Another participant in the torch-bearing mob at UVa in 2017 will not go to jail

Jamie Ryan Troutman of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, pleaded to disturbing the peace — not using fire for racial intimidation — in Albemarle County court Thursday. District Attorney Lawton Tufts thanked the man's attorney, Elliott Harding, for providing a piece of evidence that sets Troutman's case apart from others that have resulted in felony convictions.

“Mr. Harding's excellent plea convinced us that there are some differences,” Tufts said in court.

Troutman was one of about 300 people who marched through the University of Virginia on August 11, 2017, chanting “Jews will not replace us” and Nazi slogans such as “blood and soil.” Troutman, however, did not join in the chants, according to his body-worn camera.

“He never sang that,” Harding said.

Although Troutman was in the front row of protesters surrounding a handful of counterprotesters gathered around a statue of university founder Thomas Jefferson, footage showed him retreating after unexpectedly encountering the counterprotesters, his lawyer said.

“He offered to hand over his flashlight when there was an interaction with these people,” Harding said. “He did not attempt to engage in conversation with them.”

Harding said his client and his family had already suffered from having his name linked to events at the university and in downtown Charlottesville the next day, including the Unite the Right rally that turned riotous and the killing of counterprotester Heather Heyer.

Tufts said the fact that Troutman, now 35, had no prior criminal record factored into the court's settlement, which sentenced Troutman to 12 months in prison, but suspended the sentence. As part of the settlement, Troutman must pay court costs, is not allowed to return to UVa and is prohibited from breaking any laws other than traffic offenses for a year.

Like another man who had accepted a seemingly identical deal six days earlier, Troutman was allowed to enter his plea under what is known as the Alford plea, which acknowledges that the state has sufficient evidence to convict but requires the defendant to waive an admission of guilt.

When Troutman appeared before Judge Cheryl Higgins, he looked different than in his photograph. His stubble and crew cut had given way to a longer haircut and a thick strawberry-blonde beard. In the courtroom, he wore a sage green polo shirt and added the words “Your Honor” to most of his answers.

When Higgins asked Troutman if he had anything to say, he lowered his gaze and paused for a few seconds before finally answering.

“I don’t think I need to say anything, Your Honor,” he replied.

Neither he nor Harding made any comments to the press on their way out of the courthouse.

So far, there have been five convictions for using fire for racial intimidation. The shortest sentence was 40 days, the longest one year.

The law is an evolution of Virginia's so-called cross-burning law, which was introduced to drive the Ku Klux Klan out of the state. When lawmakers feared the law might be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002, they created a new law that criminalizes the burning of any object for the purpose of racial intimidation.

Several defendants, including the one who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct last week, have attacked the charges as politically motivated. The man who campaigned and won on this issue in 2019, Albemarle County District Attorney Jim Hingeley, has suggested these charges are necessary to curb white supremacy. Hingeley was in court for the recent sentencing but sat in the gallery and did not speak.

The only case that went to trial, that of Jacob Joseph Dix of Clarksville, Ohio, ended in a failed trial and a mistrial declared on June 6. A motions hearing in that case is scheduled for next week.