WASHINGTON - A Donald Trump fan who brought his teenage son along as he assaulted D. C. police officer Mike Fanone and another officer at the Capitol on January 6 was sentenced on Tuesday to more than seven years in prison.
Kyle Young, a 38-year-old HVAC worker from Iowa whose lawyer said he injected lies about the 2020 election and asked his Facebook followers to join him at the stop the steel sic rally, pleaded guilty in May to a felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. Young admitted that he used a strobe light to disorient police, helped throw a large audio speaker at police, grabbed Fanone's wrist when a D.C. officer was abducted by the mob, and made contact with another officer abducted by the mob.
Young's 86 month sentence matched what federal prosecutors sought in the case. They claimed that Young took part in the assault at the lower west tunnel where some of the most barbaric violence took place on January 6. As discovered by online sleuths, the government argued that Young handed a taser to Danny Rodriguez, a MAGA fanatic who used it to electroshock Fanone in the neck on January 6.
The 16-year-old son, trailed by Rodriguez, was right next to Rodriguez, as he electroshocked Fanone, extensive video evidence shows.
When Young spotted Officer Fanone being pulled into the crowd, he purposefully moved toward the attack and joined at a pivotal moment - restraining Officer Fanone's wrist by pulling it away from his body seconds after he was repeatedly tased and shouting 'kill him with his own gun, federal prosecutors said. Young's restraint of Officer Fanone prevented the officer from protecting his service weapon at a time when the officer's life was in danger and gave Young's co-defendant Thomas Sibicks Sibick an opening to remove Officer Fanone's badge from a pocket on his vest. The feds have previously said that Fanone's badge was buried in the woods behind Sibick's backyard.
Before his sentencing Tuesday, Young turned to Fanone and apologized.
Fanone gave his own victim statement, including telling Young that he hopes he suffers in prison, leading to a tense moment in the courtroom. After Fanone's statement, a supporter of the Jan. 6 defendants called Fanone a piece of s- There was a brief stare down between them before the Marshals escorted that man out.
Young had previously written to Judge Amy Berman Jackson that he was sorry for his actions.
I still can't believe I let myself and my son get swept up in such terrible events," Young wrote in a letter to the judge, saying he was highly ashamed and that he'll never do anything like that again. More than 850 people have been charged with felony crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and more than 350 have pleaded guilty. The longest sentence of 10 years in federal prison went to an ex-NYPD officer who assaulted a D.C. cop with a flagpole and beat him to the ground, and then lied on the stand about his conduct. There are hundreds more arrests to come.