The Proud Boy who smashed through a window to the US Capitol with a police riot shield on January 6, 2021, allowing the first wave of rioters to storm the building as members of Congress were being evacuated was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.
Dominic Pezzola, nicknamed "Spazzolini," was the only one of the five Proud Boys defendants not convicted of seditious conspiracy. Pezzola joined the Proud Boys shortly before January 6, according to evidence shown at trial, and was praised by the organization's leadership for his violent actions at a separate rally weeks before the Capitol riot.
The New York native was convicted of multiple other charges including assaulting or resisting a police officer, robbery of a police shield, destruction of government property and obstructing an official proceeding.
In the at times rumbustious trial which spanned several months, prosecutors argued that Pezzola's co-defendants, leaders of the Proud Boys, pushed lower-level members like Pezzola to be on the front lines of the violence at the Capitol.
Pezzola testified that he only intended to protect himself that day from police and blamed his training in the Marines for moving to the front of the Capitol.
"You're conditioned to not even think about flight response," he told the jury in April. "I guess I'm just programmed to run toward danger."
This story is breaking and will be updated.
