Justice Department trial exhibits show David Joseph Gietzen at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, wearing a green jacket and white helmet and goggles and using a long metal pole to jab at officers or his gloved hands to rip their masks off.
A man who attacked police with a pole at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and then became a fugitive after he failed to show up for his initial sentencing hearing following his conviction on assault charges has been sentenced to six years in prison.
David Joseph Gietzen of North Carolina received his sentence from U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. During the hearing, he apparently appeared remorseless.
“I have to make it explicitly known that I believe I did the right thing,” Gietzen said before being sentenced, The Associated Press reported.
Nichols took note.
“Mr. Gietzen essentially was unapologetic today about his conduct,” the judge said, according to the AP.
In a statement, the Justice Department noted that Gietzen was convicted of multiple felony charges for his conduct at the Capitol including one count of civil disorder and aiding and abetting; two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon; one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon and more.
Gietzen drove from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., with his brother and then entered restricted grounds on the west side of the Capitol complex after attending the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse. He marched toward the Capitol after Trump’s speech.
Once on-site around 2:15 p.m., despite repeated orders by police for him to leave the area, the Sanford man, wearing a protective helmet and goggles, instead screamed at officers and began pushing up against them as he taunted them and told them that they were a “complete f—— disgrace” and chanted “We want Trump!”
Gietzen shoved one officer before grabbing another by their mask and then striking another officer with a pole, “jabbing the officer twice,” prosecutors wrote in a 25-page sentencing memorandum.
Another group of rioters used a large piece of plywood at one point to distract a group of officers who were trying to put space between themselves and the mob. Gietzen used this window to strike a police officer in gaps in his protective gear near his armpits.
In their memo, prosecutors asked Nichols to incarcerate Gietzen for 121 months, or just over 10 years in prison, plus three years of supervised release.
After Jan. 6, prosecutors said he was “proud of his actions” and “bragged to his friends” about what he had done.
“These messages reveal not only a total lack of remorse but eager expectation of more violence,” the government’s sentencing memorandum states.
Trial records show that in one text, the North Carolina man hankered for an armed civil war and that it would coincide with the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
“Unfortunately, it seems civil war is all but assured now. Word on the street is that the next rally is on the 20th, and people are bringing guns this time,” Gietzen wrote. “This rally is with or without Trump. We aren’t his employee and if he chooses to concede to election fraud, that is treason. There is no giving up permitted when it comes to the future of the world.”
People also brought guns on Jan. 6. Several defendants have pleaded guilty to carrying a weapon including Mark Mazza, Guy Reffitt, Chris Alberts and Jerod Thomas Barger to name a few. There was also a massive cache of guns, rifles and ammunition brought by Oath Keepers though they kept the arsenal outside Washington, D.C., and stashed firearms at a hotel in nearby northern Virginia.
Gietzen wanted to make sure no one else took credit for the mob’s handiwork.
“Btw they are trying to give credit to storming Congress on the news to antifa … BULLS—. I was there in the hallway helping to push the line of guards back. Today was 100% what happens when you piss of normal people and the next protest is going even further,” he wrote after Jan. 6.
He was arrested in May 2022.
After he was convicted on the assault charges in August, Nichols ordered Gietzen to report to prison as he awaited sentencing.
He did not. Nor did he appear for his first sentencing date.
A bench warrant was issued in November and Gietzen was finally arrested at his mother’s house in North Carolina about a month later on December 12. His defense attorney claimed Gietzen did not realize he was supposed to report. In a footnote of their sentencing memo, prosecutors were highly skeptical: Gietzen’s counsel had represented to the judge he was able to, at minimum, pass along the message about the surrender date to his family members — the same family members the 31-year-old was living with.
After his arrest, he stayed jailed until sentencing this week.
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