Who Is Ryan Routh? Man sentenced to life in prison for plotting Trump’s assassination

U.S. Judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, sentenced Ryan Routh to spend the rest of his life in prison for attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump on his Florida golf course in September 2024.

Before handing down the sentence, Cannon rebuked Routh’s actions and called him an "evil" man, West Palm Beach ABC affiliate WPBF reported.

Cannon issued a life sentence plus an additional seven years in prison based on the second count of the indictment.

She also praised the actions of law enforcement and witnesses for bringing Routh to justice.

"Despite all the evil we see, there is a sliver of hope, a sliver of light,” she remarked.

Who is Ryan Routh?

59-year-old Ryan W. Routh is an itinerant building contractor from North Carolina.

A 12-member jury convicted Routh last September after an unusual, lopsided trial in which Routh represented himself.

The jury also found him guilty of assaulting a federal officer for pointing his semiautomatic rifle at a Secret Service agent and of several firearm violations.

As reported, the accused tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen after the verdict was read by Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the Federal District Court in Fort Pierce.

Last month, federal prosecutors recommended a life sentence, saying that Routh had “plotted painstakingly” to stake out Mr. Trump at the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach.

They also noted that he had not expressed remorse for his actions.

“Routh’s crimes of conviction reflect careful plotting, extensive premeditation, and a cowardly disregard for human life,” the prosecutors wrote.

“Routh remains unrepentant for his crimes, never apologized for the lives he put at risk, and his life demonstrates near total disregard for law," they added.

At the sentencing hearing, one of the prosecutors, John Shipley, told Judge Cannon that Routh’s intent had been “to upend American democracy.”

Ryan Routh, a former roofer from Greensboro, N.C., never fired a shot during the thwarted assassination attempt on September 15, 2024—a fact that his lawyer, Martin L. Roth, emphasized on Wednesday.

A Secret Service agent spotted him outside a fence near the sixth hole while Mr. Trump was golfing nearby.

The agent fired, while Routh fled in his car and was caught shortly after.

It was the second assassination attempt against Mr. Trump in 2024, as he was running for a second term.

Routh’s sentencing was delayed after he requested a lawyer to help him prepare.

The lawyer appealed the court instead of the life sentence, granting his client 27 years in prison, and argued that such a term would serve as sufficient punishment.

Through his lawyer, Routh objected in particular to the prosecutors’ classification of the assassination attempt as a “federal crime of terrorism.”

Such a finding would have required the defendant’s conduct to be “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct,” the lawyer said.

Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, Routh, “There really is no doubt that you intended to kill a major presidential candidate,” adding, “You almost achieved your evil plan.”

Routh told the judge before his sentencing on Wednesday that he was a do-gooder, saying, “I’ve given every drop of who I am, every day, for the benefit of our nation.”

During his trial last year, the accused offered little in the way of a defense, telling jurors that prosecutors had not proved that he had “any intent” to kill.

Other charges against Ryan Routh:

Routh from Hawaii was charged with several other misdemeanors and felonies between 2001 and 2010, including a hit-and-run offense, carrying a concealed weapon, and possessing stolen goods.

North Carolina judicial records also list Routh as the defendant in over half a dozen court cases between 1991 and 2016.

Additionally, records from Adult Correction show that Routh has a long history of getting in trouble with the law himself, including a 2002 conviction on a felony charge of possessing a weapon of mass destruction.