First rioter to enter US Capitol during deadly attack was 'ready for civil war'
The first rioter to enter the US Capitol building during the January 6, 2021, riot has been convicted on charges he interfered with police and obstructed Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Michael Sparks, 46, of Kentucky, jumped through a shattered window moments after another rioter smashed it with a stolen riot shield. Sparks then joined other rioters in chasing a police officer up flights of stairs, one of the most harrowing images from the riot.
A federal jury in Washington, DC, convicted Sparks of all six charges that he faced, including two felonies. Sparks didn’t testify at his weeklong trial. US District Judge Timothy Kelly is scheduled to sentence him on July 9.
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A man calls on people to raid the building as Trump supporters clash with police (AFP via Getty Images)Sparks was the “tip of the spear” and breached the Capitol building less than a minute before senators recessed to evacuate the chamber and escape from the mob, Justice Department prosecutor Emily Allen said during the trial’s closing arguments. Adding: “The defendant was ready for a civil war. Not just ready for a civil war. He wanted it."
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Defence attorney Scott Wendelsdorf conceded that Sparks is guilty of the four misdemeanour counts, including trespassing and disorderly conduct charges. But he urged the jury to acquit him of the felony charges — civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding.
Mr Wendelsdorf accused prosecutors of trying to unfairly blame Sparks for the violence and destruction perpetrated by other rioters around him. The lawyer said Sparks immediately left the Capitol when he realized that Vice President Mike Pence wouldn’t succumb to pressure from then-President Donald Trump to overturn Biden’s victory.
Security forces desperately try to hold back the rioters (AFP via Getty Images)“Michael Sparks may have started the game, according to the government, but he was out of the game on the sidelines before the first quarter was over,” the defence attorney told jurors. Sparks travelled to Washington with a group of co-workers from an electronics and components plant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on January 6.
After the rally, Sparks and a co-worker, Joseph Howe, joined a crowd in marching to the Capitol. A cameraman’s video captured Howe saying “We’re getting in that building,” before Sparks added that if Pence “does his job today, he does the right thing by the Constitution, Trump’s our president four more years.”
Trump called on his supporters to 'fight like hell' (AFP via Getty Images)Sparks and Howe, both wearing tactical vests, made their way to the front of the mob as outnumbered police officers retreated. “Michael Sparks was more prepared for battle than some of the police officers he encountered that day,” Ms Allen said.
Sparks was the first rioter to enter the building after Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys extremist group, used a police shield to break the window next to the Senate Wing Door. Other rioters yelled at Sparks not to enter the building.
“He jumped in anyway,” Ms Allen said. A police officer pepper sprayed Sparks in the face as he leapt through the broken window.
Supporters gathering outside on January 6 (AFP via Getty Images)Undeterred, Sparks joined other rioters in chasing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman as he retreated up the stairs and found backup from other officers near the Senate chamber. Sparks ignored commands to leave and yelled: “This is our America! This is our America!”
Sparks believed that he was defending the Constitution on Trump’s behalf and that Pence had a duty to invalidate the election results, according to his attorney. “His belief was wrong, but it was sincere,” Mr Wendelsdorf said.
Ms Allen said Sparks knew that he broke the law but wasn’t remorseful. He had texted his mother a day after the riot saying: “I’ll go again given the opportunity.”
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Sparks and his co-workers returned to Kentucky on January. 7, 2021. By then, images of him storming the Capitol had spread online. On his way home, Sparks called the Metropolitan Police Department and offered to turn himself in, according to prosecutors. He was arrested a few days later.
Sparks and Howe were charged together in a November 2022 indictment. Howe pleaded guilty to assault and obstruction charges and was sentenced in October to four years and two months in prison.
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