WASHINGTON (AP) — A Kentucky man with an extended felony file was sentenced Friday to a record-setting 14 years in jail for attacking law enforcement officials with pepper spray and a chair as he stormed the U.S. Capitol along with his spouse.
Peter Schwartz’s jail sentence is the longest to this point amongst lots of of Capitol riot circumstances. The decide who sentenced Schwartz additionally handed down the earlier longest sentence — 10 years — to a retired New York Police Division officer who assaulted a police officer outdoors the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors had really useful a jail sentence of 24 years and 6 months for Schwartz, a welder.
U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta sentenced Schwartz to 14 years and two months in jail, adopted by three years of supervised launch.
Mehta mentioned Schwartz was a “soldier in opposition to democracy” who participated in “the form of mayhem, chaos that had by no means been seen within the nation’s historical past.”
“You aren’t a political prisoner,” the decide instructed him. “You’re not anyone who’s standing up in opposition to injustice or preventing in opposition to an autocratic regime.”
Schwartz briefly addressed the decide earlier than studying his sentence, saying, “I do sincerely remorse the injury that Jan. 6 has precipitated to so many individuals and their lives.”
The decide mentioned he didn’t consider Schwartz’s assertion, noting his lack of regret.
“You took it upon your self to attempt to injure a number of law enforcement officials that day,” Mehta mentioned.
Schwartz was armed with a wood tire knocker when he and his then-wife, Shelly Stallings, joined different rioters in overwhelming a line of law enforcement officials on the Capitol’s Decrease West Terrace, the place he threw a folding chair at officers.
“By throwing that chair, Schwartz straight contributed to the autumn of the police line that enabled rioters to flood ahead and take over all the terrace,” prosecutor Jocelyn Bond wrote in a court docket submitting.
Schwartz, 49, additionally armed himself with a police-issued “tremendous soaker” canister of pepper spray and sprayed it at retreating officers. Advancing to a tunnel entrance, Schwartz coordinated with two different rioters, Markus Maly and Jeffrey Brown, to spray an orange liquid towards officers clashing with the mob.
“Whereas the stream of liquid didn’t straight hit any officer, its impact was to intensify the hazard to the officers in that tunnel,” Bond wrote.
Earlier than leaving, Schwartz joined a “heave ho” push in opposition to police within the tunnel.
Stallings pleaded responsible final 12 months to riot-related fees and was sentenced final month to 2 years of incarceration.
Schwartz was tried with co-defendants Maly and Brown. In December, a jury convicted all three of assault fees and different felony offenses.
Mehta sentenced Brown final Friday to 4 years and 6 months in jail. Maly is scheduled to be sentenced June 9.
Schwartz’s attorneys requested a jail sentence of 4 years and 6 months. They mentioned his actions on Jan. 6 have been motivated by a “misunderstanding” in regards to the 2020 presidential election. Then-President Donald Trump and his allies unfold baseless conspiracy theories that Democrats stole the election from the Republican incumbent.
“There stay many grifters on the market who stay free to proceed propagating the ‘nice lie’ that Trump received the election, Donald Trump being among the many most distinguished. Mr. Schwartz will not be one among these people; he is aware of he was unsuitable,” his protection attorneys wrote.
Prosecutors mentioned Schwartz has bragged about his participation within the riot, proven no regret and claimed that his prosecution was politically motivated. He referred to the Capitol assault because the “opening of a battle” in a Fb submit a day after the riot.
“I used to be there and whether or not folks will acknowledge it or not we at the moment are at battle,” Schwartz wrote.
Schwartz has raised over $71,000 from an internet marketing campaign entitled “Patriot Pete Political Prisoner in DC.” Prosecutors requested Mehta to order Schwartz to pay a high-quality equaling the quantity raised by his marketing campaign, arguing that he shouldn’t revenue from collaborating within the riot.
Schwartz was on probation when he joined the Jan. 6 riot. His felony file features a “jaw-dropping” 38 prior convictions since 1991, “a number of of which concerned assaulting or threatening officers or different authority figures,” Bond wrote.
Schwartz was working as a welder in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, earlier than his arrest in February 2021, however he considers his residence to be in Owensboro, Kentucky, in response to his attorneys.
Greater than 100 law enforcement officials have been injured in the course of the riot. Greater than 1,000 folks have been charged with federal crimes associated to Jan. 6. Practically 500 of them have been sentenced, with over half getting phrases of imprisonment.
The ten-year jail sentence that Mehta handed down in September to retired NYPD officer Thomas Webster had remained the longest till Friday. Webster had used a steel flagpole to assault an officer after which tackled the identical officer because the mob superior towards the Capitol.