by A Florida Proud Boy who fled after being convicted of using pepper spray on police officers during the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison.
The Proud Boy, Christopher Worrell, was found guilty at a trial in U.S. District Court in Washington in May on charges of assault, civil disorder, and obstruction of an official proceeding for his role in the attack on the Capitol. Prosecutors said Worrell, 52, arrived in Washington on Jan. 6 “battle-ready” and wearing bulletproof vests, and that along with other members of the far-right organization “played a critical role in the collapse of the police line on the Western Front”. , which led to the first breach of the Capitol building.”
The Proud Boys, who have long been some of the most vocal and violent supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, were at the forefront of the violence on January 6, pushing through barricades and encouraging other members of the mob to attack the police and storm the street. Capitol, where lawmakers had gathered to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The FBI investigated dozens of members of the group and many pleaded guilty or were put on trial in Washington. Four of them, including former Proud Boys president Enrique Tarrio, were convicted last spring on seditious conspiracy charges.
Prosecutors said Worrell, a member of the Proud Boys’ Hurricane Coast chapter, began encouraging a violent response to Trump’s election loss well before Jan. 6. On the encrypted app Telegram, he wrote his messages from fellow Proud Boys that said things like “Resist like it’s 1776” and “Remember George Washington attacked and saved the Union on Christmas Eve.”
Worrell arrived in Washington with a half-dozen other Proud Boys, prosecutors said, and on the morning of Jan. 6 joined a larger contingent of the group at the Washington Monument wearing bulletproof vests, ear protectors and a camera. GoPro style video. . He also carried two bottles of Saber Red Maximum Strength Pepper Gel, prosecutors said.
Not long after the Capitol perimeter was breached, Worrell and other Proud Boys marched in what prosecutors called “a coordinated formation” onto the Capitol grounds. Videos from the day captured Mr. Worrell shouting: “Trump is coming to the Capitol.”
Ultimately, Worrell used his pepper spray on a group of police officers, allowing a portion of the mob to climb the stairs outside the Capitol and become some of the first rioters to breach the building.
When Worrell stood trial in Washington in April, he showed no remorse for his actions, telling “falsehood after incredible lie in an effort to deflect responsibility and present himself as a hero who intervenes to protect the police” against members of the leftist movement. Antifa, prosecutors said.
In written notes on his verdict sentencing Mr. Worrell, Judge Royce C. Lamberth called Mr. Worrell’s claim that he had used pepper spray against members of Antifa “absurd” and said the evidence presented by prosecutors They showed that Mr. Worrell had been at the Capitol that day “in order to ensure that President Biden’s Electoral College certification failed.”
In August, just four days before his initial sentencing date, Worrell cut off his GPS ankle monitor in a Walmart parking lot and fled. They finally captured him six weeks later at his home in Naples, Florida, and returned him to Washington for a new sentencing hearing.
