A former Army National Guard police officer was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Tuesday after admitting that he pepper-sprayed law enforcement officers, while a mob of former President Donald J. Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The sentencing of the former Guard member, Gregory C. Yetman, 47, of Helmetta, N.J., came eight months after he set off a manhunt in the central New Jersey suburbs by fleeing into the woods when law enforcement authorities sought to arrest him.
He surrendered two days later, and in April he pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers during the Capitol riot, federal prosecutors said.
Judge James E. Boasberg of Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., also sentenced Mr. Yetman to 18 months of supervised release and ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution. Prosecutors had sought a 45-month prison term; Mr. Yetman’s lawyer, Nicholas D. Smith, had asked for 17 months. Mr. Smith declined to comment on the sentence.
Mr. Yetman is among more than 1,470 people to be charged in connection with the riot and among more than 530 to be charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers, according to the Justice Department. He and other supporters of Mr. Trump stormed the Capitol in a bid to prevent the certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. The investigation into the day’s events is continuing.
Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee in this year’s presidential election, was charged with conspiracy and other federal offenses arising from the riot. He has pleaded not guilty, and a federal judge will ultimately determine whether Mr. Trump is immune to the charges under a landmark Supreme Court ruling this month.
Mr. Yetman was an enlisted military police officer with the New Jersey Army National Guard from September 2008 to March 2022 and a sergeant when his service ended, an Army spokesman said. He deployed to Afghanistan from September 2012 to May 2013 and to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, from June 2015 to March 2016, the spokesman said.
In entering his plea, Mr. Yetman said he had traveled to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, had attended Mr. Trump’s rally at the Ellipse and had then walked to the west side of the Capitol, where he climbed a platform on the building’s West Terrace, according to court documents.
There, he acknowledged joining a mob of rioters that was encircling a group of police officers who were trying to defend the Capitol. The rioters quickly surrounded, overwhelmed and assaulted the officers from all sides, prosecutors said.
As the assault continued, prosecutors said, Mr. Yetman grabbed a canister of pepper spray, held it under his arm and, at close enough range to do damage, sprayed at the officers for 12 to 14 seconds, causing them to retreat and leave the area.
He then dropped the canister and, while retracing his steps, used his cellphone to take pictures and videos of the riot, as he made his way to another part of the building.
Later, prosecutors said, Mr. Yetman posted on Facebook about what he had seen at the Capitol. He blamed the riot on Antifa and referred to the police officers defending the building as “modern brown shirts” who had caused the violence, according to a court filing.
After he tried to evade arrest last November, court documents show, investigators found “multiple firearms and significant quantities of ammunition” at his home, a loaded gun in his car and more guns and weapons in a storage unit.
In arguing for leniency in sentencing, Mr. Smith, Mr. Yetman’s lawyer, cited his client’s military service, strong family ties and “caring and genial nature.”
“Regrettably,” Mr. Smith wrote, Mr. Yetman had been “swept up in the madness of the crowd that descended on the Capitol that day.”
“Like too many others,” Mr. Smith added, “he engaged in outrageous conduct there.”
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