Man receives longest jail sentence yet for January 6th attack
Amelia Jones
Featured Image Credit: Police Handout/WHAS11
A record-setting sentence has been handed out to a Kentucky man for his part in storming the US Capitol and attacking police officers with pepper spray and a chair.
Welder Peter Schwartz, 49, was sentenced to 14 years in prison by US District Judge Amit Mehta, who also handed down the previous longest sentence of ten years to a retired New York Police Department officer also involved in the events of 6 January 2021.
The seemingly lengthy sentence was far less than the 24 years and six month recommended by the prosecutors of the case but longer than the four years and six months his attorneys requested.
Following his time in prison, Schwartz faces three years of supervised release.
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Mehta didn't hold back, saying that by participating in 'the kind of mayhem, chaos that had never been seen in the country’s history,' and that Schwartz was a 'soldier against democracy'.
But the judge wanted to prevent the 49-year-old being depicted as a martyr, stating: “You are not a political prisoner.
"You’re not somebody who is standing up against injustice or fighting against an autocratic regime.”
Schwartz made a statement of remorse before the judge passed the sentence saying: “I do sincerely regret the damage that Jan. 6 has caused to so many people and their lives.”
Mehta wasn't moved.
He said to the man in the stand: “You took it upon yourself to try and injure multiple police officers that day."
Prosecutor, Jocelyn Bond, stated in a court document that his action in throwing the chair enabled 'rioters to flood forward and take over the entire terrace'.
Schwartz was armed with both a wooden tire knocker and threw folding chairs when he and then-wife, Shelly Stallings, joined rioters overwhelming a line of police officers on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace.
He was also armed with a police-issued 'super soaker' full of pepper spray, which he used against retreating officers.
Schwartz was in cahoots with fellow rioters, Markus Maly and Jeffrey Brown, to lay in hiding before spraying an orange liquid toward officers.
Bond wrote that, while the liquid didn't hit it intended target, 'its effect was to heighten the danger to the officers in that tunnel'.
Before fleeing, Schwartz joined a 'heave ho' in the tunnel against the police presence.
Stallings pleaded guilty to riot-related charges in 2022 and was sentenced in April to two years imprisonment.
Schwartz was convinced by a jury in December of all three assault charges and other felony offences alongside co-conspirators, Maly and Brown.
Brown was sentenced to four years and six months in prison last Friday (5 May), while Maly is set to be sentenced on 9 June.
Schwartz's attorneys said his actions on the day were motivated by a 'misunderstanding' about the baseless conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors pointed out the Facebook post Schwartz wrote the day after which read: “I was there and whether people will acknowledge it or not we are now at war."
Prosecutors ordered Schwartz to pay a fine equalling the $71,000 (around £56,000) he raised via an online campaign entitled 'Patriot Pete Political Prisoner in DC' to avoid profiting from the events.
Schwartz was on probation when he joined the riot with 38 prior convictions since 1991, 'several of which involved assaulting or threatening officers or other authority figures', according to court documents.
Over 100 police officers were injured during the riot and more than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes.