A Southern California man who photographed himself whereas serving to to trash the Senate Parliamentarian’s workplace, stole a bottle of alcohol after which smoked marijuana in a Senator’s workplace throughout the Jan. 6 riot was sentenced Monday to 4 years in federal jail.
Erik Herrera, a photographer from El Cajon, was arrested in Los Angeles in 2021 and in 2002 was convicted of obstruction and disorderly conduct expenses associated to his position within the breach of the Capitol constructing.
Herrera was amongst a crowd of pro-Trump supporters who breached the Capitol constructing throughout a riot that compelled Congressional leaders to flee for security and briefly delayed the counting of electoral votes and the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Jurors had been proven a photograph Herrerra posted of himself on his Instagram account, carrying a pink respirator masks, goggles and a bulletproof vest whereas holding what look like a stack of paperwork inside the Senate Parliamentarian’s workplace. The picture confirmed objects tossed on the bottom, and one other man together with his toes up on a desk behind Herrera. As he left the constructing, Herrera hoisted a bottle of alcohol he had taken from the Senate workplace and made a fist pump, based on prosecutors.
Herrera wrote in a caption to the picture “I’m reclaiming Aztlan as a result of I like America.” Requested by one other Instagram person concerning the picture, Herrera responded “I wasn’t pondering a lot, I simply needed a goofy ‘(expletive) you’ image,” based on courtroom filings.
Prosecutors say Herrerra went again into the Capitol constructing and entered an unnamed Senator’s “hideaway” workplace, the place he took images and video, together with pictures of him smoking marijuana.
Herrera testified that he got here to the Capitol the day of the riot to doc the occasion as a photojournalist, and argued that his feedback on social media had been merely “banter.” He beforehand claimed that he “did what I needed to do for each photojournalism and our individuals,” and stated of his actions within the Senate workplace, “All I did was throw some paper within the air.”
Prosecutors acknowledged in a sentencing transient filed with the courtroom that Herrera had informed some native media retailers in California that he could be going to Washington D.C. with the intention to cowl a “MAGA rally” and report “inside any believable right-wing autonomous zones.”
Nevertheless, prosecutors wrote, Herrera made “various incriminating statements” earlier than and after Jan. 6, together with feedback “indicating he was sad with the outcomes of the 2020 Presidential Election” and that “he believed President Biden had not been legitimately elected.” Prosecutors added that these feedback made clear that Herrera’s “actions on January 6 had been pushed by far more than his self-proclaimed career of ‘photojournalism.’”
Greater than a dozen individuals with Southern California ties have been convicted for his or her roles within the Capitol riot, with most receiving quick stints behind bars or supervised launch or neighborhood service after admitting to what most-often amounted to trespassing in restricted areas. Greater than two-dozen locals have been charged in connection to the rebel.