WASHINGTON (CN) — A man who clashed with Capitol Police officers in the Capitol Rotunda and engaged in a tug of war over their riot shields during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to 88 months in prison on Monday.
Salvador Sandoval Jr., a 26-year-old man from Iowa, traveled to Washington with his mother Deborah Sandoval, who was sentenced to five months in prison in May on a misdemeanor charge for entering the Capitol.
U.S. District Judge Coleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee, said that the over seven-year sentence was warranted because of the violent nature of his actions and the importance of the election certification he was intent on disrupting.
She referenced the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore and the controversy that arose after Florida’s electoral count became too close to call and the matter had to be decided by the Supreme Court. The high court eventually ruled in favor of Bush and effectively handed him the presidency.
She said that many Americans were dissatisfied with the outcome and many people protested, but no one tried to stop the peaceful transition of power.
Even if Sandoval was too young to remember that election, it still shows that “there is a way of doing this in a way that you should,” Kollar-Kotelly said.
Sandoval declined to make a statement before the court. But his defense attorney William Shipley Jr. said that his client maintains his innocence and may wish to appeal his sentence.
Speaking on behalf of his client, Shipley acknowledged Sandoval had a “disrespect for the law, no question,” but argued that his actions were the result of bad judgment, not those of a violent criminal.
“He had 20 minutes of bad judgment,” Shipley said. “Bad judgment is not a 7 1/2-year sentence.”
Sandoval clashed with officers five separate times inside the Capitol Rotunda, including one altercation with Capitol Police officer Martha Lazo. Sandoval pulled Lazo's riot shield from her hands while amid a crowd of rioters inside the Rotunda.
Justice Department attorney Brian Brady played body-camera footage from that altercation to argue that by taking the shield, Sandoval opened Lazo to worse violence from the crowd. In a second instance, Sandoval is seen trying to pull a second riot shield from an officer but was unsuccessful.
“He acted in his short time inside to cause as much chaos as he possibly could until he was forcibly removed,” Brady said.
Kollar-Kotelly was assigned to Sandoval’s case after U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan retired this year. Hogan had conducted a bench trial in December after which he found Sandoval guilty of civil disorder, assaulting officers, obstructing an official proceeding, acts of violence in the Capitol and trespassing on restricted grounds.
Kollar-Kotelly’s seven-year sentence lined up exactly with the 88 months the Justice Department had sought in their sentencing memo, an uncommon occurrence for Jan. 6 defendants. Most judges have handed down sentences well below the government’s recommendation.
Shipley sharply disagreed with the government’s characterization of his client’s actions and the 88 months they had asked from Kollar-Kotelly. He raised concerns that such a long sentence was equating Sandoval with more violent rioters who used makeshift weapons to attack police officers.
“Leaning in with your shoulder or pushing an officer are not the same as beating officers with flag poles or attacking them with a [Taser],” Shipley said.
He also pointed to the sentences U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, a Barack Obama appointee, ordered for some members of the Oath Keepers, several of whom Shipley represented. He noted some were ordered to just three or four years in prison.
Three members of the Oath Keepers, including the founder Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs and Jessica Watkins received sentences higher than Sandoval: 18 years, 12 years and 8 1/2 years, respectively. The Justice Department has since appealed their sentences, a likely sign prosecutors view them as too short.
Kollar-Kotelly addressed this concern prior to passing down the sentence, noting that there was a spectrum of the violence that occurred on Jan. 6 and that Sandoval’s actions were not at the top of that range. She instead placed him around the middle, enough to warrant her decision.
Before she passed down his sentence, Kollar-Kotelly advised Sandoval that he will be able to vote again when he is ultimately released, and that he should pay closer attention to the issues at hand the next time around.
“You’re young and I don’t want to see you back in here,” she said.
In the 31 months since the Capitol Riot, the Justice Department has charged over 1,100 people in connection with their actions on Jan. 6, and sentenced approximately 597 people. The investigation is still ongoing, with approximately 321 people who assaulted officers still unidentified.
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