A federal jury on Tuesday swiftly convicted the first accused Jan. 6 rioter to go on trial even as
A Texas man accused of bringing a semiautomatic pistol to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, interfering with police, and then telling his children that “traitors get shot” when they wanted to turn him into authorities, was found guilty Tuesday on all charges. The jury took only three hours to deliberate in the first January 6 case to go to trial.
His son, Jackson Reffitt, testified against him and offered some of the strongest evidence in the trial.
Guy Wesley Reffitt’s sentencing is set for June 8. He faces a maximum of 60 years in prison.
The trial, in Federal District Court in Washington, was an important victory for the Justice Department, which has only just begun the marathon process of bringing to trial what could be scores of rioters accused of storming the Capitol or assaulting the police outside it.
Just hours before Mr. Reffitt was convicted, the Justice Department made clear that the vast investigation is not slowing down, arresting the former Proud Boys leader, Enrique Tarrio, and saying he had been indicted on charges of conspiring with several of his top lieutenants to plan and launch the assault.
The indictment of Mr. Tarrio did not fundamentally alter the portrait of the violence that erupted at the Capitol. But it did serve to fill in details about how the Proud Boys — one of the most visible far-right extremist groups on the ground that day — planned for and took part in the storming of the building.