First rioter to enter Capitol during January 6 attack sentenced to over 4 years in prison

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Kentucky man who was the first rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol during a mob attack on the building was sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison.

A police officer who tried to subdue Michael Sparks with pepper spray called him a catalyst for the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Senate adjourned that day less than a minute after Sparks jumped into the building through a broken window. Sparks then joined other rioters in chasing a police officer up a flight of stairs.

Before receiving his sentence, Sparks told the judge that he still believes the 2020 presidential election was marred by voter fraud and “completely withheld from the American public.”

“I regret that what happened that day didn't help anyone,” Sparks said. “I regret that our country is in the state it is in.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who sentenced Sparks to four years and five months, told him there was nothing patriotic about his prominent role in this “national disgrace.”

“I don't think you realize the full magnitude of what happened that day and, quite frankly, the full seriousness of what you did,” the judge said.

Federal prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of four years and nine months for Sparks, a 47-year-old former factory worker from Cecilia, Kentucky.

Defense attorney Scott Wendelsdorf asked the judge to sentence Sparks to one year of house arrest instead of prison.

A jury found Sparks guilty on all six counts, including obstructing police during a disturbance. Sparks did not testify at his trial in Washington, DC.

In the weeks leading up to the January 6 attack, Sparks used social media to spread conspiracy theories about election fraud and promote civil war.

“It's time to kick her out of Congress. This is tyranny,” he posted on Facebook three days before the riots.

Sparks traveled to Washington, D.C., with colleagues from an electronics and components plant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They attended then-President Donald Trump's “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on January 6.

After the rally, Sparks and a friend, Joseph Howe, joined a crowd marching to the Capitol, both wearing tactical vests. Howe was captured on video repeatedly saying, “We're coming into this building.”

Off camera, Sparks added, “All it takes is one person to go. The rest will follow,” prosecutors said. Sparks' attorney argued that the evidence did not prove Sparks made that statement.

“Of course, both Sparks and Howe were more right than perhaps anyone else knew at the time – only a short time later, Sparks made history when he was the very first person to enter the building, and the rest actually followed,” prosecutors wrote.

Dominic Pezzola, a member of the far-right group Proud Boys, used a police shield to smash a window next to the Senate wing. Capitol Police Sgt. Victor Nichols sprayed Sparks in the face as he leapt through the shattered glass.

Nichols testified that Sparks “acted like a green light to everyone behind him, and everyone was hot on his heels because it looked like they were allowed to enter the building.” Nichols also said Sparks' behavior was “the catalyst for the complete breach of the building.”

Undeterred by the pepper spray, Sparks joined other rioters in pursuing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who retreated down the stairs and received reinforcements from other police officers near the Senate chamber.

“This is our America!” Sparks shouted at the police. About ten minutes later, he left the building.

Sparks' attorney downplayed his client's special significance as the first rioter to enter the building.

“While that is technically correct in terms of timing, he did not lead the crowd into the building or cause the breach through which he and others entered,” Wendelsdorf wrote. “In fact, there were eight different entry points used separately and independently by the protesters that day.”

Sparks was arrested less than a month after the Kentucky riots. Sparks and Howe were jointly charged in a November 2022 indictment. Howe pleaded guilty to assault and obstruction of justice and was sentenced last year to four years and two months in prison.

More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riots. About 950 defendants have been convicted and punished. More than 600 of them have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from a few days to 22 years.