Texas man who tried to break speaker lobby on January 6 gets 7 years

A Texas man who joined other rioters at the U.S. Capitol trying to break into the Speaker’s Lobby, where a woman who was part of the crowd was fatally shot by police on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly seven year. in prison, the Justice Department said.

The man, Christopher R. Grider, 41, of Eddy, Texas, had also tried to cut off the electricity at the Capitol by pressing buttons on an electrical box while yelling, “Turn off the power!” prosecutors said.

Mr. Grider, who operates a vineyard in Central Texas, pleaded guilty last year to trespassing and illegally parading the Capitol, his attorney said. He stood trial on seven other charges, including rioting and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., convicted him on all counts.

On Tuesday, Judge Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Mr. Grider to six years and 11 months in prison and ordered him to pay $5,055 in restitution and an $812 fine.

In March, Judge Kollar-Kotelly said in court that videos of the episode clearly showed “how Mr. Grider put himself at the center of this conflict, a stone’s throw from some of the most violent, lawless and reprehensible acts that took place in the Capitol. on that day.”

She then asked, “How close can a person be to undeniably violent and utterly unacceptable lynch mob-like acts by others, and still claim to be a harmless, genuinely innocent bystander?”

Mr Grider’s lawyer, Brent Mayr, said in an interview on Tuesday that his client “really regrets his actions on January 6 and apologizes to his family, his community and, most importantly, his country.”

But he added that they were “deeply disappointed that his sentence is significantly longer than others who have fared so much worse than him.”

“He did not assault any officer, let alone threaten anyone with any violence before, during or after that day,” Mr Mayr said. “The disparity in this sense is very, very disappointing to us.”

Last month, a man was sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting police officers during the attack on the Capitol. In September 2022, a retired New York City police officer who waved a metal flagpole at an officer in Washington during the January 6 attack was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Earlier this month, a Pennsylvania welder who assaulted police officers at the Capitol with a chair and then received chemical spray was sentenced to just over 14 years in prison, the most severe sentence yet handed down in connection with the events of January 6.

More than 1,000 people from nearly all 50 states have been arrested in connection with crimes related to the U.S. Capitol uprising, according to the Justice Department.

Mr. Grider thought he would attend President Donald J. Trump’s meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, eat dinner, then get on a plane back to Texas, Mr. Mayr said.

Mr. Grider was unable to attend President Trump’s speech, but he had heard that the president wanted everyone to go to the Capitol, Mr. Mayr said. Seeing the crowd heading that way, he decided to follow, he added.

Prosecutors said Mr. Grider entered the jetty on the Capitol’s northwest terrace “with a mob of rioters who had penetrated a police line.”

Once he got to the Capitol, Mr. Grider found the electrical box and tried to cut the power, according to court documents.

He then joined “another group of rioters who pushed through a police line,” prosecutors said.

Mr. Grider eventually made his way to the door of the Speaker’s Lobby and saw members of Congress and their staff evacuated, the court said.

“He gave his helmet to another rioter and pushed the door,” prosecutors said. “The rioter then used the helmet to smash the windows in the door.”

When other people yelled “gun,” Mr. Grider was seen backing away from the Speakers’ Lobby door.

That’s when Ashli ​​Babbitt, 35, an Air Force veteran from Southern California, was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol police officer as she scrambled through a broken window into the Speaker’s Lobby.

After the shooting, Mr. Grider leaned over the railing to get a better look at Ms. Babbitt, who lay bleeding on the floor, prosecutors said.

According to court documents, it appeared that Mr. Grider held his phone over the stairs to take a video or photos of her.

Mr Mayr said his client, who had been swallowed up by the mafia mentality prevalent that day, admits he made “several bad decisions”.

“He was devastated by what had happened,” Mayr said. “He was devastated by what happened.”