In September of last year Ryan Routh attempted to kill President Donald Trump on a golf course in Florida he was found guilty. Routh 59 was convicted by a jury of all charges including a number of firearm offenses and the attempted assassination of a prominent presidential candidate. About 15 minutes from his Mar-a-Lago home on September 15 2024 Trump who was then a presidential candidate was playing golf on a course he owns in West Palm Beach. The man holding the rifle, later identified as Routh, was shot by a US Secret Service agent who saw the barrel sticking out of the bushes and ran away. In the vicinity he was taken into custody.
After a Florida jury convicted Ryan Wesley Routh of trying to kill Donald Trump on a golf course last year, Routh attempted to stab himself in the neck with a pen on Tuesday bringing his trial to a dramatic conclusion. Routh was brought back into the courtroom shortly afterward to finish the proceedings. Although he was in handcuffs this time his white shirt was clean of blood and he didn’t seem to have been able to hurt himself.
As per the evidence that was presented during the trial then-U. S. From a sniper’s hide in the fence bordering the golf course Secret Service Special Agent Robert Fercano who was patrolling one hole ahead of the president saw Routh pointing an AK-style rifle at him. Agent Fercano shot Routh who ran away out of fear for both his life and President Trumps. Following that police discovered a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope, a magazine with an extra 19 rounds of ammunition and the safety off steel armor plates and a camera mounted on the fence that pointed toward the golf course’s sixth hole green where Routh had been hiding.
Following that Routh was permitted to return to the courtroom in shackles and with marshals by U. S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. He was told that his sentencing is scheduled for December. 19. Routh was facing five criminal charges including attempted assassination of a prominent presidential candidate using a firearm in furtherance of a crime assaulting a federal officer possessing a firearm as a felon and using a gun with a defaced serial number. Routh was representing himself and had neither legal education nor experience. His maximum sentence is life in prison. The jury deliberated for about two hours before returning a verdict. All they wrote was a request to view the magazine rifle and ammunition that Routh was allegedly using.
After calling 38 witnesses, US attorneys rested their case on Friday. The final witness after nearly two weeks of testimony and hundreds of exhibits pieced together how Routh was allegedly stalking Trump and gathering physical and electronic evidence. An FBI supervisory special agent named Kimberly McGreevy concentrated on the evidence gathered prior to the purported assassination attempt from August 14 to September 15 2024. Call logs, text messages, bank records and video surveillance were among the many pieces of evidence that prosecutors went through while McGreevy was testifying. The witness cited phone records purportedly from Routh’s burner phones highlighting text messages and phone calls Routh allegedly made to set up the rifles purchase.
Just nine weeks prior during his campaign in Butler Pennsylvania Mr. Trump had escaped an attempted assassination. One of the eight shots fired by that shooter touched Trump’s ear. After that a Secret Service countersniper shot the gunman dead. Routh worked as a construction worker in North Carolina before relocating to Hawaii in recent years. The Associated Press has heard from witnesses that Routh, a self-described mercenary leader, spoke out to anyone who would listen about his risky and occasionally violent plans to get involved in conflicts all over the world.
Routh 59 was accused by the government of five crimes after he was seen on September 15 2018 with a rifle concealed in bushes as Trump’s golfing party approached. The charges included assaulting a Secret Service agent possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and attempting to assassinate a prominent presidential candidate. According to the prosecution Routh 59 conspired to kill Trump out of political resentment by buying a military-grade weapon studying Trump’s whereabouts and using a dozen burner phones.
Routh was found guilty of four crimes: assaulting a federal officer (the Secret Service Special Agent Robert Fercano) felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison having a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Any punishment will be decided by a federal district court judge after taking the U. S. S. Guidelines for Sentencing and other legal considerations. With help from the United States the FBI is looking into the case. S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives Secret Service. Additionally the Martin County and Palm Beach sheriffs offices provided assistance in this case.
Early on in Russia’s conflict in Ukraine Routh attempted to enlist soldiers from Taiwan, Afghanistan and Moldova to fight alongside the Russians. He was arrested in his native land of Greensboro North Carolina in 2002 after he escaped a traffic stop and surrounded police with a completely automatic machine gun and a weapon of mass destruction which police stated was an explosive with a ten-inch (25-centimeter) fuse. When police searched Routh’s warehouse in 2010 they found over 100 stolen items ranging from building supplies and power tools to kayaks and spa tubs. Judges sentenced Routh to either probation or a suspended term in both felony cases. In addition to the federal charges Routh entered a not guilty plea to state charges of attempted murder and terrorism.
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