US District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced 21-year-old Aiden Bilyard to 40 months in prison on Friday. Bilyard, who was 18 on January 6 2021, travelled to Washington DC from North Carolina along with two other friends, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Bilyard entered a plea agreement with the prosecution after he admitted in October to assaulting police with a deadly or dangerous weapon when he sprayed Capitol officers with a “pepper gel.” He faced 46 to 57 months in prison.
His mother Amy Bilyard told the judge “that’s not right” as he handed down the sentence, according to Politico reporter Kyle Cheney. Judge Walton’s answer to Ms Bilyard, who was in tears, was: “You make your bed, you’ve got to lie in it.”
“He’s lied in it,” Ms Bilyard reportedly said.
Bilyard was captured on surveillance video spraying law enforcement officers with “home defence pepper gel” on the lower west terrace, according to documents by the Department of Justice. He left the Capitol when he heard mention of assault rifles by other rioters.
He then drove back to his hometown in North Carolina that night.
The FBI interviewed Bilyard in 2021 but he denied taking part in the insurrection, despite being confronted with video evidence, according to the Observer. He was arrested later that year while he received basic training in Texas, and was later dismissed from the Air Force…