WASHINGTON (AP) — The primary rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol constructing in the course of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack was convicted on Friday of prices that he interfered with police and obstructed Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Michael Sparks, 46, of Kentucky, jumped by way of a shattered window moments after one other rioter smashed it with a stolen riot defend. Sparks then joined different rioters in chasing a police officer up flights of stairs, one of the crucial harrowing photographs from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
A federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Sparks of all six prices that he confronted, together with two felonies. Sparks didn’t testify at his weeklong trial. U.S. District Decide Timothy Kelly is scheduled to condemn him on July 9.
Sparks was the “tip of the spear” and breached the Capitol constructing lower than a minute earlier than senators recessed to evacuate the chamber and escape from the mob, Justice Division prosecutor Emily Allen stated in the course of the trial’s closing arguments.
“The defendant was prepared for a civil warfare. Not simply prepared for a civil warfare. He wished it,” Allen instructed jurors.
Protection lawyer Scott Wendelsdorf conceded that Sparks is responsible of the 4 misdemeanor counts, together with trespassing and disorderly conduct prices. However he urged the jury to acquit him of the felony prices — civil dysfunction and obstruction of an official continuing.
Wendelsdorf accused prosecutors of attempting to unfairly blame Sparks for the violence and destruction perpetrated by different rioters round him. The lawyer stated Sparks instantly left the Capitol when he realized that Vice President Mike Pence wouldn’t succumb to strain from then-President Donald Trump to overturn Biden’s victory.
“Michael Sparks could have began the sport, based on the federal government, however he was out of the sport on the sidelines earlier than the primary quarter was over,” the protection lawyer instructed jurors.
Sparks traveled to Washington with a bunch of fellow workers from an electronics and parts plant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They attended Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally close to the White Home on Jan. 6.
After the rally, Sparks and a co-worker, Joseph Howe, joined a crowd in marching to the Capitol. A cameraman’s video captured Howe saying, “We’re getting in that constructing,” earlier than Sparks added that if Pence “does his job right now, he does the precise factor by the Structure, Trump’s our president 4 extra years.”
Sparks and Howe, each carrying tactical vests, made their solution to the entrance of the mob as outnumbered law enforcement officials retreated.
“Michael Sparks was extra ready for battle than a few of the law enforcement officials he encountered that day,” Allen stated.
Sparks was the primary rioter to enter the constructing after Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys extremist group, used a police defend to interrupt the window subsequent to the Senate Wing Door. Different rioters yelled at Sparks to not enter the constructing.
“He jumped in anyway,” Allen stated.
A police officer pepper sprayed Sparks within the face as he leaped by way of the damaged window. Undeterred, Sparks joined different rioters in chasing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman as he retreated up the steps and located backup from different officers close to the Senate chamber.
Sparks ignored instructions to depart and yelled, “That is our America! That is our America!”
Sparks believed that he was defending the Structure on Trump’s behalf and that Pence had an obligation to invalidate the election outcomes, based on his lawyer.
“His perception was flawed, but it surely was honest,” Wendelsdorf stated.
Allen stated Sparks knew that he broke the regulation however wasn’t remorseful.
“I’ll go once more given the chance,” Sparks texted his mom a day after the riot.
Sparks and his co-workers returned to Kentucky on Jan. 7, 2021. By then, photographs of him storming the Capitol had unfold on-line. On his means residence, Sparks referred to as the Metropolitan Police Division and supplied to show himself in, based on prosecutors. He was arrested a number of days later.
Sparks and Howe have been charged collectively in a November 2022 indictment. Howe pleaded responsible to assault and obstruction prices and was sentenced in October to 4 years and two months in jail.
