Man Gets 5 Years on Capitol Riot Charges, Longest Sentence So Far

Politics|Man Gets 5 Years connected Capitol Riot Charges, Longest Sentence So Far

A Florida antheral who hurled a occurrence extinguisher astatine constabulary officers during immoderate of the astir ferocious warring astatine the U.S. Capitol connected Jan. 6 was sentenced connected Friday to much than 5 years successful prison, the longest word handed down truthful acold to immoderate of the much than 700 radical charged successful the attack.

The defendant, Robert Palmer, made his mode to the Capitol that time successful a distinctive red-white-and-blue flag-styled overgarment aft listening to President Donald J. Trump code a immense assemblage astatine the Ellipse, a parkland conscionable southbound of the White House. Prosecutors accidental helium milled astir successful the assemblage extracurricular the gathering arsenic unit progressively broke retired betwixt the constabulary and rioters.

By a small earlier 5 p.m., Mr. Palmer recovered himself amid the astir terrible warring astatine the little westbound terrace, wherever an astir medieval signifier of hand-to-hand combat had erupted. There, prosecutors say, helium threw a woody plank-like spear astatine the police, sprayed a occurrence extinguisher astatine officers and past hurled the bare canister astatine them.

Before his sentencing proceeding successful Federal District Court successful Washington, Mr. Palmer, 54, wrote a missive to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, saying that helium had travel to admit that Mr. Trump and his allies had lied to their supporters by “spitting retired the mendacious communicative astir a stolen predetermination and however it was ‘our duty’ to basal up to tyranny.”

“Little did I recognize that they were the tyrannical ones hopeless to clasp connected to powerfulness astatine immoderate cost,” Mr. Palmer wrote, “even by creating the chaos they knew would hap with specified rhetoric.”

At the hearing, Mr. Palmer became affectional describing however helium had watched a tv quality conception astir himself portion successful jailhouse and was “absolutely devastated” to spot the “coldness and calculation” with which helium had attacked the police. He told Judge Chutkan helium was “really, truly ashamed” of his behaviour that time and said helium would ne'er be a governmental rally again.

Judge Chutkan, who has consistently taken a pugnacious stance connected Jan. 6 defendants, told Mr. Palmer that she wanted to marque wide that if radical sought “to violently overthrow the government” and “stop the peaceful modulation of power,” they would beryllium met with “absolutely definite punishment.”

The 63-month situation term, she went on, was “the effect of those actions.”

Mr. Palmer is the 2nd idiosyncratic who has pleaded blameworthy to assaulting the constabulary to look punishment for his crimes. Last month, Scott Fairlamb, a erstwhile New Jersey gym owner, was sentenced to 41 months successful prison — a word that helium has since decided to appeal.