A Texas man convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol while wearing a holstered gun, helmet and body armor was sentenced Monday to 87 months in prison. The sentence of just over seven years is the longest imposed so far among hundreds of Capitol riot cases.
Prosecutors said Guy Reffitt told fellow members of the Texas Three Percenters militia group that he planned to drag US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the Capitol building by her ankles, “with her head banging every step on the way down,” according to a court. archiving
Reffitt was the first person to stand trial for the January 6, 2021 bombing, in which supporters of then-President Donald Trump shut down a joint session of Congress to try to prevent them from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who presided over Reffitt’s jury trial in Washington, D.C., also sentenced him to three years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution. in restitution
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Prosecutors recommended a longer sentence
US Department of Justice prosecutors recommended a 15-year prison sentence for Reffitt, who has already served roughly 19 months.
They said he was a member of a militia group intent on dragging lawmakers out of the building and taking over Congress to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote.
Sentencing guidelines calculated by the court’s probation department called for a sentence ranging from nine years to 11 years and three months. Prosecutors argued that a “terrorist upswing” was warranted in Reffitt’s case.
The longest sentence before Reffitt’s was five years and three months, for two men who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers at the Capitol.
Defense attorney Clinton Broden asked that Reffitt be sentenced to no more than two years in prison, noting that Reffitt did not assault any law enforcement officers or enter the Capitol building.
Videos captured the confrontation between outnumbered Capitol Police officers and a crowd of people, including Reffitt, who approached them on the west side of the Capitol.
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Reffitt was armed with a Smith & Wesson handgun in a holster on his waist and was wearing body armor and a helmet equipped with a video camera when he advanced on the officers and was also wearing zippered handcuffs, according to prosecutors.
He retreated after an officer sprayed pepper in his face, but waved to other rioters who eventually breached the building, prosecutors said.
The children testified that Reffitt threatened them
Reffitt did not testify at his trial before jurors convicted him in March of the five counts in his indictment.
The jury found him guilty of obstructing a joint session of Congress, interfering with police officers outside the Capitol and threatening his two teenage sons if they reported him to law enforcement.
Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, testified that his father told him and his sister, then 16, that they would be traitors if they reported him to the authorities and warned them that “traitors they shot.”
Guy Reffitt was a member of the Texas Three Percenters militia group, according to prosecutors.
The Three Percenters movement refers to the myth that only three percent of Americans fought in the Revolutionary War against the British.
A person wearing militia gear and a Three Percenters Punisher patch is seen at a rally in Stone Mountain, Ga., in August 2020. Reffitt, a member of the Texas Three Percenters militia, was convicted of storming the Capitol United States while carrying a holstered gun. , a helmet and body armor during riots on January 6, 2021. (Dustin Chambers/Reuters)
Reffitt lived with his wife and children in Wylie, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. He drove to Washington, DC, with Rocky Hardie, a member of the militia group.
Hardie testified that both were armed with holstered handguns when they attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally before the riots. Hardie also said Reffitt gave him two pairs of zip-up cuffs in case they needed to arrest someone.
More than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riots, and more than 340 of those have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. More than 220 have been convicted, and almost half receive prison sentences. About 150 more have trial dates that extend into 2023.
Reffitt is one of seven Capitol riot defendants who have had a jury trial so far. Jurors have unanimously convicted all seven of all charges in their respective indictments.