Missouri man going to prison for Capitol riot says Donald Trump, Josh Hawley incited him

A Raytown man who blames former President Donald Trump and other elected officials — including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley — for his involvement in the Capitol riot was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in prison for assaulting officers during the attack.

Christopher Brian Roe, 39, also must serve two years of supervised release and pay $2,000 restitution for damage to the Capitol, which prosecutors say stands at more than $2.9 million.

Roe, who carried a pitchfork on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty Nov. 2 to three felony counts of assaulting a federal officer. His sentencing hearing was held before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“Roe came to Washington, D.C., equipped with weapons and the means to restrain detained persons,” the government said in its sentencing memorandum. “Once he arrived at the Capitol, he violently assaulted multiple police officers and resisted all attempts to remove him from the building. Then, after his second ejection from the Capitol, he used a bicycle rack as a battering ram in an effort to reenter the building yet again.”

His offenses, the document said, “were of the utmost seriousness.”

For each count, Roe faced a maximum sentence of eight years in prison, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and restitution. The government had recommended a total of 71 months in prison — one month more than what the judge handed down — three years’ supervised release and $2,000 restitution.

Roe asked for a sentence of one year and one day in prison.

His sentencing memorandum described him as “a thirty-nine year old husband, a father to a special-needs toddler, and gainfully employed as a meat cutter in a grocery store.”

Much of Roe’s sentencing document was dedicated to laying the blame on Trump and others for his actions.

“Like millions of other Americans, Mr. Roe believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and those beliefs motivated his offense conduct on January 6, 2021,” his filing said. “Those beliefs were based on the statements of Trump himself, various television news outlets, internet sources, social media, and elected government officials.”

It said the court “has not only the authority, but the duty to consider the mitigating nature of these beliefs when sentencing Mr. Roe.”

Quoting segments from Trump’s August 1, 2023, indictment that accuses him of conspiring with others to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the document said that “the January 6 cases are unique and unparalleled in American history.”

“Never has a President attempted to remain in power despite having lost an election,” it said. “Never has a President obstructed the peaceful transition of power. Never has a President spread ‘pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud’ to ‘create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger’ and ‘erode public faith in the administration of the election.’”

It added that “Trump’s false claims were bolstered by elected officials — local, state, and national — including Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri, who infamously raised a clinched fist in faux solidarity with persons gathered outside the Capitol before its breach.”

Roe also argued that his offenses were less serious than assaults because “he never injured an officer nor did he intend to do so.”

“Mr. Roe’s underlying motivation was to preserve the integrity of the 2020 presidential election and to protect the Constitution,” his sentencing document said. “Mr. Roe’s willingness to follow Trump’s explicit directive on January 6 to march on the Capitol is comparable to a misguided act of civil disobedience.”

Roe is the 22nd Missouri resident to be sentenced in connection with the Capitol riot. Six others have been convicted and await sentencing, and the cases of eight additional Missouri defendants are pending.

Roe was arrested July 18 on some of the most serious charges to date among the 36 Capitol riot defendants from Missouri. The 27-page probable cause affidavit filed with the criminal complaint contained 48 photos that showed a man it said was Roe breaching the Capitol, repeatedly scuffling with police and using a metal bicycle rack to try to break open a door.

He originally faced 14 charges, including assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; civil disorder; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and destruction of government property.

The government said Roe traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House the morning of Jan. 6. He was carrying the pitchfork, a six-inch knife, duct tape and zip ties.

After the rally, the government’s filing said, Roe went to the west front of the Capitol building, where he faced a line of officers with the pitchfork in hand. Roe forcefully tried to remove a bicycle rack, which was protecting the outnumbered police officers from rioters. After that effort failed, the document said, Roe assaulted one of the officers with one hand while brandishing the pitchfork in the other.

When officers sprayed chemical irritant at Roe, he dropped the pitchfork and retreated into the crowd, the document said. After changing his clothes, he returned to the Capitol and breached the building through the Upper West Terrace door around 2:38 p.m.

Soon after entering the building, the filing said, Roe entered the rotunda, where he paused to take a photo with another rioter in front of the statue of President Thomas Jefferson. He went on to Statuary Hall and toward the House of Representatives chamber, it said.

“Roe approached a large crowd of rioters who were trying to get into the chamber,” the document said. “As the situation unfolded, Roe lit some kind of cigarette and smoked it.”

After about 20 minutes, Roe headed toward an exit with police close behind. When he stopped, one officer identified as “R.D.” pushed him toward the exit and Roe “violently resisted,” the government’s filing said.

“Roe then turned to Officer R.D. and said, ‘Where? Where? Are you going to fucking shoot me too? You guys are f—--- a disgrace. A f—---disgrace. You are protecting traitors and treasonists. They committed treason. And you shot one of us. That’s bullshit. Put your baton down and f—--- join us.’”

Moments later, the document said, Roe and others pushed the officer backward and Roe wrapped his arm around the officer’s baton. After that, officers ejected him from the Capitol.

But he breached the Capitol again at the Columbus Doors and went into the rotunda lobby, where he “continued to physically engage with and resist police officers, including by shoving his shoulder into one officer, before he was again forcefully ejected,” according to the document.

Roe didn’t stop there, the government said. He moved to the North Door, where a small group of officers was attempting to prevent rioters from entering.

“To thwart these efforts, Roe approached the double doors with a bicycle rack and proceeded to slam it against the doors approximately ten times before officers deployed a fire extinguisher towards him,” the government’s filing said. “Roe and the other rioters caused nearly $1,000 in damage to those doors. Only after this third attempt to breach the Capitol did Roe leave the grounds.”

The government noted that Roe had a “lengthy history in the criminal justice system.”

His offenses include being sentenced to six months in jail in 2003 for destruction of property and 15 months in 2006 for setting his mother’s car on fire in an attempt to collect insurance money. He also has had multiple DUI convictions and in 2021 was arrested for trespassing at a post office after refusing to comply with a mask mandate.

“Put simply, Roe is a repeat offender who has ignored attempts by the judicial system to change his behavior,” the government said.

During Roe’s arrest, the government’s document said, the FBI executed a search warrant of his Raytown home. There, they found one of the American flag gaiters that Roe had worn during the riot, displayed on a metal rooster.

“The agents also located a fully constructed LEGO model of the United States Capitol in one of his closets,” the document said. “Lastly, the FBI located numerous unsecured firearms, loaded clips and magazines, and boxes of ammunition throughout Roe’s home, despite federal law prohibiting him from possessing firearms due to his prior felony conviction.”

One of the firearms, it said, was an AR-15-style rifle.

Roe argued in his filing that he was allowed to legally have the gun, saying that the state of Kansas — where he was convicted — automatically restores a felon’s right to possess a firearm five years after conviction or release from imprisonment for that offense.

Roe also argued that the pitchfork he carried was not a dangerous weapon. But the judge agreed with the government’s position that it was.

“The top of the pitchfork was metal and had pointed tips,” the government said in its sentencing memorandum. “Those tips functionally made the pitchfork a weapon capable of causing four separate stab wounds at the same time… the pitchfork was capable of causing serious bodily injury.”

Even if the pitchfork was a dangerous weapon, Roe argued, he did not brandish it by holding it during the assault.

Again, the government — and the judge — disagreed.

“The sequence of actions comprising the assault shows that Roe held onto the pitchfork in order to intimidate the officers behind the barricade,” the government said. “When Roe approached the barricade, he held it high in air with the tips pointed upwards. This constituted a threat of force by showing the police officers that he had a dangerous weapon in his possession.”

Roe’s sentencing document included words of support from his wife, a longtime neighbor and his supervisor at a Leawood grocery store, where he is employed full time as a meat cutter. The supervisor described him as “a hard worker” who is “great with customers.”

After completing his sentence, the supervisor said, Roe “will be welcome to work at whatever store [he] is running.”