WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a Florida Proud Boy to a decade in prison for assaulting police with pepper gel on Jan. 6.
Christopher Worrell, of Naples, Florida, was found guilty last May of assaulting police with a dangerous weapon and other felony charges for his role in the Capitol riot. On Jan. 6, Worrell and other Florida Proud Boys in the group’s “Hurricane Coast” zone marched to the U.S. Capitol, where he assaulted police with pepper gel and then joined other Proud Boys in charging police lines. During the bench trial before U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, prosecutors called Lev Radin, a freelance photographer who testified he noticed Worrell because he looked “prepared” for violence.
“He caught my attention because he was pointing spray toward the police line,” Radin said. “He was wearing a tactical vest. Obviously a supporter of Trump. And he came to do some violence. He was prepared.”
Worrell was originally scheduled to be sentenced in August, but failed to appear for his hearing. He was eventually taken back into custody six weeks later and has been held without bond since.
Prosecutors sought 168 months, or 14 years, in prison for Worrell. In their sentencing memo, they argued his statements at trial – which Lamberth found amounted to false testimony – warranted a lengthy sentence just as much as his conduct on Jan. 6. Among other statements, Worrell claimed he brought the pepper gel to D.C. to defend against antifa.
“He spun falsehood after falsehood in an effort to deflect responsibility and cast himself as a hero intervening to protect the police,” prosecutors wrote.
Worrell’s attorney, William Shipley, sought a five-year probationary sentence with roughly two-and-a-half years of home incarceration. In court Thursday, Shipley said that would allow Worrell, who has a rare form of lymphoma, to continue receiving care from his doctors in Florida. Shipley said it was fear over the consequences of a lengthy prison term while battling cancer that led Worrell to abscond last year.
“His immediate reaction was: I’m going to die in there,” Shipley said.
Worrell had been held in pre-trial detention for approximately a year before he was granted release over concern the D.C. Jail wasn’t providing him with adequate medical care. On Thursday, Lamberth credited the concerns Worrell raised about the jail with an investigation that ultimately resulted in improvements of conditions at the facility. For his part, Worrell thanked Lamberth for allowing him to return home to have his cancer treated.
“We all agree, along with my doctors, that you likely saved my life sending me home,” Worrell said.
Worrell spoke at length about his medical conditions and what he described as inadequate treatment at jails in both D.C. and Florida. He spoke less about Jan. 6 itself, which he described as day he “made some choices I regret.”
“My actions that day were inexcusable and unjustifiable,” he said.
Lamberth ultimately sentenced Worrell to 120 months, or 10 years, in prison. He will also have to serve three years on supervised release and pay $2,000 in restitution. Lamberth agreed with a request from both Worrell’s attorney and the government to recommend placement at the federal medical facility in Butner, North Carolina.