Military veteran who stormed Capitol with loaded pistol is sentenced to 7 years in prison

WASHINGTON — A navy veteran who stormed the U.S. Capitol with a loaded pistol, metal-plated physique armor and a fuel masks was sentenced on Wednesday to seven years in jail, one of many longest amongst a whole lot of Jan. 6 riot circumstances.

Christopher Michael Alberts, 35, of Pylesville, Maryland, is not accused of brandishing his hid gun in the course of the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. However he used a picket pallet as a makeshift battering ram in opposition to law enforcement officials who had been guarding a stairwell exterior the Capitol, in line with federal prosecutors.

Alberts informed U.S. District Decide Christopher Cooper that he was making an attempt to guard others exterior the Capitol as police deployed tear fuel and non-lethal munitions to carry again the mob.

“I wasn’t making an attempt to harm anyone,” he mentioned. “I simply wished all of it to cease.”

Cooper informed Alberts that he was one of many leaders of the mob that day.

“You weren’t merely a bystander,” the decide mentioned.

Alberts, a former Virginia Nationwide Guard member, spent six hours on Capitol grounds on the day of the riot. He was armed with a 9-millimeter pistol — loaded with hole level and high-pressure rounds — and introduced an additional journal of ammunition.

Alberts was the primary rioter to achieve the northwest steps exterior the Capitol and the primary to “go arms on” with a Capitol police officer at that a part of the advanced, prosecutors mentioned.

“Alberts, along with his physique armor, fuel masks, navy gear, and rage, rallied and instigated the mob,” prosecutors wrote in a courtroom submitting.

Cooper additionally sentenced Alberts to 3 years of supervised launch after his jail time period. Prosecutors requested for Alberts to be taken into custody instantly after his sentencing, however the decide allowed him to stay free till he experiences to jail at a date to be decided.

Prosecutors had advisable a 10-year jail sentence for Alberts, who mentioned he served within the Virginia Nationwide Guard from 2005 to 2011 and was deployed to Iraq for one 12 months in 2007 and 2008.

In April, a jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Alberts of all 9 counts that he confronted at trial, together with a felony cost of assaulting, resisting or impeding police.

Throughout Wednesday’s listening to, Capitol Police Officer Stephen Sherman described how helpless he felt when Alberts rammed into him with the picket pallet as one other rioter tried to drag him down the steps.

“You got here to the Capitol that day to start out a conflict and also you, in reality, turned that staircase right into a conflict zone,” Sherman mentioned.

Alberts’ voice cracked as he turned to apologize to Sherman.

“If I had identified that day would flip into what it changed into, I’d have stayed residence,” Alberts mentioned.

Protection lawyer Roger Roots mentioned Alberts, a tow truck driver, generally carried a gun with him for self-protection whereas working.

A prosecutor, Shalin Nohria, mentioned Alberts totally loaded {a magazine} with hole level and high-pressure rounds — and had an additional spherical within the gun’s chamber — as a result of he wished to be “as deadly as potential” on Jan. 6.

Alberts attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally however left earlier than it ended and headed to the Capitol constructing, yelling on his method that he was “taking up the Capitol.” He repeatedly screamed insults at law enforcement officials making an attempt to carry off the mob of Trump supporters, who disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

Alberts introduced different tactical-style gear to the Capitol, together with a two-way radio, an earpiece, a throat mic, bungee cords, binoculars, a ski masks and two knives.

Law enforcement officials tried to cease rioters from accessing the Higher West Terrace by deploying pepper spray and pepper balls, however the safety from his fuel masks and physique armor allowed Alberts to maintain advancing towards the Capitol constructing, prosecutors mentioned.

Alberts later urinated on a wall of the Capitol after which joined different rioters in confronting a line of law enforcement officials, throwing a bottle at them and utilizing a bullhorn to berate them, in line with prosecutors. Round 7:22 p.m., when an officer noticed a bulge on Alberts’ proper hip, police frisked Alberts, seized his loaded firearm and arrested him.

Greater than 1,000 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Jan. 6 assault. Roughly 100 of them have been convicted by juries or judges after trials. Over 600 others have pleaded responsible.

Greater than 570 riot defendants have been sentenced, with over half receiving phrases of imprisonment starting from three days to 18 years. Solely 12 different rioters have obtained an extended jail sentence than Alberts, in line with an Related Press overview of courtroom data.