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WASHINGTON (AP) — A highschool scholar who stormed the U.S. Capitol, assaulted a police officer and sat in a Senate ground chair reserved for the vp was sentenced on Wednesday to 1 yr in jail.
Georgia resident Bruno Joseph Cua was 18 when he attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, making him one of many youngest folks charged within the riot.
Earlier than studying his sentence, Cua apologized for his actions and instructed U.S. District Decide Randolph Moss that he’s ashamed of his position in a mob’s “assault on democracy.”
“All the pieces that day was only one horrible choice after one other,” stated Cua, now 21.
Moss sentenced Cua to a jail time period of 1 yr and someday adopted by three years of supervised launch. The decide convicted Cua of felony costs after a trial earlier this yr.
Moss instructed Cua that he was ready to offer him an extended jail sentence earlier than he heard his assertion in court docket on Wednesday. The decide stated he believes Cua is really remorseful.
“It is a tragic case for the nation. It is a tragic case for you and your loved ones,” the decide instructed him. “There are not any winners in any of this.”
Greater than 1,000 folks have been charged with Jan. 6-related crimes. Cua is one in every of not less than six Capitol riot defendants born in 2002, in response to a spokesperson for the U.S. Legal professional’s workplace for the District of Columbia.
Cua’s attorneys cited his youth as grounds for leniency. His actions on Jan. 6 “mirror his immaturity on the time and the consequences that the gang had on such an adolescent,” protection attorneys wrote in a court docket submitting.
Across the time of the riot, Cua was ending on-line coursework to graduate from highschool. Prosecutors stated Cua’s age is “solely barely” a mitigating think about his favor.
“Individuals who attain the age of 18 are entrusted with a number of vital obligations and duties together with voting, becoming a member of the navy, signing a contract, and serving on a jury. On this manner, the legislation acknowledges that an 18-year-old is able to making mature selections,” they wrote in a court docket submitting.
Justice Division prosecutor Kaitlin Klamann stated not less than 5 Capitol riot defendants had been youthful than Cua on Jan. 6. Two of the 5 have resolved their circumstances and prevented jail phrases. Each pleaded responsible to misdemeanor offenses and had been sentenced to probation.
Cua deliberate his assault weeks prematurely, introduced weapons to the Capitol, tried to terrorize congressional staffers and was repeatedly aggressive towards police, prosecutors stated.
They added, “Cua performed a novel and outstanding position on January 6, opening the Senate Chamber to the rioters, escalating confrontations, and main different rioters into and thru the Capitol.”
Prosecutors advisable a jail sentence of 4 years and 9 months for Cua. His attorneys requested the decide to condemn him to time served: the 40 days he spent in jail after his February 2021 arrest.
Cua stated he was “scarred to my core” by his jail time. One other inmate assaulted Cua whereas he was jailed in Oklahoma, in response to one in every of his attorneys.
“I did one thing silly to land myself there, but it surely was traumatizing,” Cua stated.
Different younger rioters have acquired jail phrases. In March, for instance, U.S. District Decide Reggie Walton sentenced Aiden Bilyard to a few years and 4 months of incarceration. Bilyard, of Cary, North Carolina, additionally was 18 when he stormed the Capitol, pepper sprayed a line of cops and used a bat to interrupt right into a Capitol convention room.
Cua and his mother and father drove from their residence in Milton, Georgia, to Washington D.C., arriving a day earlier than then-President Donald Trump spoke at his “Cease the Steal” rally. The Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden‘s electoral victory.
Cua was armed with pepper spray and a metallic baton — weapons given to him by his father — when rioters breached police traces on the west aspect of the Capitol, in response to prosecutors. After climbing scaffolding, Cua entered the constructing by way of the Higher West Terrace doorways and and walked down a hallway towards the Senate.
“As Cua walked down the hallway, he tried to open each single workplace door he handed by pulling on doorknobs, pounding on the doorways along with his fist, and kicking the doorways,” prosecutors wrote.
They stated Cua meant to intimidate staffers who had been behind the doorways as he yelled, “Hey! The place are the swamp rats hiding?”
Cua went to the third ground, the place he shoved a Capitol police officer who was making an attempt to lock doorways to the Senate gallery. After the officer retreated, Cua entered the gallery, shouting “That is our home! That is our nation!” Leaping onto the Senate ground, he sat within the chair for then-Vice President Mike Pence, leaned again and propped his toes up on a desk.
Then he opened a door, permitting dozens of different rioters onto the Senate ground. Earlier than leaving, Cua rifled by way of desks belonging to Senators Charles Grassley, John Thune and Dianne Feinstein.
Moss determined the case in opposition to Cua with out a jury in February, convicting him of obstructing the Jan. 6 congressional continuing and assaulting a federal officer. The decide handed down the decision after a “stipulated bench trial,” a continuing by which Cua did not contest the information supporting his convictions. He waived his proper to a jury trial.
Prosecutors requested Moss to impose a $23,485 effective, which equals the sum of money raised by an internet fundraising marketing campaign known as “Bruno Cua: An American’s Future at Stake.” The web site stated the funds might be used for Cua’s “many bills in his pursuit of his freedom.”
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