Secret Service agents had spotted him hiding in the bushes near one of Trump's golf courses while the former president was out playing before he fled the scene. Routh, who has no formal legal training, chose to represent himself in court, delivering a bizarre and amateurish defense. A Secret Service agent spotted him perched in a sniper's nest with an SKS rifle aimed through a fence. Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper. During the trial, prosecutors called 38 law enforcement witnesses, including the Secret Service agent who foiled his plot.