Federal prosecutors in Washington D.C. want a Texas man convicted in March of carrying a firearm in furtherance of civil disorder at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to serve 15 years in prison, more than suggested in federal sentencing guidelines.
Guy Wesley Reffitt, 49, of Wylie, Texas, was convicted on all five counts by a jury that spent two hours deliberating his fate on March 8. Other charges included obstruction of an official proceeding, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a firearm, obstructing officers during a civil disorder, and obstruction of justice.
In a 58-page sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court on July 15, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler argued that Reffitt should receive a harsher prison sentence under a sentencing guideline related to terrorism.
Reffitt will be sentenced Aug. 1 in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.
Although Reffitt was not charged with or convicted of terrorism, he deserves the upward departure in sentence because his Jan. 6 crime “was calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion,” Nestler wrote.
Nestler said Reffitt deserves the enhanced sentence for his “central role in leading a mob that attacked the United States Capitol while our elected representatives met in a solemn Joint Session of Congress—including his intention to use his gun and police-style flexicuffs to forcibly drag legislators out of the building and take over Congress….”
Reffitt’s wife, Nicole Reffitt, told The Epoch Times it was “hard to process” the sentence recommendation, which she said is a danger to more than just her family.
“To think the government wants my husband and the father of my children held for such a time for committing no acts of violence, or property damage,” Nicole Reffitt said. “This is where we are, a DOJ that wants to scare and intimidate other Jan 6ers into taking a plea, or even pushing them to the point of no return, horrified what could happen to their families, their careers, all because they dared to protest what seemed to be a fraudulent election and a corrupt government.
Did Not Enter US Capitol
Reffitt did not enter the U.S. Capitol. Prosecutors said he carried a .40-caliber handgun in a holster while on Capitol grounds. Prosecutors said Reffitt charged at police on the west side stairs near the temporary scaffolding erected for the Jan. 20 inauguration. Police officers testified that they fired two types of projectiles at him to stop his advance, then hit him with pepper spray.Reffitt’s defense counsel, F. Clinton Broden of Dallas, challenged the assertion that Reffitt “charged” at police. Broden objected to that characterization in the pre-sentence report prepared by the U.S. Probation Office. The description “is contrary to the actual video of the event,” Broden wrote in Reffitt’s sentencing memo.
Nestler noted Reffitt’s membership in the Texas Three Percenters, described by prosecutors as an extremist militia group. He told other members gathered at the Ellipse earlier in the day of his plans to “physically drag Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi out of the Capitol building by her ankles, with her head hitting every step on the way down,” the sentencing memo said.
Reffitt’s threatening statements—made to two of his children after he returned from Washington D.C.—were recounted at Reffitt’s trial. Prosecutors called Jackson Reffitt to testify, but not Peyton Reffitt.
“He specifically told his 18-year-old son Jackson and his 16-year-old daughter Peyton that if they turned him in to the FBI, they would be traitors, and traitors get shot,” the report said. “He also told Peyton that if she were using her cellphone to record him or post anything about him online, he would put a bullet through her phone.”
Remarks About Pelosi ‘Hyperbole’
Broden wrote in Reffitt’s sentencing memorandum that it is “imperative that a distinction be made between what the government alleges that Guy Reffitt did and what he did not do in relation to the events of Jan. 6.”Broden said his client never removed the handgun from its holster and did not assault police officers. His remarks about Pelosi, “while certainly concerning, appear to be hyperbolic.”
While the “paranoid statements” Reffitt made to two of his children can’t be condoned, “he never gave any indication he would actually harm his children,” Broden wrote. “Indeed, his wife has stated that, while she was understandably ‘disturbed’ by her husband’s ‘extreme’ statements to his children, she did not believe that he would ever act on those statements.”
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, Peyton Reffitt said she is not afraid of her father. She told a pre-sentence investigator that Reffitt is a “great father and a good man. He’s always been very protective over the family.”
“I never felt threatened; my father doesn’t threaten me,” she wrote to Judge Friedrich. “I rather get annoyed about his dramatic way of speech that often uses outdated references and recitations.”
Peyton’s letter said the prosecution’s decision not to put her on the stand at trial was because “I wasn’t going to benefit their narrative.”
Reference letters written to Judge Friedrich spoke of Reffitt’s “bombastic” style of speaking, Broden wrote.
His daughter Sarah wrote, “[a]lthough some of his language sounds alarming, if you knew him, you would know that he talks with a lot of hyperbole and exaggeration, but really what he means is much more of an understatement.”
Sarah described her father as “selfless.”
“He is considered a second dad by many of my friends,” she wrote. “He always opened his home to me and my brother and sisters’ friends who may have stressed or troubled lives at their own home. I had a fair share of friends who were not comfortable in their own house, whether it was neglect, abuse, or they didn’t have a safe space. My dad wanted them to know that they always have a safe space in his home and made sure they always felt welcome.”
Broden asked Judge Friedrich to consider giving more than day-for-day credit for the more than 19 months Reffitt has been held in jail because of the harsh conditions.
He said that Reffitt and other Jan. 6 detainees were allowed no visitors for nearly a year. The 22 to 23 hours a day spent in a cell is “closely akin to the dangers of solitary confinement,” Broden wrote.
In the pre-sentence report prepared for the court, Reffitt’s wife, Nicole, said that after the 2016 election, her husband “soon became ‘enamored with [then-President Donald] Trump’ and felt that the former president’s policies were ‘speaking to him,’” the report said. “She noted that the defendant was obsessed with watching the news during the pandemic, and he and his family members often argued over politics in the home.”
Nicole Reffitt wrote to Judge Friedrich that her husband has always put others before himself.
“Much of Guy’s personality comes from the fact that he has been on his own since he was fifteen, and he has had only himself to back himself up,” she wrote. “Guy is exactly who he is; even if his words are conflated, his heart is true.”
In a letter to Judge Friedrich, Reffitt expressed “insurmountable” regret and said he was “truly ashamed” of his actions on Jan. 6. He acknowledged that the harm his criminal case caused his family “is all my fault.”
“I simply ask for a chance to prove myself again,” Reffitt wrote.
