A man who attacked police officers with batons during riots at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Tuesday to more than five years in prison, the longest prison term so far among hundreds of Capitol prosecutions.
Mark Ponder, a 56-year-old resident of Washington, DC, said he was “caught up” in the chaos that erupted on January 6, 2021, and “didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“I wasn’t thinking that day,” Ponder told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, pleading for mercy before sentencing him to five years and three months in prison.
This was three months longer than the prison term requested by the prosecution. And it’s the same sentence Chutkan gave Robert Palmer, a Florida man who also pleaded guilty to assaulting police at the Capitol.
More than 200 defendants in the Capitol riots have been sentenced so far. None received a longer prison term than Ponder or Palmer.
Chutkan said Ponder was “leading the charge” against police officers trying to hold back the crowd that prevented Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.
“This is not ‘caught,’ Mr. Ponder,” he said. “He intended to attack and injure police officers. This was not a protest.”
Chutkan has consistently taken a hard line in punishing Capitol rioters. She has handed down prison terms to the 13 riot defendants who have come before her, matching or exceeding the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation in all cases, according to an Associated Press review of court records.
Prosecutors had recommended a five-year prison sentence for Ponder, who has been incarcerated since his arrest in March 2021.
In April, Ponder pleaded guilty to an assault charge that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Federal sentencing guidelines called for a prison term ranging from nearly five years to just under six years, but Chutkan was not bound by those recommendations.
More than 100 police were injured during the riot.
Defense attorney Joseph Conte said Ponder was “caught up in the madness of January 6.” Conte asked for a sentence below the guideline range.
Ponder swung a stick at a Capitol Police officer on the West Capitol Square, smashing it into the officer’s shield. After retreating into the crowd, Ponder picked up a sturdier stick with red, white, and blue stripes. He used it to assault two other officers, hitting one of them in the left shoulder, before police took him into custody and handcuffed him.
The outnumbered officers freed Ponder after they were unable to get a police vehicle to transport him. He was told to leave the Capitol, but Ponder stayed and joined a crowd of rioters who clashed with police in a tunnel.
Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, one of the officers assaulted by Ponder, said the force of Ponder’s blow shattered his shield.
“It was horrible,” Gonell said during Ponder’s sentencing hearing. “That particular day will affect me for the rest of my life.”
After his arrest, Ponder told FBI agents that he normally supported the police, but that he viewed the officers that day as “part of the problem.”
“At some point, the way this country is going, you’re going to have to pick a side,” he said, according to prosecutors.
Ponder attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 to hear then-President Donald Trump speak and to “peacefully protest the election results and the lack of attention to alleged voting irregularities,” he wrote Story in a court document.
“He did this with no intention of doing anything other than adding his voice to the vocal protests over the injustice he perceived to have happened in the election,” the lawyer added. “Unfortunately, he got caught up in the unruly atmosphere of the crowd and mistakenly perceived that the police were opposing the crowd’s desire to protest the election results.”
According to prosecutors, Ponder has a significant criminal record spanning three decades, including a 2008 conviction for bank robbery.
More than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct at the Capitol on January 6. More than 350 riot defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury or judge after trials.
More than 220 of them have been convicted, including about 100 who received a prison sentence. Ponder is the 15th person sentenced to a prison term of more than a year.
The prison terms for Ponder and Palmer may not be the longest for a long time. Prosecutors are seeking a 15-year prison sentence for Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who was convicted of storming the Capitol with a holstered gun. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich is scheduled to sentence Reffitt on Monday.