by WASHINGTON — A self-described «jerk» who broke into the Capitol on January 6 and stole a wallet and a framed photo of the late civil rights icon, Rep. John Lewis, from the office of the then-Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, was sentenced to more than four years. in federal prison on Friday.
kevin lyonsA 40-year-old father from Chicago, he was previously convicted of felony obstruction of official proceeding along with disorderly conduct and disorderly conduct in a restricted building and entering and remaining in a restricted building.
US District Judge Beryl Howell sentenced Lyons to 51 months, four years and three months, in federal prison, saying it was very rare for a defendant to come before her and describe their childhood as «perfect» as Lyons did. Lyons has «no excuse» for her conduct, she said.
Howell said it was absurd for Lyons to join the mob in booing the officers, calling them «fucking Nazi bastards.» and «SS!» — Since the attack on the United States Capitol was «the most fascist thing» he had ever seen.
«It was the mob that was most like the Nazis and the fascists that day,» Howell said, saying it was «strangely ironic» that Lyons would refer to officers as Nazis «when the shoe is on the other foot.»
Lyons was recorded stealing a wallet with about $150 in cash from a staff member’s jacket. The framed photograph he stole was a gift given to Pelosi about two months after Lewis’s death, federal prosecutors said. He showed Pelosi, D-Calif., and Lewis, D-Ga., who was a member of the Freedom Riders, spoke during the 1963 March on Washington and had her skull fractured by an Alabama state trooper while trying to cross. a bridge in Selma in 1965, at what used to be known as the «Gate of No Return» at Elmina Castle in Ghana. As Assistant US Attorney Sean McCauley said Friday, «African countesses passed» through that door on their way to their slavery.
“Lyons left the Capitol via Uber before traveling back to Chicago,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. “That night he texted some friends a photo of the stolen photo and admitted that he took the photo. He then bragged, «I’m pretty sure I’m a multiple federal felon now.» The photograph was never recovered.
Lyons spoke to the judge before his sentencing and explained why he owed thousands of dollars in child support (Judge Howell said he should have been working to pay what he owed instead of traveling to Washington, DC, and joining a riot on January 6th). and saying that he was «very ashamed» for what he did during the attack on the Capitol.
«I’m a pretty eccentric person, you could tell,» Lyons said, gesturing to the podium. «I let the mob and the mob and stuff get the best of me… he’s crazy, I can’t believe it.» He said he was sorry for the impact his crimes had on his 16- and 13-year-old children.
«I’m an idiot, I realize that,» Lyons said. “I was stupid. I do not know what happened to me. … I apologize to you, to the country and to my family.»
More than 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and at least 335 have received jail sentences. The Justice Department said in a statement this month that its determination to hold the Jan. 6 defendants accountable «has not and will not abate,» and online detectives identified hundreds of additional rioters who have not been arrested.
