A Kentucky man who smashed the window that Ashli Babbitt tried to crawl through during the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has been found guilty, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
"Chad Barrett Jones, 45, of Mount Washington, Ky., was captured on video as part of a group of Donald Trump supporters cursing U.S. Capitol Police officers who were standing outside the glass doors to the Speaker’s Lobby while members of Congress were preparing to evacuate as rioters neared," reported Tom Jackman. "Behind the glass were chairs and tables, and also an armed Capitol Police lieutenant, Michael Byrd."
According to the report, Jones, who was visible in a red coat and gray cap, struck a panel of the window at least 10 times as the mob tried to force its way through. He was first arrested in 2021, after a member of his family reached out to the FBI.
He has a maximum possible sentence of 20 years, which was a reduction from the original potential sentence because his attorney got the words "deadly and dangerous weapon" struck from the charges. Jones was armed with a wooden flagpole during the incident.
Byrd ultimately shot Babbitt as she tried to force her way through, after which she died. She became a martyr figure for many members of the far right, and Byrd a target of hatred, with even former President Donald Trump himself praising her and calling Byrd, who is Black, a "thug."
More than 1,030 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack — the largest number of arrests for the same crime in U.S. history — and a substantial number have already been convicted or accepted plea deals. Most were charged with misdemeanor offenses like unlawful picketing or trespassing, but many face felony charges of assaulting police officers, and high-ranking figures in the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who were prominent in the attack, have been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Trump himself is likely to be indicted by special counsel Jack Smith in his investigation of the election plots that led up to the attack.
