WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors will ask for three years in prison for a New York chimney repairmen and tree cutter convicted of obstructing the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
In August, a jury convicted Brandon Fellows, 28, of one felony count of obstruction and four misdemeanors for his role in the Capitol riot. At trial, prosecutors showed Fellows entering the Capitol through a broken window and then proceeding to Sen. Jeff Merkley’s (D-OR) office, where he smoked marijuana. Fellows then joined rioters in the Crypt before heckling officers who didn’t have helmets on his way out of the building. Prosecutors said Fellows then posted extensively on social media, “glorifying the violence of his fellow rioters.”
In a sentencing memo filed last week, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden to sentence Fellows to 37 months in prison – at the high end of the 30-37 months they estimated he faces under federal sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors said Fellows’ “persistent lack of remorse” and the “utter lack of respect he has demonstrated towards this Court and the rule of law” warranted a high-end sentence even though he’s not accused of committing any violence.
Fellows is one of a very small number of Jan. 6 defendants to be held in pre-trial detention without being charged with assaulting police or conspiracy. He was initially granted bond, but was ordered back into custody in June 2021 after repeated release violations, including allegedly calling his probation officer’s mother. Prosecutors said when a clerk of the court attempted to contact Fellows about another violation – allegations he was harassing a former girlfriend – it was discovered he had put the number for a New York judge’s wife’s office instead of his own.
Fellows, who has no formal legal training, decided to represent himself during the majority of his case and at trial. During one memorable hearing in October 2021, Fellows appeared to admit to potentially felonious conduct by telling McFadden he’d intentionally put the New York judge’s wife’s number as his contact information in order to get a new judge. He also said he’d discussed a “loophole” he believed he’d found that could have gotten McFadden removed from the case as well. At the time, McFadden told him he’d admitted to “incredible lapses in judgment.”
He had a similar run of success at trial, where, acting as his own attorney, Fellows told jurors he was “very comfy” when he was sitting in a seat in Merkley’s office. He also said he believed the rioters had the right to overthrow the government. McFadden ultimately held Fellows in contempt of court and sentenced him to an additional five months in jail for repeated outbursts during the trial, including calling the proceeding a “kangaroo court” and a “nazi court.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Fellows had not submitted his own sentencing memo – although as a detained pro se defendant he had no attorney to enter electronic filings for him. Fellows has already served approximately two-and-a-half years behind bars since his release was revoked. In December 2021, he claimed to have turned down a misdemeanor plea offer that would have seen him released on a time-served sentence.
Fellows was scheduled to be sentenced at 10 a.m. Thursday by McFadden. His five-month sentence for contempt of court will be served in addition to any further time he receives for his Jan. 6 charges.