WASHINGTON D.C., DC — An East Texas veteran who assaulted police and brandished a crowbar at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison.
Ryan Taylor Nichols, of Longview, entered a guilty plea in November to two felony counts of obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting police. Because of his plea, he had avoided a more serious charge for spraying a large canister of pepper spray toward officers who were defending the Lower West Terrace Tunnel. On Thursday, he was sentenced to 64 months in prison and fined $200,000.
According to Jordan Fischer, a reporter at CBS19's sister station WUSA in Washington, D.C., the judge said Nichols did not cooperate with the financial portion of the presentencing investigation. He also raised more than $230,000 on a fundraising website titled "Free My Patriot Prisoner."
The Marine Corps veteran originally faced about roughly six-and-and-half-to-eight years, but a court ruling led to a way for his sentence to be reduced. Ahead of sentencing, the prosecution said that Nichols deserves 83 months, which is just a month shy of seven years.
The government's court filing said Nichols was calling – “repeatedly and voraciously” – for violence in the weeks before Jan. 6. His post on Christmas Eve 2020 read, “It’ll be fixed January 6th, or the Patriots will fix it ourselves. When the Patriots move to fix it, we’re bringing the wrath of God, and there’s not a F***ING thing you can do to stop it.”
Our Washington D.C. sister station, WUSA, reported that he recruited fellow Marine Corps veteran, his co-defendant Alex Harkrider, of Carthage, to join him in D.C. on Jan. 6. Nichols described the event as having "front seat tickets to the REAL revolution.”
In one video, Nichols took out a crowbar while yelling, “This is our country!" and another video showed Nichols standing on a ledge near a shattered window and yelling, “If you have a weapon, you need to get your weapon!” He was spotted using pepper spray to assault police at the Lower West Terrace Tunnel.
Harkrider, who pleaded guilty in January of multiple felony counts in connection with carrying a tomahawk to the Capitol, is set to be sentenced on May 9.