Trump supporter from Oklahoma ordered to prison for role in Jan. 6, 2021, riot

Jerry Ryals lost his job, became estranged from his wife and was shunned in his community after being charged for his role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Now the Trump supporter from Fort Gibson is losing his freedom.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered him to spend nine months in prison and pay $2,000 in restitution for his role in the attack. No appeal is planned.

"Mr. Ryals feels and expressed sincere remorse for his actions on Jan. 6 and has already suffered considerable consequences as a result of his felony conviction," his attorney, Jay Mykytiuk, said after the sentencing last week in federal court in Washington, D.C.

"Mr. Ryals engaged in no advance planning and no acts of physical violence, and his sentence appears inconsistent with others who engaged in activities similar to his," the attorney said. "That being said, at this point there does not seem to be a basis for appeal, and it is unlikely that one will be filed. Mr. Ryals plans to serve his sentence and then move on with his life."

Ryals, 28, pleaded guilty in May to a charge of civil disorder.

He acknowledged during his guilty plea that his actions "impeded and interfered" with police efforts to protect the Capitol.

“They are tear gassing, throwing flash bangs, pepper spray, but we will not concede,” he said in a video from the bottom of the Capitol steps before going inside.

In another video, he said, “We definitely have enough people to overthrow this (expletive). They don’t stand a (expletive) chance. ... We’re working our way in slowly but surely.”

Once inside, he and others used their shoulders to break through a locked door and enter an office after he tried to use an entrance sign as a battering ram, according to surveillance video. "The office the rioters entered was, thankfully, unoccupied," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. "While inside, Ryals took a photo of himself enjoying a seat."

Ryals acknowledged in May he was in the first time for 10 to 15 minutes, went back inside a second time but was forced out and then went inside a third time for about 30 minutes.

Capitol police fired pepper balls at rioters during his second time inside, hitting him in the shoulder.

The next day, Ryals posted on Facebook that he and other patriots "reclaimed our Capitol."

"It is our responsibility to handle this at all costs. We are not animals, we are not barbarians, we are the heart of this country and the last ones to stand up for your freedom," he wrote. "#GodBlessAmerica."

Prosecutors told the judge in the sentencing memo that "each rioter's actions were illegal and contributed, directly or indirectly to the violence and destruction that day." They had asked the judge to give Ryals six months in prison.

"Jerry Ryals participated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol — a violent attack that forced an interruption of the certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election, injured more than one hundred law enforcement officers, and resulted in more than 2.7 million dollars in losses," they told the judge.

His attorney told the judge in a sentencing memo that Ryals drove from Oklahoma with two like-minded friends to hear then-President Donald Trump speak.

"He believed his President, who told him that the election was stolen from him. He was given permission by his President to walk down the street to the Capitol and show his discontent. He was surrounded by those who believed as he did, that their cause was righteous."

With Ryals in Washington, D.C., was his then-boss, Anthony Alfred Griffith Sr., who operates an electrical business in Fort Gibson.

Ryals is now pursing his electrician's license with a new employer, his attorney revealed in the sentencing memo.

The attorney also told the judge Ryals "lost his wife," and many in his community have shunned him. Ryals, an avid hunter, also is prohibited from possession of a firearm because of his conviction and can no longer vote, "a right he cherished deeply," the attorney wrote in the memo.

Ryals originally was charged last year with five different counts. Those have been dismissed.

Griffith, 58, also went inside the Capitol, the FBI alleges. He is scheduled for trial in March in Washington, D.C., on four misdemeanor counts.

Griffith told the FBI that he witnessed people trying to break down a door of the Capitol and first went inside "because he thought the Capitol police were letting people in," according to a court affidavit. He told the FBI he went in a second time and took pictures.

More than 900 people have been arrested during the ongoing investigation of the riot that delayed the formal counting of the Electoral College votes that had Joe Biden winning the presidential election. Nine have been from Oklahoma.

Ryals is the second Oklahoman to be sentenced to incarceration. He will be on supervised release for three years after getting out.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Trump supporter sentenced to prison for role in Capitol riot