Dec. 9—A federal judge has sentenced a Gorham man to 30 days in federal prison, followed by three months on probation, for participating in the storming of the US Capitol last year.
Nicholas Hendrix, 35, was sentenced on one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building on Jan. 6, among more than 900 others who have been charged by the federal government for violence and the obstruction of an official Congressional proceeding.
“I accept responsibility for what I have done,” said Hendrix in a brief statement to US District Judge Colleen Kottar-Kotelly Friday. He appeared in the Washington courtroom via Zoom. “I am better than my actions on Jan. 6.”
Hendrix is a veteran of the US Armed Forces, having served twice in Iraq in the 2000s. He is a father and a husband, living in Gorham and working as a pipe-fitter throughout southern Maine. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from his time overseas, and he is in long-term recovery from an addiction to opioids.
There was debate Friday before Hendrix’s sentencing as to whether he should spend any time in prison at all. Kottar-Kotelly ultimately ruled to place him behind bars for twice as long as federal prosecutors requested.
Assistant US Attorney Karen Rochlin asked the court to put Hendrix behind bars for two weeks, followed by three years on probation, as a “deterrent” to anyone watching who might consider challenging the country’s democratic process.
David Beneman, a public defender from Portland, asked for no jail time and one year on probation.
Beneman said Hendrix has been sober for the last four years, and that incarceration would be “counter-productive” to all of Hendrix’s work on recovery and self improvement.
Hendrix arrived in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, via a bus from Newton, Massachusetts, after seeing former president Donald Trump’s calls for “patriots” at a “stop the steal” rally being held when Congress was set to certify the 2020 Electoral College vote.
Hendrix has admitted to illegally being in the Capitol for 90 seconds before exiting and unsuccessfully attempting to enter a second time.
But Kottar-Kotelly said Friday that, upon reviewing video evidence against Hendrix, he spent a lot of time pushing against the police and trying to enter.
“I watched the videos in all of these cases,” Kottar-Kotelly said. “It’s true that Mr. Hendrix spent only about 90 seconds in the Capitol, but to get in the Capitol and then afterwards, I mean he spent a lot of time in the front line against a police line, trying to get in, forcefully pushing (his way in).”
The judge also noted Hendrix did not comply with officers’ request to move aside when he was outside the building, so that other rioters could leave. She called the 90-second detail a “red herring.”
Rochlin told Kottar-Kotelly that Hendrix could even be seen trying to get back into the Capitol, after his 90 seconds inside. The only reason he did not re-enter, she said, was because officers were spraying chemical irritants.
“Mr. Hendrix was someone who should’ve known better,” said Rochlin, referring to his experience in the US Armed Forces and an oath he took to uphold the US Constitution.
“Yet he was willing to remain with a crowd that was chanting to hang the vice president,” Rochlin said.
Beneman said he thought of Hendrix as more of an “observer” than a participant. When Beneman watched the videos, he said, he heard no narration from Hendrix.
“There’s no commentary by Mr. Hendrix,” Beneman said. “He’s not joining in any of the chanting the government has identified.”
Beneman added Hendrix shouted no slurs, and he made no statements on social media or to the press about his presence that day, unlike others who stormed the Capitol. However, pictures from that day show Hendrix carrying a large poster that read “Stop the Communist & Terrorist Revolution” and wearing a “Biden sucks! Kamala swallows!” T-shirt, which Kottar-Kotelly called “crude and crass.”
Much of the evidence used against Hendrix was captured on his own cellphone, along with surveillance cameras from the Capitol. Video footage shows him pushing past police with other rioters, climbing over broken windows and busted doors to illegally enter the Capitol building.
Hendrix voluntarily gave federal investigators his phone, in addition to over evidence used to prosecute him (like the T-shirt and his large poster).
Hendrix is one of roughly 900 people who stormed the US Capitol on the day Congress was set to certify the 2020 Electoral College vote. More than 400 of them have either pleaded guilty or been found guilty at trial. At least 300 people have already been sentenced, receiving between five years in prison to a few months of home detention and a few hundred dollars in restitution fees.
There are at least five defendants with Maine ties, two of whom have yet to go to trial.
Hendrix will be the first Maine resident sentenced for his role in the attack on the Capitol.
Kyle Fitzsimons, a Lebanon man who was found guilty of assaulting at least three officers and trying to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election, will be sentenced in February.
Glen Mitchell Simon, who now lives in Georgia but is from Minot, was sentenced to eight months in prison in August after pleading guilty to disorderly and disruptive conduct for using a metal bicycle rack to push away officers who were trying to prevent the mob from entering the Capitol.
Jefferson resident Joshua Colgan, 35, is awaiting trial after he pleaded not guilty in July to four misdemeanor charges.
South Paris resident Todd Tilley, 61, was charged in June with four misdemeanors, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol building.