Three years in prison for Capitol rioter who argued he had 'adolescent brain'

WASHINGTON — A federal judge sentenced a North Carolina man to more than three years in prison Tuesday for assaulting police with a flagpole on Jan. 6.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said 22-year-old Matthew Beddingfield’s relatively young age compared to other Capitol riot defendants and mental health issues submitted in a sealed sentencing memo were mitigating factors, but that he believed prison time was necessary to ensure Beddingfield didn’t reoffend. In particular, Nichols highlighted the fact that Beddingfield was already on pretrial release in connection with a shooting in North Carolina when he assaulted police and entered the U.S. Capitol as part of a mob on Jan. 6.

“I conclude that Mr. Beddingfield poses some risk of recidivism,” Nichols said.

Beddingfield was charged with attempted murder in connection with that shooting, which occurred in December 2019 in a Walmart parking lot, but eventually entered an Alford plea to one count of felonious assault with a deadly weapon. He received probation in that case.

Beddingfield’s attorney, Leza Lee Driscoll, argued probation would be appropriate in his Jan. 6 case as well because he did not come dressed in paramilitary gear or armed with pepper spray like other rioters.

“He behaved atrociously and he has pled guilty before you,” Driscoll said. “But it wasn’t an entire day of him walking around acting violent.”

Driscoll also pointed to a psychiatrist’s assessment that Beddingfield, who was 20 years old at the time of the riot, did not have the benefit of a fully developed brain.

“Although he is an adult for court purposes, physiologically he still has an adolescent brain,” Driscoll said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Murphy said that same assessment had found Beddingfield still exhibits a paranoid and conspiratorial worldview and argued though he’d pleaded guilty he hadn’t taken responsibility.

“The government struggles to find any real evidence of the defendant’s remorse,” Murphy said.

Prosecutors had pointed in prior hearings to what they described as Beddingfield’s history of “deeply troubling” hate speech. In a March 2022 detention memo, prosecutors argued images from Jan. 6 show Beddigfield giving a Nazi salute at the Capitol. They also pointed to violent white supremacist views he’d allegedly expressed online.

"Beddingfield unabashedly expresses his wish that members of [minority] groups meet a violent end and in others he expresses a desire to inflict said violence or death on the same," prosecutors wrote at the time.

Beddingfield spoke briefly at the hearing Tuesday, telling Nichols he took full accountability for his actions.

"The only reason I came to D.C. was to protest with other concerned Americans who felt the election had been stolen," he said.

The Justice Department had requested Beddingfield serve 42 months in prison. Nichols ultimately landed close to its request – ordering the North Carolina man to serve 38 months in prison and pay $2,000 in restitution. Beddingfield will also have to serve 24 months on supervised release once his prison term is concluded.

Nichols agreed to allow Beddingfield to self-surrender and to recommend he be placed at FCC Butner, a medium-security prison in North Carolina. Nichols also agreed to modify Beddingfield’s release conditions to allow him some visitation with his father, Jason Beddingfield – with whom he’s been forbidden contact for approximately 17 months. Beddingfield and his father traveled to D.C. together on Jan. 6, although his father has not been charged in connection with the riot.

More than 1,000 people have now been charged in connection with the Capitol riot, including approximately 350 who are accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding police. Nearly 700 defendants have now pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial of charges ranging from entering a restricted area to seditious conspiracy.