WASHINGTON -- Two Army veterans who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a military-style formation with fellow members of the Oath Keepers were sentenced Friday to prison terms.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Jessica Watkins of Woodstock, Ohio, to eight years and six months behind bars and sentenced Kenneth Harrelson of Titusville, Fla., to four years in prison.
A federal jury acquitted Watkins and Harrelson of the seditious conspiracy charge for which Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted in November. But jurors convicted Watkins and Harrelson of other Jan. 6 charges, including obstructing Congress' certification of President Joe Biden's victory.
Rhodes' 18-year term is the longest prison sentence that has been handed down so far in the hundreds of Capitol riot cases.
Mehta agreed with the Justice Department that Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers' actions could be punished as "terrorism," increasing the recommended sentence under federal guidelines. But the judge ultimately gave Watkins and Harrelson far less time than prosecutors were seeking. The Justice Department had requested 18 years for Watkins and 15 for Harrelson.
Watkins and Harrelson marched tow ard the Capitol with other Oath Keepers members in "stack" formations as a mob of Trump supporters clashed with outnumbered police officers. Harrelson was the group's "ground team lead" on Jan. 6. Watkins, who formed a separate Ohio-based militia group, recruited others to join the Oath Keepers in Washington that day.
Mehta said that while Watkins was not a top leader, like Rhodes, she was more than just a "foot soldier," noting that at least three others charged in the riot wouldn't have been there if she hadn't recruited them to join.
"Your role that day was more aggressive, more assaultive, more purposeful than perhaps others," he told her.
Watkins tearfully apologized for her actions before the judge handed down her sentence. She condemned the violence by rioters who assaulted police, but conceded that her presence at the Capitol "probably inspired those people to a degree." She described herself as "just another idiot running around the Capitol" on Jan. 6.
"And today you're going to hold this idiot responsible," she told the judge.
The judge said Watkins' personal story of struggling for years to come to terms with her identity as a transgender woman made it especially difficult for him to understand why she has shown "a lack of empathy for those who suffered" on Jan. 6. Watkins testified at trial about hiding her identity from her parents during a strict Christian upbringing and going AWOL in the Army after a fellow soldier found evidence of her contact with a support group for transgender people.
Harrelson told the judge he went to Washington after another Oath Keeper offered him a "security job," but said he has never voted for a president in his life and doesn't care about politics. Some of the Oath Keepers provided security for Trump ally Roger Stone and other right-wing figures at events before the riot.
"I have totally demolished my life," he said as he broke down in tears. "I am responsible, and my foolish actions have caused immense pain to my wife and our children."
Also Friday, a Missouri locksmith who breached the Capitol dressed in a Revolutionary War costume was found guilty in federal court of four misdemeanor counts.
Isaac Yoder of Nevada in southwestern Missouri, had turned down the government's offer to plead guilty to one count and instead asked for a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 25.
The charges each carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
"Yoder did more than simply go inside, however," Lamberth wrote in his verdict. "As described above, Yoder made a speech to other rioters atop a pile of broken furniture, walked around the hallways and Crypt in colonial gear with a flag and sword, and allowed other rioters to take photos with him, all adding to the chaos and further impeding efforts of the police officers to clear the building."
In testimony at his March trial, Yoder said he had never been to Washington, D.C., and that he was unaware the Capitol had been closed for nearly a year because of the covid-19 pandemic. He entered the building through a fire exit and said police were not actively preventing him from going inside.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Kunzelman, Lindsay Whitehurst and Alanna Durkin Richer of The Associated Press; and by Daniel Desrochers and Judy L. Thomas of The Kansas City Star (TNS).
FILE - Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. Rhodes has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He was sentenced Thursday after a landmark verdict convicting him of spearheading a weekslong plot to keep former President Donald Trump in power. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)