An off-duty Virginia cop who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 alongside a fellow officer has been sentenced to over seven years in prison, the Associated Press reports.
Former Rocky Mount Police Sgt. Thomas Robertson was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison along with three years of supervised release after his term ends. His sentence matches that of Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who stormed the Capitol while armed with a handgun.
Robertson has been jailed since U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled last year that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms. he was given credit for 13 months served.
From the Associated Press:
[Judge Cooper] said he was troubled by Robertson’s conduct since his arrest — not only his stockpiling of guns but also his words advocating for violence. After Jan. 6, Robertson told a friend that he was prepared to fight and die in a civil war and he clung to baseless conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump, the judge noted.
Sentencing guidelines calculated by Cooper recommended a prison term ranging from seven years and three months to nine years.
“It’s a long time because it reflects the seriousness of the offenses that you were convicted of,” the judge said.
Robertson was convicted back in April attacking the Capitol to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. He was found guilty of all six counts leveled against him. His charges included interference with police officers at the Capitol and entering a restricted area with a weapon, which in his case was a large wooden stick. His lawyers said the stick was to help him walk since he was shot in the right thigh while working as a private contractor in Afghanistan back in 2011.
As the AP points out, Robertson traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 with another off-duty police officer, Jacob Fracker, and a third man, a neighbor who wasn’t charged in the case.
