Ex-police officer gets seven years in prison over Washington Capitol riot

An off-duty Virginia police officer who stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Former Rocky Mount Police Sgt Thomas Robertson did not speak in court before US District Judge Christopher Cooper sentenced him to seven years and three months in prison.

Mr Cooper also sentenced Robertson to three years of supervised release after his prison term.

Federal prosecutors had recommended an eight-year prison sentence for Robertson. The sentence he got equals that of Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who attacked the Capitol while armed with a holstered handgun.

Robertson gets credit for the 13 months he has already been jailed.

In April, a jury convicted Robertson of attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

Jurors found him guilty of all six counts in his indictment, including charges that he interfered with police officers at the Capitol and that he entered a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.

Robertson travelled to Washington on the morning of January 6 with another off-duty Rocky Mount police officer, Jacob Fracker, and a third man, a neighbour who was not charged in the case.

Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in March and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities.

Mr Cooper is scheduled to sentence Fracker next Tuesday.

Prosecutors have asked Cooper to spare Fracker from a prison term and sentence him to six months of probation along with a period of home detention or “community confinement”.

They said Fracker’s “fulsome” cooperation and trial testimony was crucial in securing convictions against Robertson.