Ryan Routh has been sentenced to life in prison for attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump while playing golf back in 2024.
Routh, 59, was arrested after security spotted a rifle sticking out of bushes at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course in Florida, on September 15, 2024.
The terrifying incident came just weeks after Trump was left with a grazed ear when a bullet narrowly missed him during another assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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During his trial last September, Routh pleaded not guilty to all five charges against him and chose to represent himself in court, where he was found guilty on every count.
After a jury found him guilty, Routh attempted to stab himself in the neck with a pen before US marshals quickly escorted him out of the courtroom to a place of safety.
For the last four months, Routh, who is originally from North Carolina and lived in Hawaii before his arrest, has been detained in custody, yet it was only on Wednesday (February 4) that his sentence was revealed, when a judge handed down a life sentence for the severity of his crime.In a sentencing memorandum, Judge Aileen Cannon said Routh’s crimes ‘undeniably warrant a life sentence’.
« [H]e took steps over the course of months to assassinate a major Presidential candidate, demonstrated the will to kill anybody in the way, and has since expressed neither regret nor remorse to his victims, » she wrote.
It is understood he will be appealing his conviction.
While a life sentence is one of the harshest sentences that authorities in Florida can hand down, it is not the most severe option at the court’s disposal, as the state still actively supports the death penalty.
According to the BBC, Routh’s behaviour during his trial was increasingly erratic, which included challenging Trump to a game of golf despite having attempted to kill him, as well as making multiple references to Adolf Hitler and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.He also repeatedly went off on baffling tangents and spoke in the third person while touching on a wide variety of unrelated topics, including US history, the Russia-Ukraine war and his intention to buy a boat.
During the trial, it was also revealed that Routh was not believed to have had a clear line of sight to Trump at any point during the incident; however, Secret Service agents did recover a semiautomatic rifle with a scope and an extended magazine near where he had been hiding, shortly after his arrest.
He will now face the rest of his life behind bars.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has made a bombshell request to the president after his sentencing.
The disgraced music mogul was arrested at a hotel in New York last September on charges of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, racketeering conspiracy and more.
However, in his high-profile court hearing, which saw dozens of famous faces take to the stand to testify, including his former partner Cassie Ventura, Combs was found guilty of a lesser charge.
The 55-year-old was sentenced to 50 months behind bars, more than four years, on October 3 after a jury found him guilty of two counts of transportation for engagement in prostitution, a violation of the Mann Act.
He was also slapped with a hefty $50,000 fine, the maximum penalty the judge could impose.Now, Combs has allegedly approached President Donald Trump with a bombshell request for a pardon.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, the POTUS said: « A lot of people have asked me for pardons. I call him Puff Daddy; he has asked me for a pardon. »
His appeal for a presidential pardon comes as his defence urged the New York judge to consider a sentence of no more than 14 months, stating he has already suffered during his 13-month-long stint behind bars.
His attorneys further claimed Diddy’s ex-girlfriends were ‘not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or se*ually assaulted’ during his so-called ‘freak-offs.’
The trial heard all about the rapper’s days-long and drug-fueled sex parties, where the Bad Boy Records founder would ‘orchestrate’ sexual activity between male sex workers and his girlfriends and watch the encounters.
While his former partners claimed they were coerced into the acts and even physically attacked in the case of Cassie at the hands of Combs, the jury cleared him of the serious accusations of racketeering and se* trafficking.However, they did find him guilty of two charges, one relating to sex workers he paid for while in a relationship with the singer and another charge connected to a former girlfriend who has not been named in the trial.
Combs himself reportedly submitted a letter to the judge, asking for ‘mercy’ before his sentencing.
He wrote that he realized he had ‘lost his way’ and got ‘lost in the drugs and the excess.’
« My downfall was rooted in my selfishness. I have been humbled and broken to my core. The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn. Prison will change you or kill you-I choose to live. »
After he was sentenced, the father-of-seven could be heard apologizing to his mom and children, saying: « I’m sorry, I’m sorry. »Combs’ attorneys, Marc Agnifilo and Brian Steel, also said outside the court that they intended to file for an appeal.
« We think we have strong basis to appeal – the strongest basis is that the jury reached a verdict on coercion, they found it was not coercion and I think that the judge said coercion today at least a dozen times.
« We think that is unconstitutional. We think that a jury verdict should mean more than our jury’s verdict seems to mean. So we are planning to appeal. »
Earlier this month, Trump didn’t rule out granting a pardon to Combs.
He said: « Probably.. Hmm. You know, I was very friendly with him. I get along with him great. Seemed like a nice guy.
« I didn’t know him well. But when I ran for office, he was very hostile. »
Donald Trump has broken his silence and commented on the disappearance of TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy, as he branded the whole ordeal ‘terrible’.
84-year-old Nancy Guthrie was reported missing on February 1, with her last reported sighting being at her home in the Catalina Foothills area around 9.30–9.45 p.m on Saturday (January 31).
Yet rather than being a simple missing persons case, the Pima county Sheriff Namos confirmed that the situation was far more serious, with authorities believing Nancy may have been kidnapped after blood was discovered at her home.
« At this point, investigators believe she was taken from the home against her will, possibly in the middle of the night,” the Sheriff told reporters on Tuesday.
He continued: « We have an 84-year-old woman who went to bed Saturday night and come Sunday morning, she’s gone. We know, at least we believe, and I believe we know, she did not walk out of that home on her own. »
The sheriff also noted that Nancy’s mobility was ‘limited’, meaning it was increasingly unlikely that she had ‘wandered off’.The president was asked directly about the situation during a briefing with press on Tuesday (February 3), prompting him to extend his thoughts to Guthrie’s family at such a difficult time.
“I think it’s terrible,” Trump, 79, told reporters. “I’m going to call her later on. »
He then continued: “It’s a terrible thing. I always get along well with Savannah. Very unusual situation, but we’re going to find out… »
Trump also pledged to extend federal assistance to Arizona law enforcement in their search in the hopes of bringing Nancy home safely.
Sheriff Namos has urged the public to come forward if they have any information relating to Nancy’s whereabouts, particularly as he also revealed she suffers from a number of health problems that make finding her time critical.
“We don’t need another bad, tragic ending. We need some help,” Nanos said. »This is an 84-year-old lady who suffers from some physical ailments, has some physical challenges, is in need of medication — medication that, if she doesn’t have in 24 hours, it could be fatal, »
The White House also urged the public to contact the police if they had information to share, as they took to Instagram, to highlight Nancy’s disappearance.
“The search for Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, is ongoing, and authorities are requesting assistance from the public,” the administration wrote. “Anyone with information is urged to contact 911.
« Our prayers are with the Guthrie family as we hope for Nancy’s safe return home. »
