The man charged with attempting to assassinate US President Donald Trump last year was found guilty by a Florida jury on Tuesday.Ryan Routh, 59, was charged with five criminal counts, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and assaulting a Secret Service agent, after an incident on Sept. 15, 2024, when he was spotted hiding in bushes with a rifle near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.Two of the charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.The trial came to a dramatic end when Routh started stabbing himself in the neck with a pen in the Fort Pierce courtroom after the jury found him guilty.Routh’s attempt on Trump’s life came nine weeks after the president survived another assassination attempt at Butler, Pennsylvania, where one bullet, fired by 20-year-old sniper Thomas Crooks, grazed the president's ear before Secret Service counter-snipers took down the threat.Routh represented himself at the trial despite having no legal background and called three witnesses to the stand: two of his former employees and a sniper instructor..Would-be Trump assassin appears in court facing two charges.Judge Aileen M. Cannon cut off Routh — a former North Carolina construction worker — multiple times when he was delivering his opening statement and questioning witnesses, citing a lack of relevance.Prosecutors said he had purchased a military-grade weapon, researched the president’s movements, and employed a dozen burner phones as part of a plot to kill Trump that was motivated by political ideology.They also stated he had made 17 trips to scope out Trump’s golf course.Over the course of his two-week trial, prosecutors called 38 witnesses, including two brothers who testified about receiving a box from Routh five months earlier that contained wires, pipes, and bullets.After investigators arrested Routh, the brothers said they opened the box to find a 12-page letter in which he wrote: “This was an assassination attempt on, Donald Trump, but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job.”“No one ever intended to kill anyone,” Routh argued in court, and said the only thing he was guilty of was caring “deeply for this country.”Routh, who pleaded not guilty to all the charges, now faces life in prison when he is sentenced.
