The founder of Hawaii’s Proud Boys chapter and a Republican candidate for the Texas legislature were both sentenced to four years in prison Friday for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which they had videotaped.
Nicholas Ochs, 36, of Honolulu and Nicholas DeCarlo, 32, of Fort Worth, Texas, pleaded guilty on Sept. 9 to obstruction of a federal proceeding. In addition to the prison term, the men will undergo 36 months of supervised release similar to parole and pay more than $2,800 each in fines, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said.
The men traveled from their respective states to the Capitol a day before attending then-President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 rally together on the Ellipse. From there, they marched on the Capitol and arrived at the west entrance, where a line of police had been attempting to keep a mob from entering an inaugural stage. Both men threw smoke bombs at police, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
From there, they climbed stairs to the Upper West Terrace and illegally entered the Capitol through Senate wing doors. The men toured the interior for 40 minutes, filming themselves smoking cigarettes at one point. After exiting, they approached another door and used a marker to write the phrase “Murder the Media,” which is the name of a social media channel the pair operate.
They then rummaged through a U.S. Capitol Police duffel bag that had been left by the door and retrieved a set of plastic handcuffs.
JAN. 6 COMMITTEE TO RELEASE FINAL REPORT IN TWO WEEKS
“Sorry we couldn’t go live when we stormed the f***in’ U.S. Capitol and made Congress flee,” Ochs filmed himself saying as he walked away.
Afterward, Ochs posted a video of himself on Telegram saying, “We have just, uh, peeked through this window, and on the television, the headline reads that Congress stopped the vote when we stormed the Capitol. And, as we’ve been saying all day, we came here to stop the steal,” NBC DFW reported.
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More than 900 people from nearly every state have been arrested over the Capitol breach. At least 280 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
