The trial for the man accused of driving his red SUV into a Christmas Parade in Wisconsin will be held in October.
Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow denied a request from Darrell Brooks Jr.’s defense team to delay his trial by several months.
Brook’s attorneys, Jeremy Perri and Anna Kees, initially said they need six months to analyze more than 300 videos that captured the incident. Kees and Perri said they wanted to break down the SUV’s speed throughout the incident and examine the recording of the police’s interrogation of Brooks.
“The scale of this case is uniquely large and complex, considering the number of allegations and the volume of discovery,” the attorneys wrote in their motion.
Prosecutors have said they are not available in November or December. Therefore, the trial would have been postponed until 2023, per Fox News.
Dorow gave the defense team up to four additional weeks to review the evidence and set the trial start date for Oct. 3. It is expected to last until Oct. 28. There will be two motion hearings — one on June 20 and the second on Aug. 26.
Six people died and at least 60 were injured after an SUV plowed into a Christmas parade in downtown Waukesha on Nov. 21, 2021.
During the April 4 hearing, the defense said the prosecution has not turned over all the evidence against their client. Dorow ordered both parties to return to court on April 11 for a hearing on the matter.
Kees and Perri have also filed a motion to have the trial moved out of Waukesha County or to use a jury from another county because of the extensive negative publicity surrounding the case. They say using a local jury would make it impossible for Brooks to get a fair trial.
The 40-year-old Brooks — who has been charged with 83 crimes, including six counts of homicide — has a long criminal history spanning several states. Brooks was arrested in Nevada in 2006 for having sex with a teenage girl and is a registered sex offender. He is awaiting trial in Milwaukee County Court for two counts of felony bail jumping.
He had been released from jail days before the incident after making a $1,000 bail for Nov. 2 domestic violence charges. Brooke is also facing domestic violence charges for allegedly assaulting his child’s mother and then hitting her with his car before going to the parade.
Currently, Brooks is being held in the state’s custody at the Waukesha County Jail under a $5 million bail. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
