WASHINGTON — Four Californians linked to the Three Percenter militia movement were convicted by a D.C. jury this week of conspiring to disrupt the certification of the presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Erik Scott Warner, Felipe Antonio Martinez, Derek Kinnison and Ronald Mele were each convicted of felony counts of conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, as well as two misdemeanor counts for unlawfully entering Capitol grounds. Kinnison and Warner were additionally convicted of one count each of destroying evidence for deleting Telegram chats used by the group from their phones.
All four men were part of a Telegram group called “The California Patriots-DC Brigade” organized by Alan Hostetter, a former sheriff turned yoga instructor who founded the American Phoenix Project to oppose government-mandated restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In an indictment filed in June 2021, prosecutors said after the 2020 election Hostetter and another man, Russell Taylor, began using the organization to support former president Donald Trump and protest what they believed was a fraudulent election result.
At the time of the indictment, the American Phoenix Project’s website said its goal was “nothing less than an American revolution.” Hostetter was convicted of the same four charges as his co-defendants after a trial in July in which he represented himself. As of Wednesday, the American Phoenix Project’s website says he is currently working to legally dissolve it as he challenges his conviction. A sentencing date was not currently scheduled.
In the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, prosecutors said Hostetter, Taylor and the four defendants convicted this week used the Telegram chat and other channels to conspire to “organize a group of fighters” to support Trump in D.C. The chats included discussions of bringing hatchets and body armor, among other possible equipment.
In one message on Telegram, Taylor, a four-wheeler rally organizer, wrote, “I personally want to be on the front steps and be one of the first ones to breach the doors!”
Taylor pleaded guilty in April to one felony count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and was still awaiting sentencing as of Wednesday.
Of the six men, prosecutors said only Warner actually entered the Capitol – which he did as part of the first wave of rioters to enter the building through a broken window. In the indictment, prosecutors said Martinez, wearing a plate-carrier vest, and Kinnison, wearing a gas mask, can be seen in a group of rioters in the restricted area on the Upper West Terrace near where the inaugural stage was under construction. Taylor and Hostetter also made it to the Upper West Terrace after pushing through a line of officers on the lower level.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a Reagan nominee who presided over the trial, did not immediately schedule a sentencing date for the four men convicted this week.
Monday marked 33 months since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Since then, more than 1,200 defendants have been charged and more than 800 have either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial. More than 700 people have now been sentenced for their role in the riot. To date, the longest prison term received was 22 years – given to former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio.