WASHINGTON — One of the men charged with assaulting Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick on Jan. 6 was sentenced to over 6 years in prison on Friday.
Julian Khater, who admitted to spraying Sicknick and another officer with a chemical irritant, was sentenced to 80 months in prison with credit for time-served. His co-defendant, George Tanios, who bought the spray and handed it to Khater, is also expected to be sentenced on Friday. Sicknick died a day after being assaulted, but prosecutors declined to charge the men with his death.
The government had argued for a 90-month sentence for Khater, accusing him of a “cowardly” and “pre-meditated” assault on police.
April 29, 202101:16
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gilead Light argued before Judge Thomas Hogan that violence had already broken out at the Capitol by the time Khater arrived. “Julian Khater did not arrive at a protest in front of the Capitol,” she said. “He arrived at a riot, he arrived at a war.”
Khater had pleaded guilty to two felony counts of assaulting officers and faced 78-97 months in prison under the sentencing guidelines. He admitted to spraying two officers in the face with the chemical irritant: Sicknick and Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who testified before the Jan. 6 committee in its first public hearing.
Sicknick died of natural causes a day after the Jan. 6 attack, having suffered two strokes, but the medical examiner said that what transpired during the attack played a role in his death. Capitol Police said after the medical examiner’s finding that Sicknick “died in the Line of Duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol.”
Members of Sicknick’s family were present in the courtroom Friday, including his mother, Gladys; brothers, Kenneth and Craig; sister-in-law, Nicholle; and his longtime partner, Sandra Garza.
Julia Jester and Ryan J. Reilly contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
