A southern Florida man involved with the far-right organization the Proud Boys was recently sentenced to four years in prison after a conviction on two felony charges stemming from the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Gilbert Fonticoba, the defendant, was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder, and he was sentenced to an even four years. In Washington, D.C., on the day of the Capitol assault, Fonticoba was among individuals involved in the Proud Boys who were marching through the streets and eventually confronted police at the Capitol complex before and during the speech that Donald Trump gave that day at an outdoor rally in the city advancing his false claims of systematic election fraud. (The riot culminated in the Capitol building’s breach about an hour after Trump’s speech eventually concluded.)
Fonticoba was with more infamous Proud Boys defendant Joe Biggs on the Capitol complex, and eventually, he made his way all the way into the Capitol building itself, defying police officers and benefiting from assault on police evidently perpetrated ahead of him, helping rioters get past. Fonticoba was seemingly gleeful afterwards, exclaiming in a phone conversation claimed by authorities: “We breached the f***in’ Capitol building, brah.”
Fonticoba was seemingly not accused of directly perpetrating violence against police that day, though a press release does implicate him in physical acts like the removal of a short fence that had been bolted to the ground outside the Capitol.
In addition, judicial decisions have established the idea that even those arguably “peaceful” in some scenario — when considered in isolation — still bore meaningful responsibility as part of the broader assault. Specifically, a three-judge panel on a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., upheld the usage of a disorderly conduct charge against a Capitol riot participant who it was argued wasn’t strictly “disorderly.” That particular defendant still went against the established standards for legal order that day, the judicial panel concluded.
Prosecutors “have argued the sheer numbers of the mob gave cover to the more destructive actors and put pressure on police attempting to regain control of the Capitol,” POLITICO explained.
