The person accused of plotting to kill former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course earlier this month, Ryan Wesley Routh, pleaded not responsible Monday to 5 counts together with the tried assassination of a significant presidential candidate.
Routh, sporting a brown jail jumpsuit, walked into the courtroom in handcuffs. He sat attentively and spoke along with his two attorneys, who have been seated beside him.
After each cost was learn to him by U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose Bruce E. Reinhart, Routh shook his head in acknowledgment of the costs. His attorneys then entered a plea of not responsible and requested a trial by jury. The subsequent courtroom date has not but been introduced. Your entire arraignment lasted roughly 5 minutes.
If convicted, Routh, who’s 58, faces a most sentence of life in jail.
U.S. Secret Service brokers discovered Routh armed with a high-powered rifle on Sept. 15 exterior the Trump Worldwide Golf Membership. Brokers noticed the barrel of his weapon within the bushes and, in keeping with investigators, the brokers fired at Routh earlier than he fled the scene. Prosecutors alleged he was there to kill the Republican presidential nominee.
The defendant didn’t fireplace any photographs, however legislation enforcement mentioned they recovered the weapon loaded with 11 rounds of ammunition.
Final week, Routh was indicted on fees of assaulting a federal officer in addition to a number of firearms counts.
Court docket filings printed final week by prosecutors mentioned Routh months in the past left a handwritten letter with a buddy stating, “This was an assassination try on Donald Trump however I failed you. I attempted my finest and gave it all of the gumption I may muster.” Information recovered by investigators additionally revealed he saved monitor of Trump’s previous and upcoming public appearances and searched for methods to journey from West Palm Seashore to Mexico.
Routh’s protection attorneys argued earlier this month that he ought to be launched from custody forward of trial, however a federal choose ordered him to stay behind bars. Along with the tried assassination cost, he additionally faces unlawful firearms fees and accusations that he assaulted a Secret Service agent.
The FBI is constant its investigation.
Routh’s arrest adopted an tried assassination in July at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the place a gunman fired photographs on the former president, injuring Trump and two others and killing one man, Corey Comperatore. That shooter, Thomas Crooks, was killed by a Secret Service sniper after he opened fireplace.
