Jury finds Darrell Brooks Jr. guilty in Wisconsin parade murder trial

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Darrell Brooks Jr., the defendant in the Wisconsin parade murder trial, was found guilty of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide among other charges Wednesday.

On Nov. 21, Brooks, 40, drove a vehicle into the crowd at a Christmas parade in Waukesha County, Wisc. Six people were killed and another 61 were injured.

Brooks chose to represent himself in the ensuing murder trial, which began Oct. 3. It concluded Wednesday after the jury deliberated for less than three hours before emerging with the guilty verdict.

Brooks was convicted of 76 counts in total, including 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety, six counts of first-degree intentional homicide, six counts of hit-and-run causing death, two counts of federal bail jumping and one count of battery.

Brooks faces a mandatory life sentence for each homicide count.

While the verdict was being read to the court, a family member of one of the victims shouted at him, "Burn in hell, you piece of (expletive)."

While the jury was in deliberation, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow brought to light the existence of a post on Reddit that claimed to be published by a juror. She said the post is under investigation and has since been removed.

Prosecutors contended that it was not possible for a juror to post anything online as they did not have access to electronic devices. They said it was edited Tuesday night to clarify that it was a joke that went too far. It appeared on a subreddit group called r/Justice4Darrell.

Brooks said he was "very concerned" about the post and requested a mistrial.

"My request would be, because of the concern of this, to look at a mistrial or at the very least a discharge of the jury at this time so this can be resolved. This is alarming to say the least," he said.

"I don't know what Reddit is or never used it. This could be a snowball type of thing. There's just so many questions. Clearly this points at the court's integrity, at jurors' integrity. If there is a chance that there can be hidden bias in this jury, it needs to be addressed now rather than later."

On the first day of the trial, Brooks was disruptive and non-compliant with court proceedings as a jury was being selected. He was removed from the court after interrupting the proceedings 10 times.

In Brooks' opening statement, he said: "I want to bring to remembrance something I think everybody in this room has been taught. That there's always two sides to every story. For so long now -- there's only truly been one side told of this story. I've sat back and watched. You won't hear me try to argue facts. The fact is that this incident was tragic. That's not lost on me. I'm confident what the evidence will show is the incident was not planned -- not intentional."

"This tragedy has affected our entire community," the Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper said in a press release after the incident.