Ryan Routh, who was convicted last year of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump in a September 2024 incident, has been sentenced to life in prison
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon tacked on seven years for a firearm offense, according to NBC News.
Routh spoke in court, saying he was a good person who tried to help Ukraine’s army, according to Fox News.
Cannon, however called him an evil person who wanted to kill Trump.
Cannon said in her sentencing memo that Routh’s actions “undeniably warrant a life sentence,” according to the BBC.
“[H]e took steps over the course of months to assassinate a major Presidential candidate, demonstrated the will to kill anybody in the way, and has since expressed neither regret nor remorse to his victims,” she wrote.
Prosecutors said Routh “remains totally unrepentant” and that “the heinous nature of this assassination attempt — his selfish, violent decision to prevent the American voters from electing President Trump by killing him first — that warrants severe criminal punishment,” according to NBC News.
Routh represented himself during the trial but was given an attorney for the sentencing.
Attorney Martin Roth said Routh did not “commit an act of terrorism”
He asked for a 20-year sentence, to which the seven years for the firearms charge would be added.
Routh would “be in custody into his eighties and would not pose any threat to cause harm to the public,” Roth said.
Roth said he will appeal the sentence, the BBC reported.
Routh did not shoot at Trump, but was spotted hiding in the trees with a weapon as Trump was playing golf.
Routh had attempted to stab himself in the neck with a pen after a jury found him guilty.
Routh had told the jury at his trial he was only guilty of “caring too much,” according to the Palm Beach Post.
“To merely have a weapon in the presence of another is not intent,” Routh said.
After his conviction, Routh asked Cannon to be sentenced to “a state that has assisted suicide, since I am a constant failure.”
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