The first rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack has been convicted of charges that he interfered with police and obstructed Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

The first rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack was convicted on Friday of charges that he interfered with police and obstructed Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

Michael Sparks, 46, of Kentucky, jumped through a shattered window moments after another rioter smashed it with a stolen riot shield. Sparks then joined other rioters in chasing a police officer up flights of stairs, one of the most harrowing images from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.

A federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Sparks of all six charges that he faced, including two felonies. Sparks didn’t testify at his weeklong trial. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly is scheduled to sentence him on July 9.

Sparks was the “tip of the spear” and breached the Capitol building less than a minute before senators recessed to evacuate the chamber and escape from the mob, Justice Department prosecutor Emily Allen said during the trial’s closing arguments.

  • the post of tom joad
    77•9 months ago

    I just… Cannot stop being furious and confused as to why the charges brought against the jan 6 rioters are so… ridiculously gentle. Anyone who has been in the court system can tell you it’s standard practice these days for prosecutors to engage in charge stacking, yet these guys, nearly every one of them, get kid gloves?

    Placed up against the infamous trial against the chicago 7 it is even more unbelievable that a “protester” proven to have broken into one of the highest houses of government and gave chase to an officer guarding that institution is given such light charges.

    • @grueEnglish
      38•9 months ago

      It’s because the “justice” system is stacked with right-wing terrorist sympathizers at all levels.

      • @[email protected]
        -2•9 months ago

        …and they want the sentences to be below the bar so the sympathizers won’t feel it’s worth “outing” themselves as seditious scum, so each one will pass.

        Better the light sentence that sticks vs the proper sentence that gets bounced.

    • @[email protected]English
      11•9 months ago

      From the notable sentences section on Wikipedia.

      On March 8, 2022, the first criminal trial involving one of the rioters, Guy Reffitt, ended with a jury conviction.[113] Reffitt was subsequently sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison.[114]

      On August 11, 2022, Thomas Robertson was also sentenced to seven years and three months in prison.[115]

      On August 26, 2022, Howard Richardson was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He had struck a police officer three times with a flagpole, hard enough to break the flagpole. He had been arrested in November 2021 and had pleaded guilty in April 2022.[116]

      On September 1, 2022, Thomas Webster was sentenced to 10 years in prison.[117]

      On September 22, 2022, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was sentenced to four years in prison.[118]

      On October 27, 2022, Albuquerque Cosper Head was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison. He had dragged Metropolitan Police Department officer Mike Fanone into the mob.[119]

      On December 5, 2022, Suzanne Ianni was sentenced to 15 days in prison for disorderly conduct. Ianni was formerly an elected member of the town meeting of Natick, Massachusetts, a member of Super Happy Fun America, and organizer of a Boston Straight Pride Parade.[120]

      On December 9, 2022, Ronald Sandlin was sentenced to more than five years and three months in prison.[121] Sandlin followed the QAnon ideology. He and two other men had driven from Tennessee to Washington, DC in a rental car filled with weapons, and he had assaulted police officers. He had pled guilty.[122]

      On January 6, 2023, Jerod Wade Hughes was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison. As the eighth rioter to enter the Capitol, he climbed into the building through a broken window and helped kick open the Senate wing door so others could enter. He had pled guilty.[123]

      On January 27, 2023, Julian Khater was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. He used pepper spray to assault Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day after suffering strokes.[124]

      On February 9, 2023, Kevin Seefried was sentenced to three years in prison. He carried a Confederate flag through the Capitol and used the flagpole to fend off a police officer.[125]

      On March 14, 2023, Tristan Chandler Stevens was sentenced to five years in prison. He assaulted police officers while attempting to break into the Capitol.[126]

      On March 23, 2023, Riley June Williams was sentenced to three years in prison. She stole the laptop of Nancy Pelosi with the intent on selling it to Russian foreign intelligence services and attempted to wipe all evidence of her crimes, after bragging about her involvement, in the days following the assault.[127]

      On April 11, 2023, Robert Sanford was sentenced to four years and four months in prison. He hit two police officers in the head with a fire extinguisher and threw a traffic cone at another officer.[128]

      On April 14, 2023, Vincent J. Gillespie was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison. He grabbed a police shield from officers, rammed it into them and pulled another officer into the mob of protestors.[129]

      On April 14, 2023, Patrick McCaughey III was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison. He crushed a police officer in a doorframe with a riot shield.[130]

      On April 28, 2023, Jeffrey Scott Brown was sentenced to four years and six months in prison. He assaulted police with pepper spray.[131]

      On May 5, 2023, Peter Schwartz was sentenced to 14 years and two months in prison. He sprayed a “super soaker” canister of pepper spray at retreating officers. He had 38 prior convictions over the previous 30 years.[132]

      On May 24, 2023, Richard Barnett was sentenced to four years and six months in prison. He had carried a stun gun into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, propped his foot up on a desk, and bragged about stealing an envelope from the office.[133]

      On May 25, 2023, Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was charged with seditious conspiracy, receiving an increased sentence due to his actions being ruled as terrorism by U.S. District Judge, Amit Mehta. Rhodes was the founder of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist militia, and was the first to be convicted of seditious conspiracy and terrorism in relation to the attack.[134]

      On May 25, 2023, Kelly Meggs was sentenced to 12 years in prison. A leader of the Oath Keepers’ Florida chapter, Meggs was charged with seditious conspiracy for his role during the attack.[134]

      On May 26, 2023, Jessica Watkins was sentenced to eight years and six months and Kenneth Harrelson was sentenced to four years in prison. Both convicts were members of the Oath Keepers, with Watkins’ crimes including merging her local Ohio armed group with the Oath Keepers in 2020, and Harrelson serving as the right-hand man to Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter.[135]

      On June 21, 2023, Daniel Rodriguez was sentenced to 12 years and seven months.[136]

      On July 7, 2023, Barry Bennet Ramey was sentenced to five years in prison. He was connected to the Proud Boys and pepper-sprayed police in the face.[137]

      On July 13, 2023, Kyle Fitzsimons was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison. He attacked Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell and D.C. Police Sgt. Phuson Nguyen. While in the mob, Fitzsimons was hit by another rioter and received a bloody head wound that later required staples.[138]

      On July 14, 2023, Audrey Ann Southard-Rumsey was sentenced to six years in prison. Brandishing a flagpole, she knocked over a police officer.[139]

      On July 24, 2023, Peter Stager was sentenced to four years and four months in prison. He beat a police officer, Blake Miller, with a flagpole.[140]

      On July 28, 2023, Thomas Sibick was sentenced to four years and two months in prison. He stole Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone’s badge and radio.[141]

      On August 17, 2023, Michael Steven Perkins was sentenced to four years in prison. He attacked officers with a flagpole. His co-defendant, Joshua Christopher Doolin, was sentenced to one year and six months.[142]

      On August 31, 2023, Joe Biggs was sentenced to seventeen years in prison and Zachary Rehl was sentenced to fifteen years for seditious conspiracy and other charges.[143]

      On September 1, 2023, Dominic Pezzola was sentenced to ten years in prison for various charges relating to smashing a window in the U.S. Capitol.[144]

      On September 5, 2023, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years for his role in organizing the attack. This is the longest sentence associated with the attack delivered to date.[145]

      On September 22, 2023, Jonathan Munafo was sentenced to 33 months followed by 36 months of supervised release. He punched a cop, stole the cop’s riot shield, and struck a Capitol office window with two poles. He pleaded guilty.[146]

      On October 17, 2023, Ryan Kelley, who in 2022 had been a leading Republican candidate for Michigan governor, was sentenced to 60 days in jail. He shouted “This is war, baby!” while encouraging rioters.[147]

      On October 17, 2023, Rachel Powell, a mother of eight, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release. She had carried an axe and a wooden pole. The Justice Department describes her as “one of the first rioters to break through onto Capitol grounds near the Peace Circle.”[148]

      On November 3, 2023, Federico Klein, a former State Department appointee of Trump, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison. He assaulted police officers.[149]

      On November 29, 2023, Nathan Pelham was sentenced to 24 months. Initially charged with four misdemeanor counts for entering the Capitol, he had agreed to surrender. On the scheduled day for his surrender, he called police to say that his son was suicidal, and when police arrived at his home for a welfare check, he shot at them.[150]

      On December 7, 2023, Alan Hostetter was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months. Hostetter is a former California police chief who gave speeches calling for others’ execution the day before the Capitol attack and then brought a hatchet and tactical gear to the Capitol.[151]

      On December 15, 2023, Anthony Sargent, a Proud Boy from Florida, was sentenced to five years in prison. He threw a rock at the Capitol doors.[152]

      On January 9, 2024, Ray Epps was sentenced to probation. He had been arrested the previous September and had been charged with disorderly and disruptive conduct.[153] He told the judge that he realizes that the election was not stolen, that he knows that Trump supporters carried out the attack, and that he feels remorse for his participation. After the riot, Epps became the center of conspiracy theories; he is suing Fox News and Tucker Carlson for defamation.[154]

      On January 24, 2024, Marc Bru was sentenced to six years. He marched with the Proud Boys, shoved a barricade against a police officer, and spent about 13 minutes inside the Capitol, entering the Senate gallery. Just before being sentenced, he called the judge a “clown” and said: “I’d do it all over again.”[155]

      On February 29, 2024, Brandon Fellows was sentenced to 3½ years. He had smoked marijuana in a senator’s office.[156] Six months before his sentencing for his offenses on January 6, while his trial was ongoing, the judge had also sentenced him to five months for criminal contempt of court related to his misbehavior in the courtroom.[157]