January 6 Defendant Convicted, Faces up to 24 Years in Prison

The east side of the U.S. Capitol on the evening of January 6, 2021. (U.S. DOJ/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

The jury in a January 6 trial on Sept. 27 found John Strand guilty of all charges.

Strand faces up to 24 years in prison. He didn’t comment on the jury’s verdict.

During last week’s trial, prosecutors said Strand had planned to storm the Capitol building months before January 6, 2021.

Strand may have initially intended to accompany Dr. Simone Gold to D.C. to give a speech, April Holly Ayers-Perez, a prosecutor, told the court. But he developed “dual intent” when he realized he could get inside the Capitol.

Gold had pleaded guilty to the January 6 charges against her and served time in prison.

The instructions for the jury stated that Strand’s “mere presence may have had the unintended effect of obstructing or impeding a proceeding does not establish that the defendant acted with the intent to obstruct or impede that proceeding,” and that “in order to convict the defendant of this charge, you must find that the defendant corruptly intended to obstruct or impede a proceeding.”

Just because Strand and Gold didn’t attack any police officer or cause any damage within the Capitol, the prosecutors argued, being part of the crowd contributed to the electoral college vote pause until 8 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, since January 6 protestors outnumbered U.S. Capitol police officers and breached the Capitol building.

Prosecutors said Strand knew where he was going, referring to him as a 37-year-old man heading toward the House Chamber to stop the allegedly stolen 2020 presidential election. The prosecution re-played parts of Gold’s speech where she spoke about the election.

The prosecutors argued that Gold’s speech was never the priority. Instead, the goal was to be a part of the movement to overturn the election because it was allegedly stolen.

“They left when they were ready to leave,” not when police officers told them to, said Ayers-Perez, a prosecutor. She added that protestors left the Capitol building when Metrolopitan law enforcement showed up.

The judge will issue Strand’s sentence on January 12, 2023.