Federal jury convicts Texas man of storming Capitol with gun in 1st trial over Jan. 6 riot

FILE - Violent insurrectionists, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. The first trial for one of the hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions starts this week, with jury selection scheduled to begin on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, for the case against Guy Wesley Reffitt. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) (John Minchillo, Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

WASHINGTON – The first Jan. 6 defendant to take his case to trial has been found guilty on five counts related to his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, NBC News reported.

Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who attempted to storm the U.S. Capitol while allegedly armed with a gun and zip ties, was convicted of all five counts he was charged with, including transport of a firearm in support of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding. Jurors began deliberating on Tuesday morning after a week-long trial in which they heard testimony from Reffitt’s teenage son Jackson Reffitt, who tipped off the FBI about his father before the Jan. 6 attack.

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Prosecutors, quoting Reffitt’s own words, argued that the defendant “lit the match” on the west side of the Capitol, where some of the most brutal attacks on law enforcement took place. Video shows Reffitt, with a blue jacket that covers his waistband, leading the mob up the steps of the Capitol, besides the platform where Joe Biden was inaugurated.

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