A Chicago man who stole a prized {photograph} from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s workplace in the course of the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Friday to greater than 4 years in jail for his position within the mob’s assault on the constructing.
Kevin James Lyons, 40, took a pockets from a Pelosi staffer’s coat and a framed {photograph} of Pelosi with the late Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights motion icon who died in July 2020. Lyons additionally mockingly known as out Pelosi’s identify in the course of the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
“In the context of the actions of the riotous mob, some of whom were baying for blood, Lyons’ invocation of the Speaker’s name could only be intended and understood as a threat of violence,” prosecutors wrote in a courtroom submitting.
Investigators haven’t recovered the {photograph} of Pelosi with Lewis, which was taken throughout a 2019 go to to Africa, her final journey overseas with the Georgia Democrat earlier than his dying. The framed photograph, taken from a mantle within the California Democrat’s workplace, was a present from a former employees photographer who took it.
A senior member of Pelosi’s employees instructed prosecutors that the photograph was certainly one of her favorites. It was “of extreme sentimental and nonmonetary value and was, in no uncertain terms, not just another photograph,” prosecutors wrote.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sentenced Lyons to 4 years and three months in jail adopted by three years of supervised launch, based on courtroom information. The decide allowed Lyons to stay free till he should report back to jail.
A spokesperson for Pelosi declined to touch upon the case,
Lyons wasn’t charged with the theft of the {photograph}, however he acknowledged in a courtroom submitting that he took it and the staffer’s pockets. Howell convicted him of fees together with obstruction of an official continuing, the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Howell convicted Lyons after a “stipulated bench trial,” which implies the decide determined the case with no jury primarily based on information that either side agreed to earlier than the trial began. The continuing permits defendants to protect enchantment rights that they must waive in the event that they pleaded responsible.
Prosecutors had beneficial a jail sentence of 4 years and eight months for Lyons, an HVAC technician who was arrested in Illinois every week after the riot.
Lyons drove by way of the evening from Chicago to Washington, D.C., to attend then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally close to the White House on Jan. 6. He used his cellphone to document himself as he joined the pro-Trump mob’s assault on the Capitol.
Lyons shouted, “Nancy, where are you?” and “Nancy!” in a menacing tone earlier than coming into her workplace. Some of Pelosi’s staffers have been hiding in a close-by workplace, locked and barricaded with furnishings, whereas rioters invaded her workplace suite.
Lyons later instructed FBI brokers that he left Pelosi’s workplace when a police officer entered with a gun drawn and ordered everyone to depart.
Lyons additionally heckled law enforcement officials, calling them Nazis and “oath breakers” as they tried to guard the Capitol.
On the evening of Jan. 6, Lyons texted an image of the stolen {photograph} to pals and wrote, “I’m pretty confident I am now a multiple Federal felon.”
The FBI searched his dwelling however didn’t discover the photograph, “meaning that he has either destroyed it, disposed of it, or continues to possess it to this day,” prosecutors wrote.
On Instagram, he posted a screenshot of a wood plaque exterior of Pelosi’s workplace suite.
“During the entire course of January 6, Lyons maintained a glib and insolent tone in the face of the destruction, chaos, and violence of the mob,” prosecutors wrote. “He made jokes about the situation unfolding around him, even as he saw broken bike racks, toppled security fences, shattered windows, broken doors, and overrun police officers.”
Lyons is ashamed of his actions and genuinely remorseful, protection legal professional Lawrence Wolf Levin stated in a courtroom submitting.
“The defendant is a good, hard-working man who made an extremely poor choice and regretfully participated in a serious criminal offense,” Levin wrote.
More than 1,000 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Jan. 6 siege. Approximately 100 of them have been convicted after trials determined by a jury or decide, whereas over 600 others have pleaded responsible. More than 560 riot defendants have been sentenced, with over half receiving phrases of imprisonment starting from three days to 18 years.
Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com