BOISE, Idaho — A man from Idaho attacked a police officer last year with a pipeas a part of the mob storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced to four years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth told Duke Edward Wilson, a 68 year-old logger from Nampa that he doesn’t recall many of his actions. Prosecutors claim that he attacked at most three U.S. Capitol Building officers on January 6, 2021.
Lamberth stated that the maximum federal sentence of 51 months was required because Lamberth described the insurrection as “a terrible day for our country”.
Lamberth stated, “It’s an important message that the court must send, that our nation cannot deal with that.”
Federal judges are overseeing hundreds of cases against people accused of insurrection. They have heard a list of excuses from the defendants and expressions of regret from the dozens of sentencings.
More than 700 people were charged for crimes related to the Capitol Siege, and over 200 have pleaded guilty.
Wilson was not the only one who was sentenced to assaulting police. At least five other defendants were also sent to prison for their crimes and most of them received sentences between 41 and 63 month.
Wilson pleaded guilty to resisting or impeding officers, assaulting and hindering them, and obstruction of an official proceeding.
Federal prosecutors dropped several related charges in exchange for Wilson’s plea. Wilson and Charles Peterson, his attorney, didn’t physically appear at the Washington, D.C., federal court. They were called to it from Peterson’s Boise, Idaho, office.
U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant. Aquilino Gonell, U.S. Capitol Police Sgt.
Prosecutors claimed Wilson tried to block officers from closing the tunnel doors by charging them with a set of charges. They then used a thin PVC pipe he found on the ground to rain down on them. Gonell claimed that he tried to stop the pipe hitting another officer without a helmet.
Gonnell stated that both my hands were bleeding from blocking at the time. “He continued to fight me to stop us from closing the door. That would allow him and his fellow rebels to advance in that tunnel and the Capitol, as members of Congress were being evacuated along the same route.”
Wilson, however, stated that he was not swept along by crowds and was forced forward towards the doors in a written statement to the court.
Wilson claimed that he doesn’t recall the most violent of his actions but admitted that he did remember them from videos on the scene.
He told the judge that it was foolish of him to do such a thing. I made a terrible decision going to that place that day.”
Gonell criticised Wilson’s “fake regret” and stated that Wilson would attack Capitol again if he heard the same “rallying cry”, as he did Jan. 6.
Gonell stated, “I vividly remember what happened that day to myself, to him.” “A year and a half later, I still cannot put on my uniform because of the injuries he caused me and my fellow officers.
The judge ordered Wilson to serve three years of supervision probation once he was released from prison.
He will also be responsible for restitution, which is still being determined for the damage to Gonell and the U.S. Capitol Building.
