Each homicide count carried a mandatory life sentence. At the sentencing, Dorow decided she wouldn’t let Brooks serve any portion of those sentences on extended supervision in the community, which is the state’s current version of parole.
Wisconsin doesn’t have the death penalty.
In addition to the life sentences, Dorow sentenced Brooks to 762 years in prison on the counts of reckless endangerment.
“Frankly, Mr. Brooks, no one is safe from you,” the judge said. “This community can only be safe if you are behind bars for the rest of your life. ... You left a path of destruction, chaos, death, injury, and panic as you drove seven or so blocks through the Christmas parade.”
Mental Illness Justification Rejected
Prior to Dorow’s announcement of the life sentences, which had garnered applause from those seated in the gallery, Brooks told the court that he has had a mental illness since he was young and didn’t plan to drive into the route of the parade.He also apologized to those injured and those who lost loved ones as a result of the incident. It marked his first apology to them.
“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 said. “That you cannot see the remorse that I have.”
Brooks told the court that the incident “was not, not, not an attack” and that it “was not planned, plotted.”
“This was not an intentional act,” he said. “No matter how many times you say it over and over, it was not.”
Brooks also didn’t explain why he drove through the crowd or share further about what he was thinking at the time of the deadly incident.
When Dorow asked him what sentence he thought he should get, he didn’t answer directly but said, “I just want to be helped.”
Brooks had represented himself during his trial. In remarks to Dorow on Nov. 16, he said he grew up without his father’s presence, was physically abused, and suffered from mental health issues. He also said he took medication and stayed at mental health facilities for short periods.
Brook’s family members—his mother and grandmother—asked Dorow to place Brooks in a mental institution instead of prison. Dawn Woods, Brooks’s mother, asked the judge to make sure Brooks receives treatment in prison.
“If they have to stay for the rest of their lives away from society, at least they’re getting the help they need to become mentally well,” she told the judge.
Mary Edwards, Brooks’s grandmother, told Dorow that Brooks has been bipolar since he was 12 and that the disorder had caused him to drive into the crowd.
But Dorow said she doesn’t think Brooks has a mental illness. The judge noted that four psychologists who evaluated him said he suffers from an antisocial personality disorder but not a mental illness.
‘Inappropriately Low’ Bond
The Milwaukee District Attorney’s Office said last year that Brooks should have been in jail after an arrest weeks prior to the Christmas parade incident but was released on an “inappropriately low” bond.Specifically, Brooks was out on $1,000 cash bail after he allegedly assaulted the mother of his child at a Milwaukee gas station on Nov. 2, 2021, according to court documents.
