Capitol rioter who wanted to be 'lone wolf killer' taken back to jail for stalking DC activist

WASHINGTON — A Silver Spring man who spent four months in prison for his role in the Capitol riot was taken back to jail in handcuffs Monday for stalking a D.C. activist.

Bryan Betancur Battisti, 26, pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court to two counts of contempt of an anti-stalking order. D.C. Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Wingo sentenced him to six months in jail on each count with all but 30 days suspended. Wingo ordered both 30-day sentences to be served consecutively, for a total of 60 days. Battisti will also have to serve two years of supervised probation. According to a copy of the plea agreement filed with the court, Battisti will have to spend the first six months of release on GPS monitoring and also agreed prosecutors could seek for him to be stepped back, or immediately taken to jail, following his sentencing.

Battisti was charged earlier this year with multiple violations of an anti-stalking order barring him from contact with Brianne Chapman, a D.C.-based activist who goes by the moniker “Anarchy Princess” and who frequently counter-protests hearings in cases related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Battisti admitted to two of those violations on Monday, including one incident in February when federal officers briefly detained and escorted him out of the federal courthouse in D.C. 

Monday’s conviction is the latest run-in with the law for Battisti, who legally added “Battisti” to the end of his name last year. He was on GPS monitoring for a burglary case out of Montgomery County on Jan. 6, 2021, when he joined a mob of thousands of other supporters of former President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol. Battisti had received permission to travel to D.C. that day by claiming he was going to join a group handing out Bibles. Instead, according to a statement of facts Battisti signed as part of his plea deal, he climbed scaffolding at the Capitol and helped other rioters pass furniture out of the window of a congressional office. Battisti can be seen in a photograph helping a woman the FBI has now identified as Isabella Maria DeLuca pass out a table that was later broken up and used to assault police.

In other photos from Jan. 6, Battisti can be seen wearing a Proud Boys t-shirt and holding up a confederate battle flag on scaffolding erected ahead of the presidential inauguration.

Although he was not charged with any violent crimes connected to the riot, federal investigators described Battisti – then Betancur – in charging documents as a self-professed white supremacist who wanted to be a “lone-wolf killer.”

“Betancur has voiced homicidal ideations, made comments about conducting a school shooting, and has researched mass shootings,” investigators wrote. “Betancur voiced support for James Fields, the individual convicted for killing [Heather Heyer] with his car during protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. Betancur has stated he wanted to run people over with a vehicle and kill people in a church.”

After the Capitol riot, Battisti’s probation out of Maryland was revoked and he was ordered to serve a previously suspended 18-month sentence in prison on a count of fourth-degree burglary. He also received four months behind bars and a year of probation, along with more time on GPS monitoring, after pleading guilty in federal court in D.C. to one misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted grounds on Jan. 6.

Following his release from prison, Battisti has attempted to rebrand himself as a right-wing activist and has posted multiple pictures online purporting to show him at U.S. border with Mexico and conservative political events. He has previously attended the nightly vigil outside the D.C. Jail held in support of Jan. 6 defendants detained in the facility’s Central Detention Center while they await trial or sentencing.