The man found guilty by a trial last September for attempting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was given the maximum sentence for his crimes on Wednesday.
Ryan Wesley Routh was sentenced to life in prison by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for attempting to kill Trump in 2024 while he was playing golf at his West Palm Beach country club in Florida. It was the second attempt on Trump’s life that year.
Her ruling comes after a dramatic court scene last September when a jury found Routh guilty on all counts. Routh reacted by attempting to stab himself in the neck with a pen after the verdict was read.
Routh was one hole away when a Secret Service agent noticed the barrel of a firearm through the shrubbery. Officials say Routh aimed at the agent, though the agent fired at him, causing Routh to flee the area, per court documents.
According to court filings, Routh had been plotting the assassination for at least six months. Prosecutors filed charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.
Routh hired an attorney during the sentencing portion of his trial despite representing himself up until this point. His defense attorney, Martin Roth, pushed against Routh’s arrest history and assassination attempt by claiming that Routh was a good man deep down, but was a “complex person,” according to The Associated Press.
Before Cannon’s ruling, Roth urged her to soften the sentence, requesting 20 years for the assassination attempt and an additional seven for the gun conviction.
“The defendant is two weeks short of being sixty years old,” Roth wrote in a filing. “A just punishment would provide a sentence long enough to impose sufficient but not excessive punishment, and to allow defendant to experience freedom again as opposed to dying in prison.”
It didn’t stop Cannon from handing Routh the maximum punishment: Life without parole plus the mandatory seven years for gun charges.
“Your plot to kill was deliberate and evil,” she said. “You are not a peaceful man. You are not a good man.”