Man who bragged that he 'fed' an officer to the mob of Capitol rioters gets nearly 5 years in prison

WASHINGTON -- A Georgia concern proprietor who bragged that helium “fed” a constabulary serviceman to a mob of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol connected Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced connected Thursday to astir 5 years successful situation for his repeated attacks connected instrumentality enforcement during the insurrection.

Jack Wade Whitton struck an serviceman with a metallic crutch and dragged him — caput archetypal and look down — into the assemblage connected the Capitol's Lower West Terrace. Whitton aboriginal boasted successful a substance connection that helium “fed him to the people.”

Roughly 20 minutes later, Whitton tried to propulsion a 2nd serviceman into the crowd, prosecutors say. He besides kicked at, threatened and threw a operation pylon astatine officers trying to clasp disconnected the mob of then-President Donald Trump's supporters.

“You’re gonna dice tonight!” helium shouted astatine constabulary aft striking an officer's riot shield.

Whitton, of Locust Grove, Georgia, expressed remorse for his “horrible” actions connected Jan. 6 earlier U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced him to 4 years and 9 months successful prison. The 33-year-old volition get recognition for the 3 years that helium has been jailed since his arrest.

"I archer you with confidence: I person changed," Whitton told the judge.

Whitton, who pleaded blameworthy to an battle complaint past year, told the justice that helium has ne'er been a “political person.”

“I've ne'er been a troublemaker. I've ever been a hard idiosyncratic and a law-abiding citizen," helium said.

The justice said the videos of Whitton attacking constabulary are “gruesome.”

“You truly were retired of control,” the justice told him.

Prosecutors recommended a situation condemnation of 8 years and 1 period for Whitton, who owned and operated his ain obstruction gathering institution earlier his April 2021 arrest.

“Whitton looked for opportunities to attack: In his 3 documented assaults, helium was either a person oregon a solitary actor,” prosecutors wrote successful a tribunal filing.

Videos amusement that contemporaneous attacks connected constabulary by Whitton and a co-defendant, Justin Jersey, “ignited the rageful onslaught of unit that followed” connected the Lower West Terrace, prosecutors said.

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

Whitton was among 9 defendants charged successful the aforesaid attack. Two co-defendants, Logan Barnhart and Jeffrey Sabol, helped Whitton resistance an serviceman into the assemblage earlier different rioters bushed the serviceman with a flagpole and a stolen constabulary baton.

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

“This is from a atrocious cop," helium wrote. "Yea I fed him to the people. (I don't know) his status. And don’t attraction (to beryllium honest).”

Defense lawyer Komron Jon Maknoon said Whitton traveled to Washington to enactment his woman due to the fact that she wanted to “witness an historical event” connected Jan. 6, erstwhile Trump, a Republican, held a rally arsenic Congress was astir to certify his 2020 statesmanlike election nonaccomplishment to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

“While his motives were not politically driven, helium does person a genuine emotion for his state and shares the tendency for a escaped and just election, overmuch similar immoderate different citizen,” Maknoon wrote.

The justice antecedently sentenced 7 of Whitton's co-defendants to situation presumption ranging from 2 years and six months to 5 years and 10 months.

More than 1,350 radical person been charged with national crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 850 of them person been sentenced, with astir two-thirds receiving a word of imprisonment ranging from a fewer days to 22 years.

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Follow the AP's sum of the U.S. Capitol insurrection astatine https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.