Washington
Wounded man who invaded Senate with knife sentenced to prison for Capitol riot
An Alabama man was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly two years in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol and invading the Senate floor with a knife on his hip and a gaping wound on his face.
A police officer shot Joshua Matthew Black in his left cheek with a crowd-control munition outside the Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The bloody hole in his face didn’t stop Black from occupying the Senate with other rioters after lawmakers evacuated the chamber.
“Black was a notorious offender during the attack on the Capitol,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing. “The nation was shocked and appalled at the events of January 6, and perhaps no other incident sparked as much as outrage and distress as Black and other rioters’ occupation of the Senate Chamber.”
Prosecutors had recommended a five-year prison sentence for Black, 47, of Leeds, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Black to 22 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, according to court records.
Black didn’t testify before the judge convicted him in January of five charges, including three felonies, after hearing trial testimony without a jury. Jackson also acquitted him of one count, obstructing a congressional proceeding.
Black joined the mob that disrupted the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. But the judge concluded that prosecutors didn’t prove Black knowingly intended to obstruct or impede the proceedings.
Defense attorney Clark Fleckinger said Black, an evangelical Christian, was motivated by his religious beliefs. Black believed God directed him to go to Washington so he could “plead the blood of Jesus” on the Senate floor “to foster Congressional atonement for what he perceived to be the transgressions of (a) corrupt Democratic Party and Republican Party,” Fleckinger wrote in a court filing.
More than 1,000 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. Roughly 500 of them have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to over 14 years. Nineteen have received prison sentences of five years or longer, according to an Associated Press review of court records.
Black, who runs a lawn-mowing business, traveled alone to Washington, D.C., to attend then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. He joined the crowd walking to the Capitol before Trump finished his speech.
Black, armed with a concealed knife, was the first rioter to breach the barricade at the Lower West Terrace, according to prosecutors.
“This brazen act no doubt encouraged other rioters, who soon after overran the entire Lower West Terrace,” they wrote.
Black then joined the mob on the West Plaza, where police shot him with a “less-than-lethal” munition, prosecutors said.
“Rioters near Black became enraged that he was shot, and they harassed and assaulted officers,” they wrote.
After entering the Capitol through the East Rotunda doors, he breached the Senate chamber and remained inside for over 20 minutes. Black rummaged through a desk assigned to Sen. Ted Cruz and posed for photos on the Senate dais. Before leaving, he joined other rioters in a “raucous demonstration styled as a prayer” led by Jacob Chansley, the self-styled “QAnon Shaman,” prosecutors said.
Black later told the FBI that he had a hunting knife on his hip — in a sheath beneath his coat — while inside the Senate chamber. FBI agents found the knife at Black’s home when they arrested him on Jan. 14, 2021.
He was jailed in Washington after his arrest and remained detained until a judge ordered his release on April 24, 2021. He’ll get credit for the jail time that he already served.
New York
U.S. seeks multiple life sentences for NYC bike path killer
NEW YORK (AP) — Relatives of eight people killed in a Halloween terror attack on a New York City bike path as well as those who were injured are expected to speak at a Wednesday sentencing hearing for an Islamic extremist who prosecutors say deserves multiple life sentences.
Sayfullo Saipov’s sentencing in Manhattan federal court comes after a jury in March rejected the death penalty for the Uzbekistan citizen and onetime New Jersey resident, leaving him with a mandatory life sentence.
Prosecutors urged Judge Vernon S. Broderick to impose a sentence of eight consecutive life sentences — one for each death — and an additional 260 years in prison, according to a presentence submission.
“Saipov is an unabashed terrorist — a proud murderer who deserves no leniency and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” prosecutors wrote.
“After months of planning a vicious terrorist attack, Saipov got what he wanted: brutal carnage of innocent people, lives and families destroyed, and terror in New York City. Indeed, the only thing Saipov was denied was even more death and destruction because he crashed into a school bus before he made it to the Brooklyn Bridge,” they added.
Saipov, 35, carried out his attack on Halloween in 2017 when he ran his rented truck onto a bike path in lower Manhattan that is popular with residents and tourists.
Five tourists from Argentina, two Americans and a Belgian woman were killed, and 18 others were seriously injured.
Saipov was shot by a police officer and immediately taken into custody after emerging from his truck shouting “God is great” in Arabic and waving paintball and pellet guns in the air.
Prosecutors said he smiled as he asked FBI agents who questioned him in a hospital room after the attack if they could hang an Islamic State group flag on the walls.
At his trial, his family members urged a life sentence, saying they hoped he would realize what he had done and express remorse. They said they wanted him to return to the passive person they remembered him as before he grew obsessed with online propaganda posted by the Islamic State militant group.
A former long-haul truck driver, Saipov moved legally to the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010 and lived in Ohio and Florida before joining his family in Paterson, New Jersey.
His lawyer, David Patton, told jurors that his actions were “senseless, horrific, and there’s no justification for them.”
Patton, who did not post a sentencing submission in the public file, did not return an email message Tuesday.
Saipov, who did not testify at his trial, will have the opportunity to speak at the sentencing hearing.
