Judge reduces prison sentence for Army vet convicted in Capitol riot

A U.S. district courtroom decide decreased the sentence Wednesday for an Military veteran and former cop who was convicted on six costs for his participation within the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Virginia resident Thomas Robertson was sentenced in 2022 to serve seven years in jail on costs of interfering with cops throughout a civil dysfunction and getting into a restricted space with a harmful weapon. Robertson carried a big picket stick in the course of the riot and was photographed within the Capitol’s crypt making an obscene gesture in entrance of a statute of John Stark, an American common in the course of the Revolutionary Battle, prosecutors mentioned in the course of the jury trial.

U.S. District Choose Christopher Cooper decreased Robertson’s sentence Wednesday to 6 years in jail, The Related Press reported. The brand new sentence follows Cooper’s dismissal of certainly one of Robertson’s convictions: obstructing the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

The Supreme Courtroom dominated 6-3 in June {that a} cost of obstructing an official continuing should embrace proof {that a} defendant tried to tamper with or destroy paperwork — a distinction that didn’t apply to Robertson’s case, nor many of the a whole bunch of Jan. 6 legal instances.

The Military veteran is the primary Capitol riot defendant to be resentenced following the Supreme Courtroom’s ruling. In courtroom filings, prosecutors had urged the decide to protect the unique sentence.

Robertson, who declined to handle the courtroom at his first sentencing listening to, advised the decide Wednesday that he appears to be like ahead to returning house and rebuilding his life after jail, AP reported.

“I understand the positions that I used to be taking up that day had been improper,” he mentioned of Jan. 6. “I’m standing earlier than you very sorry for what occurred on that day.”

Robertson served 4 years within the U.S. Military from 1991 to 1994, after which joined the Military Reserve in 2001, his attorneys wrote in courtroom paperwork. He deployed to Iraq in 2008 and was injured by gunshot and mortar shrapnel in Afghanistan in 2011, the paperwork state. He underwent 10 surgical procedures for his accidents.

After recuperating, Robertson joined the police division in Rocky Mount, Virginia, and have become a sergeant. He was off obligation however nonetheless working for the police division when he joined the Capitol riot. The city fired him after his arrest.

In a Fb publish on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson mentioned, “I’ve spent most of my grownup life preventing a counter insurgency. (I’m) about to change into a part of one, and a really efficient one.”

Earlier than his preliminary sentencing in 2022, Robertson wrote a letter to the decide, saying he took full accountability for his actions on Jan. 6 and “any poor selections I made.”

He blamed the vitriolic content material of his social media posts on a mixture of stress, alcohol abuse and “submersion in deep ‘rabbit holes’ of election conspiracy concept.”

“I sat round at evening ingesting an excessive amount of and reacting to articles and websites given to me by Fb” algorithms, he wrote.

This story was produced in partnership with Army Veterans in Journalism. Please ship tricks to MVJ-Suggestions@militarytimes.com.