Man who bragged that he ‘fed’ an officer to the mob of Capitol rioters will get almost 5 years in jail | EUROtoday

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A Georgia enterprise proprietor who bragged that he “fed” a police officer to a mob of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Thursday to almost 5 years in jail for his repeated assaults on regulation enforcement through the rebellion.

Jack Wade Whitton struck an officer with a metallic crutch and dragged him — head first and face down — into the group on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. Whitton later boasted in a textual content message that he “fed him to the people.”

Roughly 20 minutes later, Whitton tried to tug a second officer into the group, prosecutors say. He additionally kicked at, threatened and threw a building pylon at officers attempting to carry off the mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters.

“You’re gonna die tonight!” he shouted at police after hanging an officer’s riot protect.

Whitton, of Locust Grove, Georgia, expressed regret for his “horrible” actions on Jan. 6 earlier than U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced him to 4 years and 9 months in jail. The 33-year-old will get credit score for the three years that he has been jailed since his arrest.

“I tell you with confidence: I have changed,” Whitton advised the choose.

Whitton, who pleaded responsible to an assault cost final 12 months, advised the choose that he has by no means been a “political person.”

“I’ve by no means been a troublemaker. I’ve all the time been a tough employee and a law-abiding citizen,” he said.

The judge said the videos of Whitton attacking police are “gruesome.”

“You really were out of control,” the judge told him.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of eight years and one month for Whitton, who owned and operated his own fence building company before his April 2021 arrest.

“Whitton looked for opportunities to attack: In his three documented assaults, he was either a leader or a solitary actor,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Videos show that contemporaneous attacks on police by Whitton and a co-defendant, Justin Jersey, “ignited the rageful onslaught of violence that followed” on the Lower West Terrace, prosecutors said.

“As Whitton and Jersey commenced their assaults, the tenor of the crowd audibly changed,” they wrote. “Other rioters surged towards the Archway and joined the attack, throwing objects at the officers and striking at them with makeshift weapons such as a hockey stick, a pieces of wood, a flagpole, and a police riot shield.”

Whitton was among nine defendants charged in the same attack. Two co-defendants, Logan Barnhart and Jeffrey Sabol, helped Whitton drag an officer into the crowd before other rioters beat the officer with a flagpole and a stolen police baton.

That evening, Whitton texted somebody images of his bloodied hands.

“This is from a bad cop,” he wrote. “Yea I fed him to the individuals. (I do not know) his standing. And don’t care (to be sincere).”

Defense legal professional Komron Jon Maknoon stated Whitton traveled to Washington to help his girlfriend as a result of she wished to “witness an historic event” on Jan. 6, when Trump, a Republican, held a rally as Congress was about to certify his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

“While his motives were not politically driven, he does possess a genuine love for his country and shares the desire for a free and fair election, much like any other citizen,” Maknoon wrote.

The choose beforehand sentenced seven of Whitton’s co-defendants to jail phrases starting from two years and 6 months to 5 years and 10 months.

More than 1,350 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Over 850 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a time period of imprisonment starting from just a few days to 22 years.

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Follow the AP’s protection of the U.S. Capitol rebellion at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.