WASHINGTON — A federal judge sentenced two New Yorkers to more than three years in prison Friday for assaulting police with pepper spray during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Cody Mattice and James Mault appeared before D.C. District Court Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell for sentencing Friday afternoon. Both men pleaded guilty earlier this year to one felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding police and faced a recommended sentencing guideline of 37-46 months in prison and up to three years of supervised release.
In a plea hearing in April, the two men admitted they’d purchased pepper spray and a baton in the days leading up to Jan. 6. Once in D.C., they joined the mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump and pushed their way to the very front of the crowd at the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, where a violent conflict with police was underway.
“Did you essentially crawl across the top of the crowd to reach the tunnel?” Howell asked them.
Both men said they did. At that point, they said, they each grabbed canisters of pepper spray and sprayed them at police. Mault and Mattice also admitted they taunted police, telling them, “Your jobs will be here when you come back after we kick the s*** out of everybody.”
The two men took decidedly less belligerent tones on Friday. Both told Howell they regretted their participation in the riot and that it had already had profound personal costs. Mattice — whose attorney described him as “uneducated” and “unsophisticated” — said he’d lost custody of one of his children. Mault said he’d lost his job as an ironworker and his career as a U.S. Army paratrooper. Mault previously served for eight years and reenlisted in the Army following the Jan. 6 riot.
“I know I shouldn’t have gone down,” Mault told Howell. “I was very stupid and ignorant and I lost myself that day. I’m extremely embarrassed.”
Howell told the men she knows every defendant who comes before her is a “three-dimensional person,” but that her job was to decide an appropriate sentence based on their actions and the need to protect the community. She said she put particular weight on their pre-planning and their efforts to reach the most violent part of the riot.
Howell sentenced both men to serve 44 months in prison, to be followed by 36 months of supervised release. Both will also have to pay $2,000 in restitution, which is the standard restitution amount in Jan. 6 felony cases.
At the request of lawyers for both Mattice and Mault, Howell agreed to recommend they be placed at low-security federal facilities, if determined to qualify.
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