A member of the rioting crowd at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been sentenced to over four years in prison (51 months) after actions that authorities say included violently beating police in the face, head, and other areas with what was described as a large stick.
“The stick was approximately four feet long and was several inches thick,” a press release says, indicating that the defendant — Virginia man Jonathan Mellis — got the item from another rioter. “Mellis used the large wooden stick like a sword and stabbed at the faces and heads of officers at least five times, violently striking some officers in the face, head, neck, and body area,” federal accusations say. He reportedly hurled a piece of plywood at police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel that eventually hit the ceiling in that tunnel with enough force it split. Mellis has also been fined $20,000.
Details from the Justice Department say Mellis repeatedly spoke on video about his actions, bragging. In one discussion evidently conducted on camera, he refuted the idea that covert, left-wing agitators had driven the violence — similar to conspiracy theories still propagated more recently by prominent Republicans. “It was Trumpers, we were there and we were there to be heard,” he said, according to the Justice Department.
Like with others, federal authorities also made a point of accusing Mellis of a central role in inciting further violence that day in addition to his own actions. Over two hours after the Capitol building itself was first breached, Mellis was alleged to have encouraged a physical assault against officers by Justin Jersey, the fellow January 6 participant who provided Mellis with the first cited stick.
Mellis previously pleaded guilty to a single felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, a criminal allegation that has been used in hundreds of cases from January 6 so far. Others recently sentenced include Matthew Krol, a Michigan man who used a stolen police baton against officers including Aquilino Gonell, who has been outspoken about his experiences and has since left the force after injuries.
