Weekly January 6th Rioter Roundup: Week of July 25th

     James Mels, a 56-year-old from Michigan, pleaded guilty to entering a restricted building or grounds, a class A misdemeanor, and faces up to a year in prison when he is sentenced later this year.

     Samuel Rodriguez, a 34-year-old Pennsylvania man who mocked George Floyd's death on the steps of the Capitol along with a fellow insurrectionist named Jackson Kostolsky and called the FBI in January 2021 to "clear his name," was arrested on four misdemeanor charges carrying a maximum penalty of three years behind bars.

     Mark Ponder, one of only a handful of Washington, D.C. residents arrested in the January 6th insurrection and a man with a long and violent criminal history, was sentenced to 63 months in prison with three years of probation and $2,000 restitution for beating three different police officers, including Aquilino Gonell (who testified before the House Select Committee) with a pole, breaking it against Gonell's riot shield.

     Christine Priola, 50, a former Ohio school employee and an ardent QAnon follower who quit her job after she was spotted on the Senate dais, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding and faces an estimated sentencing range of 15 to 21 months when her punishment is handed down just before Halloween.

     Chance Uptmore of San Antonio, Texas, was sentenced to three months of house arrest with five years of probation on a felony charge he was convicted of by a judge in April; during the raid of his home on Capitol riot charges, agents found nearly 20 pounds of marijuana and magic mushrooms and related products as well as a handgun, which drug users are prohibited from owning under federal law. His father James still faces Capitol riot charges.

     Michael McCormick, an Orange County, California, man who flew to Washington, D.C. and illegally entered the Capitol while wearing a "Trump 45" winter hat, pleaded guilty to a class B misdemeanor of picketing, parading, or demonstrating in the U.S. Capitol, which carries a maximum penalty of six months behind bars.

     George Tanios, a 39-year-old West Virginia man better known as the "Sandwich Nazi," who brought the bear spray and pepper spray in his backpack that co-defendant Julian Khater used against Officers Caroline Edwards and Brian Sicknick, pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts of entering and remaining in a restricted grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.

     Elliot Bishai, 20, a student at the Citadel Military College in South Carolina who made headlines for having Nazi images on his phone, was sentenced to 14 days in prison with a year of probation and $500 in restitution after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of entering a restricted building or grounds.

     Alan Byerly, a 55-year-old from Berks County, Pennsylvania, with a number of prior criminal convictions, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting a federal law enforcement officer and a misdemeanor charge of assault by striking, beating, or wounding for using a stun gun and his hands to assault a Capitol police officer and a reporter. He faces a sentencing range of 37 to 46 months in prison when he receives justice on October 21st.

     Ronnie Bryan Presley, of Bethpage, Tennessee, a 43-year-old with prior convictions for crimes ranging from burglary to domestic violence, faces 18 to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder for grabbing a riot shield from a Capitol police officer trying to protect a window from being broken on January 6th.

     Loruhamah and Abigail Yazdani-Isfehani, 33 and 27, respectively, of Athens, Ohio, each pled guilty to the charge of picketing, parading, or demonstrating in the Capitol building.

     Read last week's January 6th Rioter Roundup here.