A former U.S. Army soldier who was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the killing of an Iraqi civilian in 2004 was sentenced on Monday to more than four years in prison for assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The former soldier, Edward Richmond Jr., 41, of Geismar, La., was sentenced to 51 months, including nine months of time served, for attacking officers who were trying to defend the Capitol during the 2020 vote certification process, his lawyer said. Mr. Richmond will be on supervised release for three years after his prison term ends.
Mr. Richmond was arrested in January on several federal charges, including civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted area with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, prosecutors said at the time. He pleaded guilty to the assault charge in August.
“Edward was very remorseful from the very first day I met him,” his lawyer, John S. McLindon, said in an interview after the sentencing. “He was very sorry about what he did.”
Mr. McLindon said the Justice Department had recommended a sentence of 63 months.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to to a message requesting comment on Monday.
In the Justice Department’s sentencing memo, prosecutors said Mr. Richmond had attacked the officers with a metal baton while yelling, “We’ll break you,” using an expletive.
Mr. Richmond, who served in the Army from 2002 to 2008, was court-martialed and found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. According to The Associated Press, Mr. Richmond killed a cow herder who had been detained along with other men in an Iraqi village that the Army raided on Feb. 28, 2004. Mr. Richmond shot the herder in the back of the head from six feet away as the man, who has handcuffed, stumbled.
Mr. Richmond was convicted in August 2004 and sentenced to a reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, three years’ confinement and a dishonorable discharge, according to the U.S. Army. He was released on parole in 2006 with almost a year remaining on his original sentence, The A.P. reported.
Mr. Richmond testified at his court-martial that thought the herder had a weapon and lunged to attack another soldier, The A.P. reported. He said he didn’t know that his hands had been bound.
Law enforcement officers investigating the Jan. 6 riot, identified Mr. Richmond in several images and footage from the Capitol breach, according to court documents. Mr. Richmond attended President Donald J. Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse after he was hired as “security” for a group of nine people who were traveling from Ohio to Washington, D.C., prosecutors said.
“In anticipation of potential violence, Richmond wore tactical gear, including a black helmet, tinted goggles, shoulder, elbow and knee pads,” according to court documents. While other members of the security team headed back to a hotel after the rally, Mr. Richmond headed to the Capitol.
Prosecutors said Mr. Richmond hit police officers with a retractable metal baton before taking an officer’s helmet and shield and holding them over his head “in a signal of encouragement to the rioters,” according to court documents.
Mr. Richmond also passed a six-foot wooden board into a tunnel to help other rioters in “their violent attempts to overcome police,” and passed furniture from inside the Capitol to the sea of rioters outside, prosecutors said in their sentencing memo.
Mr. Trump, now the president-elect, has pledged to pardon rioters who stormed the building, and some defendants have successfully pushed off pending trials in hopes that he will follow through. Mr. McLindon said that he and Mr. Richmond had not discussed seeking a pardon, but Mr. McLindon said that he did not believe Mr. Trump would pardon anyone.
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