A brother and sister from Arizona, both in their 20s, were sentenced this week to prison and respective periods of supervised release to follow their time in detention after admitting to criminal allegations placing them in the violent, pro-Trump crowds that descended upon the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The siblings/defendants were Felicia Konold and Cory Konold, who received 45 days and 30 days in prison, respectively. Each were also ordered into a two-year period of supervised release. A press release on the Konolds’ case says that they joined on the ground in D.C. a push by individuals involved with the far-right group the Proud Boys.
Affiliates of the group spurred some of the initial outbursts that grew into the massive Capitol attack with a breach of the building itself about an hour after the conclusion of an outdoor speech in the city by then-President Donald Trump in which he repeated his lies about the then-recent presidential race.
The Konolds evidently joined physical resistance against police attempts to secure the Capitol complex and admitted late last year to criminal allegations of obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and aiding and abetting. At the actual Capitol, the Konolds were among those who entered the building, where the brother swiped a police helmet originating with the U.S. Capitol Police that he then took home.
The brother and sister were co-defendants with a recently sentenced January 6 participant named William Chrestman, one of the Proud Boys-involved figures with whom they gathered. Chrestman was carrying a wooden ax handle as he participated in confrontations, which a Justice Department press release spotlights that he used to threaten police. He also used the handle to help force a metal overhead door inside the Capitol to stay open, which — like prosecutors have spotlighted when something similar has come up amid other criminal cases from the day — helped facilitate further incursions. It sounds like the Konold siblings were on scene when Chrestman did so, per contextual details in federal releases from their respective rounds of sentencing.
