‘Bigo’ Barnett sentenced to jail over Capitol riot participation

Richard “Bigo” Barnett, the Gravette man who grew to become notorious for his function within the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt on the nation’s Capitol, was sentenced in Washington, D.C., right this moment to 54 months in jail.

That’s based on a tweet by WUSA9’s Jordan Fischer who’s in Washington and has been intently following the Jan. 6 circumstances and coated the sentencing by U.S. District Decide Christopher R. Cooper.

The 4 1/2-year sentence is lower than the seven years and three months the prosecution advisable however considerably greater than the protection’s one-year request.

Cooper stated Barnett and different rioters tried to “rip [the 12th Amendment] out of the Structure.” That modification offers with the presidential election course of.

Cooper additionally stated he believed Barnett lied repeatedly throughout testimony, WUSA9 reported.

Barnett, 62, has been free whereas awaiting sentencing. A federal jury convicted him in January on all eight expenses for his actions within the lethal riots, although he was not accused of any violent crimes.

Barnett grew to become infamous for an image that confirmed him posing with one foot propped on a desk in then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s workplace. He additionally was convicted of stealing an envelope from Pelosi’s workplace. He stated he paid for it with 1 / 4 he left behind.

Barnett sounded as if he might already be planning his attraction.

In a ruling earlier Wednesday, Decide Cooper refused a protection request to overturn the jury’s verdict and acquit Barnett or grant a brand new trial.

Barnett had argued he needs to be acquitted on a theft of presidency property depend “as a result of he bled on the [envelope], which eradicated any conceivable worth it had.”

“Whereas the envelope might not have been notably prized, Barnett’s personal actions supported a discovering that it had at the very least some worth. … Barnett didn’t discard the envelope, as one usually would of a dirty merchandise,” the choose wrote. “As an alternative, he proudly displayed it to fellow rioters exterior the Capitol and carried all of it the best way from the District of Columbia again dwelling to Arkansas.”

Barnett was accused of, amongst different issues, carrying a high-voltage stun gun connected to a strolling workers into the Capitol.

Through the trial, Barnett testified that he was pushed into the Capitol and determined to search for a restroom however ended up in Pelosi’s workplace by mistake.

The Capitol riots have been a failed try to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election outcomes during which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump.

Barnett was convicted of those offenses:

*Theft of presidency property.

*Coming into and remaining within the Capitol with a lethal or harmful weapon, a stun gun.

*Obstruction of an official authorities continuing and aiding and abetting.

*Civil Dysfunction.

*Theft of presidency property.

*Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted constructing or grounds with a lethal or harmful weapon.

*Coming into and remaining in sure rooms within the Capitol constructing.

*Disorderly conduct in a Capitol Constructing.

*Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol constructing.

In one other high-profile Jan. 6 case involving an Arkansan, Conway resident Peter Stager, 43, is scheduled to be sentenced July 24 in Washington. Stager was accused of beating a police officer with a flagpole and has been jailed since shortly after the riots.

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