Earlier this month, Roanoke resident Casey Tryon-Castro, known to online sleuths as "Hat Hag," was convicted of four felony charges and four misdemeanors for robbing, assaulting, and obstructing police on restricted Capitol grounds during the insurrection. She is set to be sentenced later this year and faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
The last employment record I could find for Tryon-Castro is as an investor at Four Brothers Builders, LLC. When I contacted them via social media about her employment status, they denied her involvement with the company and asked that I never contact them again. So, as most people would, I immediately contacted them with a screenshot of a page that listed her as an agent at the company and had her address alongside it. The page was from September 2021, and the company replied to say that she had been an investor but that her shares had been sold in late 2021 or early 2022. They then asked me several questions I had already answered, including questioning, "what this has to do with."
Tryon-Castro is also a mother, which means she may give up more than her career and her freedom because of her actions that day. If she sounds like a sad case, know that she spent half an hour engaging in at least three separate invasions of the Lower West Terrace tunnel, the site of some of the worst violence on January 6th. She made it into the front of the mob pushing against police and robbed an officer of his riot shield. She lost her hat in the melee and admitted in a January 2021 interview that she threw away the sweatshirt she was wearing because it was covered in OC spray. In spite of all of this, she still declined a plea deal.
So too did her co-defendant, another Virginia resident named Micaiah Joseph, who was convicted of two felonies and four misdemeanors and faces up to eight years in prison. Coincidentally, Joseph comes from a town called Triangle and became the third January 6th defendant who wore a tricorn hat to be convicted that day.
This case is emblematic of the January 6th prosecution in a number of ways in that it covers defendants of different sexes and ages from different parts of the country who took different paths in their criminal cases. Another man charged in this case, Patrick Bournes, a 60-year-old from Santa Clara, California; pleaded guilty in February 2024 to a felony charge of civil disorder and faces eight to 14 months in prison when he is sentenced later this month.
Another co-defendant, Benjamin Silva of Washington, pleaded guilty to the same felony in April and faces the same sentencing guidelines when he is sentenced in September. Finally, Troy Weeks of New York pleaded guilty last month to the same two felonies and four misdemeanors Joseph was convicted at trial of. He faces 24 to 30 months in prison at his November sentencing.
In the past five months, five of the six defendants charged in this case have been convicted of felonies, and all five are going to prison. Just one man remains, and not only has he not been convicted, he has not even been arrested: Adam Villarreal has been on the run since the insurrection. He has ties to California, Oklahoma, and Oregon. Please contact the FBI if you have any information.
These six men and women are just the tip of the iceberg. The DOJ is rapidly nearing 1,500 arrests, 1,100 convictions, and 900 sentences for individuals who broke the law that day. Hundreds more could be arrested in the next 18 months. Accountability is coming.
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