A Florida man who was being prosecuted for the alleged assault of two police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has died by suicide, according to a police report.
David Kennedy Homol, 55, of Umatilla, Florida, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound sometime between 6 p.m. on April 17 and 8:55 a.m. on April 18, according to a Panama City Police Department report obtained by The Epoch Times.
A Panama City, Florida, man told police that he heard what sounded like a gunshot in the area of his residence at about 6 p.m. on April 17. He looked around “and did not observe anything suspicious in the area and did not see the deceased’s vehicle,” the police report stated.
Another Panama City man called the police at 8:55 a.m. on April 18 after he noticed a white Kia automobile parked behind his property. He subsequently found Mr. Homol dead behind the wheel.
Police said Mr. Homol died of a single gunshot wound. A handgun was found in his lap, police said.
Arrested in January
Mr. Homol was arrested by the FBI in Orlando on Jan. 10, 2024. He was charged in a criminal complaint with eight offenses related to Jan. 6, 2021, including the felony of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, which carries a maximum 20-year sentence.The other charges were assaulting police, obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.
Prosecutors allege Mr. Homol struck two police officers with a plastic flagpole just before 2:15 p.m. on the Capitol’s West Plaza.
Mr. Homol’s half-brother, Dillon Paul Homol, 25, of Cocoa Beach, Florida, was sentenced to two years probation and fined $4,000 in January in his Jan. 6 case. The brothers traveled to Jan. 6 events together.
Dillon Homol was found guilty in a September 2023 bench trial of three misdemeanor charges and was acquitted of obstruction of an official proceeding. He also pleaded guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
David Homol planned to testify for the defense in his brother’s trial.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) initially told David Homol’s attorney that “it did not have any current information that David Homol entered any restricted areas on January 6, 2021, and that no active investigation was pending against him,” a defense motion stated.
Just a day later, prosecutors told David Homol’s attorney “that the government now has evidence that David Homol entered restricted areas on January 6, 2021,” according to a motion to delay the trial.
“As of this filing, neither David Homol nor his attorney has seen this evidence. At this point, David Homol’s attorney has advised him to assert his Fifth Amendment right and not testify on Dillon Homol’s behalf,” the motion stated.
Dillon Homol’s attorney described David Homol as a “key witness” and possibly the only defense witness. His testimony was going to rebut the government’s contention that Dillon Homol acted “corruptly” to obstruct Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, the motion stated.
David Homol did not end up testifying in the trial, which ran from Sept. 27, 2023, to Sept. 29, 2023.
Later on Jan. 6, 2021, David Homol sent a text to his brother, prosecutors said.
“Today was not an antifa-inspired statement. It was totally done by angry Trump supporters with no firearms, many singing God bless America, Jesus saves, etc.,” the text read. “The corrupt politicians should be relieved this was not an armed rebellion. It clearly was a statement of [the] strength of We The People.”
David Homol is at least the fifth Jan. 6 defendant to die by suicide.
Nejourde Thomas “Jord” Meacham, 22, of Pleasant Valley, Utah, died by suicide on Aug. 28, 2023. He was less than two weeks away from being arraigned in federal court on four Jan. 6 misdemeanor charges.
Mark Roderick Aungst, 47, of South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, took his life on July 20, 2022. Mr. Aungst was awaiting sentencing on a petty misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. He pleaded guilty to the charge in June 2022 as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Christopher Stanton Georgia, 53, of Alpharetta, Georgia, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Jan. 9, 2021. Mr. Georgia was arrested on Jan. 6, 2021, and charged in District of Columbia Superior Court with violating a 6 p.m. curfew and unlawful entry.
On Feb. 25, 2022, Matthew Lawrence Perna, 37, of Sharon, Pennsylvania, hanged himself in the garage of his residence. His aunt, Geri Perna, said the DOJ’s last-minute decision to seek enhanced sentencing drove her nephew to despair.
Mr. Perna pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. Ms. Perna said her nephew just wanted the case to be over.
Constant delays, including changes in the sentencing date, wore Mr. Perna down mentally, his aunt said. A last-minute decision by prosecutors to seek sentencing enhancers that could have meant years in prison was devastating, she said.
Ms. Perna told The Epoch Times that news of Mr. Homol’s suicide “ignited a deep anger” within her.
“Following my initial outrage, I was overwhelmed by profound sadness and sorrow for David’s family, who now must endure the cruelty of seeing ... taunts on social media from individuals devoid of empathy,” Ms. Perna said.
“But my final focus is on the elected Republicans who persistently overlook the unconstitutional treatment of the J6 defendants.”
Since her nephew’s death, Ms. Perna has become a leading voice against the treatment of Jan. 6 defendants with long terms of pretrial detention, years-long delays between arrest and trial, and what she has described as over-prosecution of people based on politics.
“Another life has tragically ended,” Ms. Perna said. “Shame on those who stood by idly. And to those in the DOJ, I pose a grave question: ‘How do you live with yourselves?’”
Ms. Perna worked with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to develop the Matthew Lawrence Perna Act of 2024, introduced in Congress on March 5.
The bill would ban pretrial detention for “nonviolent political protesters” and allow detained defendants to bring legal action against the government. It would also ban malicious over-prosecution “that involves charging a person with an offense that is grossly disproportionate to conduct alleged.”
The bill would allow criminal defendants charged in the District of Columbia to “choose [a] venue for the proceedings and trial to be in the district court for the district and division embracing that individual’s primary residence.”
