Fort Pierce, Florida, 05 February (H.S.): Ryan Wesley Routh, the 59-year-old itinerant contractor convicted of plotting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course on September 15, 2024, received a life sentence without parole on Wednesday, February 4, in a federal courtroom rife with prior tumult.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, imposed the maximum penalty—life imprisonment plus a consecutive seven years for firearm offenses—after Routh delivered a disjointed 20-page soliloquy, prompting the jurist to interject that his remarks bore no relevance to proceedings.

Prosecutors underscored Routh's unrepentant posture, absence of apologies to endangered lives, and chronic lawlessness, rejecting defense pleas for a 27-year term that might permit release before his 87th birthday.

Cannon excoriated the plot as deliberate and evil, affirming, You are not a peaceful man. You are not a good man, in the same venue where Routh stabbed himself post-conviction in September 2025.

Routh, ensconced in shrubbery along the Trump International Golf Club perimeter for nearly 12 hours, trained a scoped SKS semi-automatic rifle—serial number defaced—through fencing toward Secret Service agents as Trump's group neared, though the former president remained out of sight.

A vigilant agent detected the threat first, firing shots that compelled Routh to abandon the weapon and flee; authorities nabbed him 45 minutes later northbound on Interstate 95, alongside a go-bag containing a note confessing the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

Federal prosecutors chronicled weeks of meticulous preparation: 17 surveillance trips to the course, burner phones, a hit list of Trump venues, and recruitment pitches for Ukraine mercenaries from his Hawaiian base.

Self-representing through a two-week spectacle that featured 38 prosecution witnesses—including brothers who unpacked a suspicious parcel of pipes, wires, and ammunition—Routh faced swift jury condemnation in September 2025 on five felonies: attempted assassination of a major candidate, firearm use in a violent crime, assault on a federal officer, felon-in-possession, and defaced-serial weaponry.

A felon with priors for stolen goods and a vitriolic online trail—self-publishing a tome urging Iran to kill Trump and admitting voter regret—Routh later sought counsel for sentencing, proffering himself in prisoner swaps and lamenting his perennial failures.

Standby public defenders had flanked his pro se defense, vindicating Supreme Court precedents on self-representation competency.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar