Four individuals identified by the Justice Department as at least past members of a militia group operating in southern California have been convicted at a jury trial of criminal charges related to their involvement in the violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The convictions covered charges including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, a felony applied to all four of them.
The charge relates to preparatory action the group undertook before actually heading to Washington, D.C., where they were evidently among the first to actually enter the Capitol building as the structure itself was breached. “The group stormed the Capitol wearing plate carriers and other tactical gear and carrying cans of bear spray,” a press release from the Justice Department says. The militia group in which they were involved was part of the Three Percenter movement, which alongside the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers was among the most prominent coalitions from which Capitol attack participants originated.
Prominent figures from the latter two organizations were infamously convicted of seditious conspiracy tied to the Capitol attack, while infamous January 6 rioter Guy Reffitt, who faced trial a little over a year after the violence and eventually got over seven years in prison, was from the Three Percenters.
The newly convicted Californians tied to that movement were Erik Scott Warner, Felipe Antonio Martinez, Derek Kinnison, and Ronald Mele. All are in their 40s or 50s, federal authorities said, and in addition to the conspiracy charge, they also faced and were convicted on charges of obstruction of an official proceeding, trespassing, and disorderly conduct. The obstruction charges could add the most to their eventual sentences, which were set up by a 17-day trial.
Notably, federal prosecutors have been emphasizing arguable ties between Trump himself and the violence of January 6 in various court filings, indicating that the day’s events will be part of the context they seek to establish for the Trump conspiracy they’re alleging that targeted the 2020 presidential election results.
