Man Receives 5-Year Sentence For Killing Republican

The 22-year prison sentence recently handed down for former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, protest on Capitol Hill struck many Americans as further evidence of a political bias within the nation’s judicial system.

Those concerns were amplified last week when a judge in North Dakota gave Shannon Brandt — who fatally struck a teen with his vehicle after complaining that the victim was a “Republican extremist” — a sentence less than one-fourth the length of Tarrio’s sentence.

The sentence was announced just under a year after Brandt struck 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson in McHenry, North Dakota, and ran him over. 

An initial police affidavit indicated that the incident occurred after the two men engaged in a political dispute, but there was ultimately insufficient evidence to support that claim in court. 

Nevertheless, a 911 call from Brandt prior to the crime included his assertion that Ellingson appeared to represent an “extremist Republican group,” which he alleged made him “scared to death.”

Instead of being killed by the impact of the vehicle, an autopsy found that the victim’s fatal injuries were caused by the vehicle rolling over his body.

Prosecutors said that Brandt had been drinking at the time. He was initially charged with criminal vehicular homicide and later murder, but he was subsequently allowed to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter. 

Brandt’s defense attorney complained that it had been “a very difficult year for everyone involved” and sought to mitigate his client’s culpability by citing an autism diagnosis. Foster County Judge Bradley Cruff took this factor into consideration in handing down a sentence only one-half as long as the statutory maximum.

“You didn’t intentionally run him over,” the judge said. “I acknowledge that. I understand what the experts in this case are saying about how your mind works. And you didn’t intentionally kill Cayler. But he did die. And that’s a result of your alcohol consumption. You recklessly pushed Cayler to the ground with your SUV, you recklessly ran him over, and you recklessly killed him.”

Sheri Ellingson, the victim’s mother, pleaded with the court to impose the maximum sentence.

“Shannon, you took a piece of our family that’s not replaceable,” she said in a court statement. “When you chose to take Cayler’s life and happiness, you took ours too. You have caused our family endless pain, heartache, sleepless nights. Our days, months, and years will never be the same because of your selfishness.”