Proud Boy Members Dominic Pezzola and Ethan Nordean on Friday were sentenced to 10 and 18 years in prison, respectively, for their role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Their sentences were handed down one day after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced Proud Boy leader Joe Biggs to 17 years in prison.
Pezzola was the only one of five Proud Boy defendants who was not convicted of seditious conspiracy after trial earlier this year.
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 12: Members of the Proud Boys and Antifa stand off near Black Lives Matter Plaza on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Thousands of protesters who refuse to accept that President-elect Joe Biden won the election are rallying ahead of the electoral college vote to make Trump’s 306-to-232 loss official. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Pezzola was captured using a riot shield to breach the Capitol building on that day.
“The reality is you were the one who did it,” Kelly said at Friday’s hearing. “You were the one who smashed that window in and let people begin to stream into the Capitol building and threaten the lives of our lawmakers. It is not something I would have ever dreamed I’d see in our country.”
“You were really, in some ways, the tip of the spear,” Kelly added.
Pezzola’s daughter, Angeline, asked the judge for lenience in his sentence, saying she was an example of “everything good that my father has done.”
“I hope you give him some mercy so he can see me graduate college, so he can see me get my first home, my first job,” she said as Pezzola cried at the defense table.
On the other hand, Nordean’s 18-year sentence ties Oath Keepers founder Steward Rhodes as the longest sentence handed down in the January 6 cases.
Nordean led the Proud Boys after the group’s chairman, Enrique Barrio, was arrested days before January 6, 2021. Nordean also apologized during his sentencing hearing, saying, “For a long time I thought of myself merely as an individual, comparing my actions that day to others… but I had to face the sobering truth: I didn’t come to January 6 as an individual, I came as a leader.”
“The truth is I did help lead a group of men back to the Capitol,” he added. “I had ample opportunity to deescalate… and I did nothing.”
Nicholas Smith, Nordean’s defense attorney, noted that Nordean “consumed at least six alcoholic beverages” on his way to the capitol that day.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
