WASHINGTON — Prosecutors want an Ohio bricklayer and U.S. Army veteran to serve a year in prison for entering the U.S. Capitol Building twice on Jan. 6 – arguing his conduct and criminal history warrant the maximum sentence for a federal misdemeanor.
Terry Lynn Lindsey, of Piqua, Ohio, is scheduled for sentencing on three misdemeanor counts on July 15 before D.C. District Court Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell. Lindsey was arrested on four counts in February 2021 and pleaded guilty to three – entering and remaining in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct and parading, demonstrating or picketing in Capitol Building – in April of this year.
On Jan. 6, Lindsey and two others, Glenn Wes Lee Croy and his girlfriend, Jennifer Horvath, traveled to D.C. to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse. All three then joined the crowd marching to the U.S. Capitol Building, and have since been charged in connection with the Capitol riot. Croy pleaded guilty last August to one misdemeanor count of parading in a Capitol building and was sentenced to 14 days in community corrections, 90 days of home detention and three years of probation. Horvath was charged in March with four misdemeanor counts and pleaded not guilty.
According to a statement of facts Lindsey signed as part of his plea agreement, he joined in with part of the mob that confronted police and yelled that officers defending the Capitol were “oathbreakers.” In the government’s sentencing memo, prosecutors say video discovered after his plea hearing appears to show a “momentary assault” in which Lindsey shoved an officer into a group of rioters. Lindsey was not charged with assault.
Lindsey also admitted he entered the Capitol twice. The first time he joined part of the mob walking through the building chanting “Where’s Nancy Pelosi?” and “Where’s our votes?” He sent friends and family photographs of himself inside the Capitol boasting “we crash[ed] the doors overtook the Capitol” and that the mob was “taking what’s ours.”
After being forced out of the building, Lindsey reentered through the Rotunda Doors. When he was again ejected by police, he remained on the grounds of the Capitol for at least another 90 minutes.
Prosecutors have sought periods of incarceration for other riot defendants who took similar actions on Jan. 6, but in their sentencing memo, they argue Lindsey’s conduct didn’t stop there. Lindsey also allegedly lied to the FBI – telling them, among other things, that police had “set up” rioters by letting them into the building.
The memo also notes Lindsey’s criminal history which, according to prosecutors, includes 21 prior arrests and multiple prior convictions on drug and alcohol charges. The memo notes Lindsey was arrested on Feb. 27 of this year for allegedly driving under the influence without a license, and says prosecutors have also recently learned of two other law enforcement interactions in recent weeks. One of those, they said, was a June 18 incident that’s resulted in a felony indictment in Shelby County, Ohio, for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
“Lindsey’s unabated disdain for the rule of law and this Court’s authority demonstrates the need for specific deterrence,” prosecutors wrote, later adding, “Lindsey’s guilty plea should not be taken as evidence of a change of heart, or a recantation of his vow that ‘next time we will bring are [sic] guns.’
Prosecutors also said Lindsey’s two enlistments in the U.S. army were laudable, but noted he eventually was discharged under “other than honorable” conditions in lieu of a court martial.
In his own memo on Saturday, Lindsey’s attorney, Richard Stern, asked for a “reasonable guidelines sentence” within the 0-6 month range. He pointed to Lindsey’s co-defendant, Croy, who was ordered to two weeks in community corrections but no term of incarceration.
“We submit that the evidence against both defendants is not so substantially different such that similar sentences should not be given,” Stern wrote.
Stern also noted Lindsey has been employed as a bricklayer in Ohio for 30 years – an occupation he continues to hold as he takes care of his wife and, at times, granddaughter.
Prosecutors said Croy has a “much less extensive criminal history” than Lindsey and engaged in “significantly less egregious conduct.”
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