A Texas man convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol while wearing a holstered gun, helmet and body armor was sentenced Monday to 87 months in prison. The sentence of just over seven years is the longest ever handed down in hundreds of Capitol riot cases.
Prosecutors said Guy Refitt told his fellow Texas Three Centers militia group that he planned to drag House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the Capitol building by her ankles, “hitting her head every step of the way down “, according to the court filing.
Reffit was the first person to stand trial for the January 6, 2021 attack, in which supporters of then-President Donald Trump shut down a joint session of Congress in an attempt to prevent them from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who presided over Refitt’s trial in Washington, D.C., also sentenced him to three years of supervised release following his prison sentence and ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution.
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The prosecution proposed a greater sentence
Prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice recommended a 15-year sentence for Reffitt, who has already been in prison for about 19 months.
They said he was a member of a militia group that intended to force lawmakers out of the building and take over Congress to stop Electoral College vote certification.
Sentencing guidelines calculated by the court’s probation department call for a sentence ranging from nine years to 11 years and three months. Prosecutors argued that Refitt’s case warranted an “upward retreat into terrorism.”
The longest sentence before Refit was five years and three months for two men who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers at the Capitol.
Defense attorney Clinton Broden asked that Reffitt be sentenced to no more than two years in prison, noting that Reffitt did not assault law enforcement officers or enter the Capitol building.
Video clips captured the clash between outnumbered Capitol Police officers and a crowd of people, including Refit, who approached them on the west side of the Capitol.
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Reffitt was armed with a Smith & Wesson handgun in a holster on his waist and was wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet equipped with a video camera when he advanced on the officers, and was also wearing zip-up handcuffs, according to prosecutors.
He retreated after an officer pepper-sprayed him in the face, but he waved at other rioters who eventually stormed the building, prosecutors said.
The children testified that Refit threatened them
Refit did not testify at trial before a jury convicted him in March of all five counts in the indictment.
Jurors convicted him of obstructing a joint session of Congress, interfering with police officers outside the Capitol and threatening his two teenage children if they reported him to law enforcement.
Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, testified that his father told him and his sister, then 16, that they would be traitors if they reported him to authorities and warned them that “traitors get shot.”
Guy Refitt was a member of the Texas Three Percent militia group, according to prosecutors.
The Three Percent Movement refers to the myth that only three percent of Americans fought in the Revolutionary War against the British.
A man in militia gear and a Three Percent Punisher patch is seen at a rally in Stone Mountain, Georgia, in August 2020. Refitt, a member of the Texas Three Percent militia, was convicted of storming the US Capitol while carrying a holstered gun , helmet and body armor during the riot on January 6, 2021. (Dustin Chambers/Reuters)
Refit lived with his wife and children in Wiley, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. He went to Washington, D.C., with Rocky Hardy, a fellow militiaman.
Hardy testified that both were armed with holstered handguns when they attended Trump’s “Stop Theft” rally before the riot. Hardy also said Reffit gave him two pairs of zip-up cuffs in case they had to detain someone.
More than 840 people were charged with federal crimes related to the riot, and more than 340 of them pleaded guilty, mostly to felonies. More than 220 were convicted, with nearly half serving prison terms. Approximately 150 others have trial dates that extend into 2023.
Refit is one of seven Capitol riot defendants to face a jury so far. The jury unanimously convicted all seven of them on all counts in their respective indictments.
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