(Washington) A Kentucky man who was the first rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, storming was sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison.
A police officer who tried to subdue Michael Sparks with pepper spray described him as a catalyst for the insurrection. The Senate recessed that day less than a minute after Mr. Sparks jumped into the building through a broken window. He then joined other rioters in chasing a police officer up the stairs.
Before his sentencing, Mr. Sparks told the judge that he still believed the 2020 presidential election was tainted by fraud and “completely hidden from the American public.”
“I regret that what happened that day didn’t help anyone,” he said. “I regret that our country is in the state it is in.”
Federal Judge Timothy Kelly, who sentenced Mr. Sparks to four years and five months in prison, told him there was nothing patriotic about his prominent role in what was a “national disgrace.”
PHOTO MARK SCHIEFELBEIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michael Sparks
“I don’t think you really appreciated the seriousness of what happened that day and, quite frankly, the seriousness of what you did,” the judge said.
Federal prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of four years and nine months for Mr. Sparks, a 47-year-old factory worker from Cecilia.
Defense attorney Scott Wendelsdorf asked the judge to sentence Mr. Sparks to one year of home detention instead of prison.
A jury convicted Michael Sparks on all six charges he faced, including one count of obstructing police during a civil disorder. He did not testify during his trial in Washington.
The first in the Capitol
In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, Mr. Sparks used social media to promote conspiracy theories about alleged election fraud and advocate for civil war.
“It’s time to get them out of Congress. This is tyranny,” he posted on Facebook three days before the riot.
Mr. Sparks traveled to Washington with colleagues from an electronics and components plant in Elizabethtown, Ky., and attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6.
After the rally, Mr. Sparks and a friend, Joseph Howe, joined a crowd marching toward the Capitol. Both wore tactical vests. Mr. Howe was filmed repeatedly saying, “We’re going into this building.”
Off camera, Mr. Sparks added, “All it takes is one person to go, the rest will follow,” according to prosecutors. His lawyer argued that the evidence does not prove Mr. Sparks made that statement.
“Of course, both Sparks and Howe were right, more so than anyone realized at the time. It was only shortly thereafter that Sparks made history as the very first person to breach the Capitol, and others indeed followed,” prosecutors wrote.
“This is our America!”
Dominic Pezzola, a member of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys, used a police shield to smash a window next to the door to the Senate wing.
Capitol Police Sergeant Victor Nichols sprayed Michael Sparks in the face as he jumped through the broken window.
Sergeant Nichols testified that Mr. Sparks acted “like a green light to everyone behind him and everyone followed him as if it was okay to enter the building.”
Mr. Nichols also testified that Mr. Sparks’ actions were “the catalyst for the full intrusion into the building.”
Undeterred by the pepper spray, he joined other rioters in pursuing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman as he retreated up the stairs and found backup from other officers near the Senate chamber.
“This is our America!” Michael Sparks shouted at police. He left the building about 10 minutes later.
His lawyer downplayed his client’s distinction as the first rioter to enter the building.
“While this is technically true in a chronological sense, he did not lead the mob into the building or cause the breach through which he and others entered,” M wrote.e Wendelsdorf. “In fact, there were eight different access points that day, operated separately and independently by the protesters.”
But the judge said the time and place Mr. Sparks entered the Capitol were a significant factor in his conviction.
“I think there’s no denying that the first person to enter the Capitol would have an encouraging effect on everyone who was even in the vicinity,” Mr.e Kelly to Mr. Sparks. To say that this was not a significant and essential element in the storming of the Capitol is simply to ignore the obvious.”
Michael Sparks was arrested in Kentucky less than a month after the riot. He and Mr. Howe were charged together in a November 2022 indictment.
Mr Howe pleaded guilty to assault and obstruction 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 riot defendants have been convicted and sentenced. More than 600 of them have received prison sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years.