A judge sentenced capitol rioter Daniel "DJ" Rodriguez to 12.5 years in prison for reportedly using a taser to shock former Washington, D.C. police officer Michael Fanone.
Previously, the defendant admitted as part of a plea agreement in February that he attacked Fanone with a taser, causing the police officer to lose consciousness. Rodriguez also confessed to working to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Capitol Rioter Sentenced to 12.5 Years in Prison
The defendant is also forced to pay $96,000 to cover the medical treatment for the police officer as well as $2,000 in restitution for the damage done to the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. The sentence came as prosecutors were requesting a longer 14-year ruling.
They argued that Rodriguez administered a group chat where he and a co-defendant talked about battles and operations in Washington, D.C., before former President Donald Trump announced the Jan. 6 rally. They were later found to have planned their trip to the Capitol after the Republican businessman tweeted urging his followers to "be wild," as per CBS News.
On Wednesday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson told the defendant that he showed up in D.C. spoiling for a fight. Additionally, she told Rodriguez's legal team that their client was a "one-man army of hate." Jackson also said Americans must understand that one cannot do something like that again.
The defendant's attorneys said he was "remorseful" for his actions that day and even wrote a letter to police officer Fanone where he called him a "brave man." In his letter, Rodriguez said that he would spend a long time in prison whether or not he wrote a letter, but added that he simply wished to apologize to the victim.
Rodriguez said that he got carried away and regrets doing something like what he did that made him out of his mind. He wished he was smarter and instead protected the former officer.
Shocking a Police Officer With a Stun Gun
As the California man was led out of the courtroom following the sentencing, he yelled, "Trump won!" According to Yahoo News, Rodriguez's 12.5-year sentence is also surpassed by two other defendants who have received longer prison terms so far out of the hundreds of sentences for Capitol riot cases.
At the time of the incident, Fanone's body camera captured footage that showed him screaming out in pain after Rodriguez tasered him while an angry mob of Trump supporters surrounded him.
Later, another rioter dragged the former police officer into the crowd outside a tunnel on the Capitol's Lower West Terrace. Other rioters then beat him, and he later suffered a heart attack after Rodriguez held the stun gun to his neck and shocked him multiple times.
The rioter's guilty plea in February was in respect to four felonies, which include conspiracy and assaulting a police officer. Rodriguez was also sentenced to 36 months of supervised release, said Axios.
