Florida proud boy sentenced to 10 years in Capitol attack

A Florida Proud Boy who went on the run after being convicted of using pepper spray on police officers during the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison.

The Proud Boy, Christopher Worrell, was found guilty in May at a trial in Federal District Court in Washington on charges of assault, civil disorder and obstructing an official proceeding for his role in the attack on the Capitol. Prosecutors said Mr. Worrell, 52, arrived in Washington on Jan. 6 “ready for battle” and wearing bulletproof vests, and along with other members of the far-right organization “played a crucial role in the collapse of the police line on the Western Front.” , which led to the first breach of the Capitol.”

The Proud Boys, long among the most outspoken and violent supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, were at the forefront of the violence on January 6. They pushed through barricades and encouraged others in the crowd to attack police and storm the prison. Capitol, where lawmakers had gathered to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Dozens of members of the group were investigated by the FBI, and many pleaded guilty or were tried in Washington. Four of them, including former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, were convicted last spring on seditious conspiracy charges.

Prosecutors said Mr. Worrell, a member of the Proud Boys’ “Hurricane Coast” chapter, began encouraging a violent response to Mr. Trump’s election loss well before Jan. 6. On the encrypted app Telegram, he wrote his other Proud Boys messages said things like “Resist Like It’s 1776” and “Remember George Washington attacked and saved the Union on Christmas Eve.”

Mr. Worrell arrived in Washington with a half-dozen other Proud Boys, prosecutors said, and joined a larger contingent of the group at the Washington Monument on the morning of Jan. 6, wearing body armor, earmuffs and carrying a video camera GoPro style. . He also had two cans of Saber Red Maximum Strength Pepper Gel, prosecutors said.

Not long after the Capitol perimeter was breached, Mr. Worrell and other Proud Boys marched in what prosecutors called “a coordinated stack formation” on the Capitol grounds. Video footage from that day showed Mr. Worrell shouting, “Trump is coming to the Capitol.”

Ultimately, Mr. Worrell used his pepper spray on a group of police officers, allowing part of the crowd to rush up the steps outside the Capitol and become among the first rioters to enter the building.

When Mr. Worrell went on trial in Washington in April, he showed no remorse for his actions. He told “untruth after incredible untruth in an attempt to deflect responsibility and portray himself as a hero who intervened to protect the police” against members of the left-wing movement. Antifa, prosecutors said.

In written notes sentencing Mr. Worrell, Judge Royce C. Lamberth called Mr. Worrell’s claim that he used pepper spray against Antifa members “ridiculous,” and said the evidence prosecutors presented showed that the Mr Worrell had been present. the Capitol that day “for the purpose of ensuring the failure of President Biden’s certification by the Electoral College.”

In August, just four days before his initial sentencing date, Mr. Worrell took off his GPS ankle monitor in a Walmart parking lot and fled. He was eventually caught six weeks later at his home in Naples, Florida, and returned to Washington for another sentencing hearing.