Dominic Pezzola was convicted of multiple felony counts for assaulting an officer and using a police riot shield to smash a window at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps veteran and Proud Boy who used a stolen police riot shield to cause the first breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors described Pezzola as the “literal poster boy” for the Proud Boys’ conspiracy. Footage of him using Ode’s shield to smash in a window on the Capitol’s Senate Wing — causing the first breach of the building through which hundreds of other rioters poured through — became one of the earliest and most memorable images of the riot.
Pezzola spoke briefly before Kelly handed down his sentence Friday, tearfully asking for mercy and saying he was done with politics.
“Your honor, I stand before you as a changed and humbled man,” Pezzola said. “But, nonetheless as a man who has always taken responsibility for his actions… I have never denied what I did on J6.”
Minutes later, after hearing his sentence — and once Kelly had left the bench — a smiling Pezzola raised his hand as he was led out of court by U.S. Marshals and shouted, “Trump won!”