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Wednesday, April 17, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Four Capitol rioters plead guilty in time for Christmas break

Brothers Michael Quick and Stephen Quick appeared alongside Zachary Martin and Kari Kelly to plead guilty to storming the halls of government on Jan. 6. 

WASHINGTON (CN) — Four men from Missouri and Alabama pleaded guilty Thursday to their role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, accepting what has become the standard plea deal for nonviolent, low-level rioters. 

Zachary Martin, Michael Quick, Stephen Quick, from Missouri, and Kari Kelley, from Alabama, all pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. The charge is punishable by a maximum sentence of six months in prison, though it has been typical for those who plead guilty to the unlawful picketing charge to skirt prison sentences all together. 

Over 150 individuals have now pleaded guilty to their role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, out of the approximately 700 people who have been charged. 

The brothers Quick had driven from Missouri to attend Trump’s Stop the Steal rally. Along with Kelley, they entered the Capitol through a broken window. Unlike Kelly, the brothers turned themselves into the FBI. For his part, Stephen told agents that he was ashamed of what he had done. Michael meanwhile told agents that he didn’t know that he was trespassing, and was under the impression that police were letting them into the building. 

Whereas Kelley was identified from security footage inside the Capitol, Martin was turned in by several acquaintances and friends after he live-streamed his time in the Capitol on Facebook. Five individuals sent agents screenshots of the then-deleted video.  

Martin, Kelley and the Quick brothers are set to be sentenced on March 17. 

Categories / Criminal, Politics

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