WASHINGTON — A federal judge sentenced a former U.S. Navy interpreter to more than two years in prison Tuesday for assaulting police during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Matthew DaSilva, 51, of Collin County, Texas, was sentenced to 28 months in prison on two felony counts of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding police. He will receive credit for nine months already spent in jail since his conviction in July.
Prosecutors sought 52 months, or more than four years, in prison for DaSilva, who worked with other rioters to blockade a door to prevent police from entering the West Plaza of the U.S. Capitol. DaSilva then made his way to the Lower West Terrace, where he stayed for more than two hours amid some of the worst mob violence against police. DaSilva himself was convicted of joining the mob’s assault on police who were defending the Lower West Terrace Tunnel. In their sentencing memo, prosecutors said DaSilva used his full bodyweight to push against a riot shield and crush a DC Police officer. They said he also attempted to pull the shield away from another officer –knocking them off balance and leaving them exposed to a desk drawer thrown by another rioter, which hit them in the head.
DaSilva’s attorney, Marina Medvin, sought a time-served sentence which would have amounted to roughly three months on his original sentencing date last year. Her memo highlighted his career in the Navy, which began when he enlisted after 9/11 and lasted for for 12 years. DaSilva served as, among other roles, a cryptologic technician interpreter fluent in English, Japanese and Mandarin. During his time in the Navy, DaSilva’s commendations included a Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and a letter of appreciation from his commanding officer for performing first aid on an injured child while deployed in the Pacific.
“Getting carried away with the spirit of the protest, Mr. DaSilva did things he had never done before and could never again imagine himself doing — he held closed a door to the Capitol Building, approached a line of officers and pushed against a police shield, and he remained in a crowd that was being gassed with irritants,” Medvin wrote in her memo. “He never intended to hurt or injure anyone.”
Medvin, an Alexandria-based attorney who also represents former Marine Corps Maj. Christopher Warnagiris and former DEA agent Mark Ibrahim in their Jan. 6 cases, also criticized what she described as disparate treatment by the DOJ between Jan. 6 defendants and others charged around the country with participating in riots during the summer of 2020. Had DaSilva, Medvin argued, pushed on a police shield “during a left-wing protest in front of the White House in May 2020, he would not have been prosecuted.”
Along with the two felony charges for which he was sentenced Tuesday, DaSilva was also originally convicted of four other misdemeanor counts. In February, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols took the unusual step of reversing himself and finding DaSilva not guilty on three of those counts involving acts inside a restricted area or grounds. Nichols’ unusual ruling came after Medvin raised a post-conviction challenge arguing the government had failed to prove a necessary element of the offense – to wit, that DaSilva knew former Vice President Mike Pence was at the Capitol. A number of district court judges have adopted the position that prosecutors must prove that element to obtain a conviction. The D.C. Circuit heard arguments on that issue in a case last year but has yet to rule on the matter.