
A Tennessee man who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 and was seen in images carrying zip ties was sentenced to almost five years in prison this Friday. His mother, who was alongside him that day, was also sentenced to prison, WUSA reported.
Eric Gavelek Munchel, of Tennessee, earned the nickname “zip tie guy” after a photograph of him wearing tactical gear and carrying flex cuffs on Jan. 6 went viral. He and his mother, Lisa Eisenhart, of Georgia, were arrested just days after the riot and convicted in a stipulated bench trial in April of multiple felony counts each, including obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy. Munchel, who brought a stun gun into the U.S. Capitol and stashed at least one other weapon – a knife – before going inside, was convicted of additional felony counts.
On Friday, Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Munchel to almost five years in prison, while Eisenhart was sentenced two-and-a-half years.
“He was swept up in the political mania that infected the nation in 2020 and felt so strongly about his duty as a citizen to participate in the electoral process that he broke from his normal routine and traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in a protect,” Munchel’s attorney, Joseph Allen, wrote. “His behavior and lack of judgment from this point can be seen to be a series of compounding external forces, not the innate character of Mr. Munchel.”
Read the full report at WUSA.