Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola gets 10 years in prison for Jan. 6 role

Rioters, including Dominic Pezzola, center with police shield, are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys who became one of the recognizable faces of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol more than two years ago, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Judge Timothy Kelly’s sentencing decision Friday is half of what prosecutors sought for Pezzola.

Kelly said his sentence reflects Pezzola’s lesser role in comparison to his co-defendants and his conduct that day.

On Friday, Kelly called the events of Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol “a national disgrace and that Pezzola’s actions that day “warrant significant deterrence.”

In his plea for leniency to the court, Pezzola said he had given up politics, yet as he was being escorted out of the courtroom he shouted, “Trump won!”

Pezzola was convicted of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and robbery involving government property. Unlike four of his co-defendants in the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy case, Pezzola was acquitted of that charge.

Though its far less than what prosecutors were looking for, the sentencing is in line with that of two of Pezzola’s co-defendants, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl who heard their punishment Thursday. Biggs received 17 years and Rehl, 15 years — roughly half of what prosecutors had sought for the two.

Both penalties are also below the most severe sentence of 18 years given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes in his separate seditious conspiracy conviction for his actions during Jan. 6.

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