A Capitol rioter because of be sentenced this month failed to inform regulation enforcement that he went right into a senator’s administrative center, as an alternative claiming he concept he had visited a present store, court docket paperwork filed Thursday stated.
Brian Stenz of East Norriton, Pennsylvania, attended the “Prevent the Thieve” rally in Washington, D.C., with a pal on Jan. 6, 2021, after which marched to the Capitol, in line with a observation of offense tied to his plea settlement. The 2 males entered the Capitol throughout the Senate wing door and walked round for kind of 8 mins.
Stenz took a sequence of pictures all the way through that point and despatched them to a number of other folks later on. Photographs incorporated a bookshelf inside of Sen. Jeff Merkley’s (D-Ore.) administrative center and a selfie of him and his good friend within the crypt.
Merkley’s administrative center used to be ransacked all the way through the rise up.
Consistent with a sentencing memorandum filed Thursday by means of the U.S. Lawyer for the District of Columbia, Stenz admitted all the way through his interview with the FBI that he had posed for a photograph on a police motorcycle parked outdoor the Capitol, however didn’t inform investigators about his travel to the senator’s administrative center, telling them as an alternative that “he went into a spot that gave the look to be a present store.”
“Stenz has an important prison historical past and knowingly engaged on this behavior all the way through a time when he had prison fees pending in opposition to him in Pennsylvania for falsifying data associated with the acquisition of a firearm. But, he selected to go into the Capitol anyway,” the record states.
Stenz self-surrendered in April and used to be charged in July on 5 counts in connection to the Jan. 6 siege, together with knowingly getting into limited grounds with out lawful authority, disorderly and disruptive behavior in a limited construction or grounds, and violent access or disorderly behavior.
He pleaded responsible in November to at least one depend of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol construction, which carries a most sentence of six months of imprisonment and a high-quality of as much as $5,000.
The federal government asked in its memo Thursday that Stenz be sentenced to fourteen days of incarceration adopted by means of 36 months of probation, 60 hours of neighborhood provider, and $500 in restitution.
His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 18.