon in the presence of another is not intent," said Routh, who represented himself in the case.
Often referring to himself in the third person, Routh said the license plates he stole, the burner phones he used, the aliases he created, the semiautomatic rifle he bought, the bullet he chambered and the sniper's hide he pitched in the bushes at Trump International Golf Club were all for nothing.
"It was never going to happen," he said. "It was not in the defendant's heart."
Routh urged jurors to find him not guilty of all charges, arguing that he was incapable of pulling the trigger and therefore never intended to kill Trump. He compared his cross-country journey to West Palm Beach, as well as the reconnaissance he conducted and steps he took to cover his tracks, to a lovestruck man who appears at the home of his best friend's wife but can't bring himself to knock on the door.
"The individual could not pull the trigger," Routh said. "That's the whole of it."
Prosecutors: 'No reason to chamber' bullet unless you're going to shoot
Prosecutors reminded jurors during their own closing argument that neither Routh's purported incapability nor his decision to abandon the plan is a legal defense for attempted assassination. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley maintained that Routh was both capable of and willing to pull the trigger, but was foiled by a U.S. Secret Service agent who stumbled upon his hiding spot before Trump came into his line of sight.
"There is no reason to chamber a round unless you're going to shoot," the prosecutor said.
Jurors deliberated for about two hours and 20 minutes before reaching their verdict. Afterward, Routh's daughter waited in the rain outside the Fort Pierce federal courthouse for her father to leave in the back of a U.S. Marshals' car.
She chased the SUV as it pulled away, screaming and weeping: "I love you, dad! Dad, I love you!"
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected].