STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A man accused of attempting to assassinate then-former President Trump has been convicted. A Florida jury found him guilty on Tuesday. Do you remember this? Ryan Routh was arrested after a Secret Service agent spotted him with a rifle near where Trump was golfing at his West Palm Beach club last year. NPR's Greg Allen has been covering this trial in Fort Pierce, Florida. Greg, good morning.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: Didn't seem to take the jury very long to decide here.
ALLEN: No. Prosecutors presented a very detailed account of Routh's plans to assassinate Donald Trump, and that seemed to help the jurors make up their mind. They questioned 38 witnesses and showed jurors a whole bunch of evidence over seven days detailing Routh's planning of his attack in September of last year. There was data from cellphones and license plate readers that showed Routh spent over a month in Palm Beach County tracking Trump's movements. Prosecutors described how he set up what he - what they called a sniper's hide outside the fence at Trump's golf club.
I think some of the most powerful testimony came from Robert Fercano. He's the Secret Service agent who spotted Routh with a gun near the sixth hole and fired on him that day, sending him fleeing. Fercano is an ex-Marine and a trained marksman. He told the jury this appeared to be a textbook ambush scenario. Another witness also identified Routh as the person who fled from the sniper's hide that day. And there were plenty of other evidence that Routh methodically planned the attack, but was unable to carry it out because of an alert Secret Service agent.
INSKEEP: Wow. You would think that just the alert Secret Service agent's testimony would be enough, but they piled on all this extra evidence. What did Routh say in his defense?
ALLEN: Well, you know, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon cautioned Routh as he prepared to deliver his closing Tuesday that he'd have to keep his remarks to evidence that was introduced at the trial.
INSKEEP: Oh, that's right. He was defending himself as his own lawyer.
ALLEN: Right.
INSKEEP: Go on.
ALLEN: Yeah. Yeah. And he ignored that warning repeatedly, though. At one point, he tried to explain to the jury why his defense was so limited. He said he wanted to subpoena 20 witnesses and introduce 500 exhibits, but the court rulings prevented that. That led Judge Cannon to temporarily halt the proceedings, one of several times she did that, and give him a stern warning. After repeated objections and - from prosecutors and warnings, the judge finally had enough and said his closing was ending early.
INSKEEP: OK. So he says that he tried to bring in evidence and wasn't allowed. What evidence did he get in on his own behalf?
ALLEN: Well, you know, he did very little throughout the trial to challenge the facts of the prosecution case against him. In his closing, he said the case was about intent and whether someone can actually pull the trigger and take someone's life. He told the jury that he was a peaceful and nonviolent person who, in his words, lacked the cold heart that's needed to kill someone. He tried to convince them that although he came to Florida from North Carolina with a semiautomatic rifle and set up a sniper's position at Trump's golf club, that he lacked the capacity to actually carry out the assassination. Here's a quote from him. He said, the opportunity was there, and the trigger was not pulled. He said, the crime was not committed. In her instruction to the jury, though, Judge Cannon reminded them that abandoning a plan can't be used as a defense in a crime like this, and the jury seemed to take that to heart.
INSKEEP: What happened after that verdict was delivered?
ALLEN: Well, yeah, we had a bit of a scene there. The jury found Routh guilty on all five counts. The judge thanked them and dismissed the jurors. But as they were leaving, Routh attempted to stab himself in the neck with a pen. It was quite a scene. U.S. marshals quickly subdued him. His daughter, Sara, who was in the courtroom, started shouting some expletives and said, he didn't hurt anybody. This isn't fair. And then he was placed in shackles. And he'll be in custody until his sentencing, which is going to be in December.
INSKEEP: NPR's Greg Allen in Fort Pierce, Florida. Thanks so much.
ALLEN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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