A California man who punched a police officer in the neck during one of the most violent clashes of the Capitol riots was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison.

Daniel DJ Rodriguez shouted, Trump has won! as he was led from the courtroom where U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 12 years and seven months behind bars for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack. Only two other January 6 defendants have received longer prison terms to date after hundreds of riot convictions at the Capitol.

The judge said Rodriguez, 40, was a one-man army of hate, attacking police and vandalizing Capitol property.

You entered [Washington] DC spoiled for a fight, Jackson said. You can’t blame anyone but yourself for what you did once you got there.

Police officer Michael Fanone’s body camera captured him screaming in pain after Rodriguez shocked him with a stun gun while surrounded by a crowd.

Another rioter had dragged Fanone into the crowd outside a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where a line of police officers guarded an entrance to the building. Other rioters began beating Fanone, who lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack after Rodriguez pressed the stun gun to his neck and shocked him repeatedly.

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Fanone addressed the judge before issuing the sentence. The former officer described how the January 6 attack prematurely ended his career as a law enforcement officer and made him a target

Donald Trump

followers

from former President Trump

who cling to the lie that the Democrats stole the 2020 election from the incumbent Republican.

Fanone left the courtroom in the middle of Rodriguez’s statement to the judge. He did not miss an apology from Rodriguez, who has been in prison for more than two years and will receive credit for the time he has already served.

I’m hopeful that one day Michael Fanone will be okay, Rodriguez said. It sounds like he’s in a lot of pain.

Fanone said he left the courtroom because he didn’t care to hear his attacker’s rambling, incoherent statement.

Nothing he could have said to me today would have made any difference, he said.

Prosecutors recommended a 14-year prison sentence for Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty in February to assault on Fanone, among other charges. They also demanded a fine of nearly $100,000 to offset the costs of Fanone’s medical bills and medical leave.

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Fanone’s injuries eventually ended his career in law enforcement. He has written a book about his January 6 experience and tested before a House committee investigating the insurrection that disrupted the joint session of Congress to certify the president.

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Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Rodriguez’s criminal behavior on January 6 was the epitome of disrespect for the law; he fought with law enforcement officers in the U.S. Capitol for hours, nearly costing an officer his life, to halt official proceedings inside, prosecutors wrote in a lawsuit.

Rodriguez pleaded guilty to four felony counts, including conspiracy and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He entered the plea about two weeks before his trial in Washington was due to begin

DC

.

On January 6, Rodriguez was present with the then president

Donald

Trump’s Stop the Steal rally before joining the mob of rioters who attacked police in the Lower West Terrance tunnel.

Rodriguez made his way to the front of the line of rioters battling the officers, yelling into his megaphone at the besieged line, prosecutors wrote.

Rodriguez fired a fire extinguisher at police officers in the tunnel and pushed a wooden pole against the police line before another rioter, Kyle Young, handed him what appeared to be a stun gun, according to prosecutors.

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Fanone was at the front of the police line when another rioter, Albuquerque Cosper Head, put his arm around the officer’s neck and dragged him up the patio steps, then restrained Fanone while other rioters attacked him. Rodriguez shocked Fanone’s neck with the stun gun, under the left ear of his police helmet.

Fanone managed to pull back and collapsed behind the police line before being taken to a hospital.

Once inside, when officers were able to resuscitate him after 2 minutes and 21 seconds, the first thing Officer Fanone asked was, did we take that door back? prosecutors wrote.

Rodriguez entered the building and smashed a window with a wooden stake before exiting the Capitol grounds.

Head was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to assault.

Young was also sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his role in the assault of the officer. Young grabbed Fanone by the wrist as others shouted, Kill him! and grab his gun!

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During an interview with FBI agents following his arrest in March 2021, Rodriguez said that on January 6, he believed he was doing the right thing and that he was willing to die to save the country. He cried as he spoke to the officers and said he was stupid and ashamed of his actions.

In the days leading up to Jan. 6, Rodriguez spewed violent rhetoric into a Telegram group chat called PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang.

There will be blood. Welcome to the revolution, Rodriguez wrote a day before the riot.

Rodriguez’s lawyers said he idolized Trump and saw the former president as the father he wished he had.

Mr. Rodriguez blindly trusted Trump and admired Trump so much that he referred to him as a father in his social media chats leading up to Jan. 6, defense lawyers, who sought a prison sentence of five years and five months for their client, wrote .

The same judge who sentenced Rodriguez also convicted a co-defendant, Edward Badalian, on three riot-related charges and acquitted him of a fourth after a trial without a jury. Jackson will sentence Badalian on July 21.

More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 riot. More than 700 of them have pleaded guilty or have been convicted after trials. And about 550 of them have been convicted, with more than half serving prison terms ranging from seven days to 18 years.