A member of a far-right paramilitary group He was sentenced this Monday to seven years in prison for the assault on the United States Capitol, becoming the first person to receive a conviction after being tried for this attack.
A federal judge in the District of Columbia, where Washington, the US capital, is located, sentenced Guy Refitt, a protester who carried a firearm during the January 6, 2021, assault and a member of the group of far right Three Percenters.
(You can read: The judicial fence that narrows against Donald Trump)
The sentence, of seven years and three months, is the longest that has been declared for someone involved in the events of that date, when a mob of demonstrators supporters of then President Donald Trump (2017-2021) stormed the US Congress headquarters to try to stop the ratification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Reffitt was convicted of obstructing congressional proceedings, breaking into the Capitol while carrying a gun, confronting police officers, illegally transporting weapons, and threatening his three teenage children if they reported him; crimes to which he had pleaded not guilty.
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7 years in jail for Guy Refitt, who threatened Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers on January 6.
It is the longest sentence so far among pro-Trump agitators.
He traveled from Texas with guns and entered the Capitol with one.
One of his sons testified against him pic.twitter.com/QNTZB1y8qY– Ione Molinares (@imolinarescnn) August 1, 2022
Judge Dabney Friedrich decided, however, not to convict him of “domestic terrorism”, as requested by the Prosecutor’s Office and for which he could have spent 15 years in prison.
According to photos attached to a court document, Reffitt, a native of Texas, attended the assault on the Capitol wearing a bulletproof vest, handcuffs and a helmet with an embedded camera.
Until now, all those convicted of the assault on the Capitol on January 6 of last year had closed plea deals with the Prosecutor’s Office, so they were spared the trial.
(Read more: America’s dangerous descent into violence)
The authorities have accused more than 750 people from different parts of the country for crimes such as sedition, attacking police officers, destroying government property and entering a restricted access building.
More than 200 have pleaded guilty after closing agreements with the Prosecutor’s Office.
*With information from EFE
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