Ronald Colton McAbee, the former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy who tried to rescue a dying Rosanne Boyland at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Feb. 29 to nearly six years in federal prison for his conviction on seven criminal counts.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced Mr. McAbee to 70 months in prison, less than half of the more than 12.5 years sought by prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice. He will receive credit for the nearly 31 months he has spent behind bars in pretrial detention.
Mr. McAbee, 30, of Unionville, Tennessee, was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol, a $610 special assessment, and more than $32,000 in medical bills of a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer injured outside of the Lower West Terrace tunnel on Jan. 6. The prison term will be followed by 36 months of supervised release.
“It’s heartbreaking to hear the sentence,” Mr. McAbee’s wife, Sarah McAbee, told The Epoch Times after the court hearing. “It could have been worse, but it’s heartbreaking to hear the sentence that was handed down.”
The hearing and the sentencing memos prepared for Judge Contreras painted vastly different accounts of Mr. McAbee’s actions near the mouth of the Lower West Terrace tunnel. At the time he was a deputy for the Williamson County, Tennessee, sheriff.
In asking for 151 months of incarceration, prosecutors said Mr. McAbee assaulted two MPD officers, pinning one of them after they were pulled down the stairs into a hostile crowd.
As Mr. McAbee stepped in front of the tunnel arch where police were gathered after 4:20 p.m. on Jan. 6, he was struck by Mr. Moore. Mr. McAbee, who had a broken shoulder at the time, swiped at and made contact with Mr. Moore, although prosecutors and the defense dispute whether it was with an open hand or closed fist.
Mr. McAbee repeatedly pointed at the lifeless Ms. Boyland lying on the sidewalk nearby. When MPD officer Lila Morris struck Ms. Boyland in the head and side with a wooden walking stick, Mr. McAbee shouted, “Stop [expletive] killing that girl!” according to defense evidence.
“But that did not remove Mr. McAbee’s belief that he had a duty to act: to try to find some way to get a woman help when she was clearly in need of aid just feet away from him—even if in the middle of a riot.”
Mr. McAbee was then struck in the head with a steel police baton, opening a gash in his head. He readjusted his baseball cap and shouted, “I need to give help. I’m trying to give help. I know how to do that,” according to the defense. Prosecutors claim he was “yelling obscenities at the officers,” according to their sentencing memo.
When Mr. Wayte was knocked to the ground by a rioter near the police line, prosecutors said, Mr. McAbee pulled him away from the police line then pinned him down as both men went down the steps.
“McAbee remained on top of Officer Wayte as the two of them slid down the steps,” the DOJ memo said. “Officer Wayte struggled to push McAbee off of him, but McAbee engaged in ‘hand fighting’—a wrestling term that Officer Wayte used to describe how McAbee was shoving Wayte’s arms and hands away as he tried to push up against McAbee.”
‘I’m Helping You’
Mr. McAbee said he told Mr. Wayte he was a law enforcement officer and would help him.According to video at trial, Mr. Wayte said, “Let go of me, man,” to which Mr. McAbee responded, “I’m helping you.” Mr. Wayte acknowledged the help: “I know, I know. Help me up.”
Rioters in the crowd shouted insults at Mr. McAbee for assisting the officer, calling him a “traitor,” Mr. Wayte’s bodycam showed. As they tried to grab at the officer, Mr. McAbee bellowed, “No!” and “Quit!” the video showed.
At one point in their sentencing memo, prosecutors said Mr. McAbee and Mr. Wayte were pulled down the stairs. In another section, quoting Mr. Wayte, they said “McAbee dragged him down the stairs.”
Ms. McAbee said she found that claim unbelievable.
“That was the most astonishing thing to me,” she said after the hearing. “He pulled him down the stairs, like how? It’s physically impossible for Colt to pull the officer down the stairs while his foot was in between his legs.”
Prosecutors said in their memo, “All told, McAbee spent approximately 40 seconds dragging Officer Wayte, standing over him, and pinning him down.”
Mr. Schiffelbein challenged the DOJ contention that Mr. McAbee grabbed Mr. Wayte’s ballistic vest to pull him away from the helping hands of his colleagues.
“Unlike a rioter who grabbed ahold of Officer Wayte’s foot, Mr. McAbee never positioned his body so that he could pull Officer Wayte into the crowd,” Mr. Schiffelbein wrote.
“Indeed, he did not do so. If he meant to pull Officer Wayte down the steps, he would have,” Mr. Schiffelbein said. “Instead, he simply moved Officer Wayte while attempting to draw attention to Ms. Boyland.”
Ms. Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia, was eventually carried to the police line by Mr. McAbee and others who pleaded with police to help her. Once she was dragged inside, more than an hour of lifesaving efforts failed to revive her. She was pronounced dead at 6:09 p.m. at a local hospital.
More than a year before Mr. McAbee went to trial, his attorney at the time, William Shipley, wrote that prosecutors did not consider the slide down the steps as an assault on Mr. Wayte.
Brass or Plastic?
In their sentencing memo, prosecutors described the gloves Mr. McAbee wore that day as “reinforced brass knuckle gloves,” which they said qualified as a deadly weapon. The defense said Mr. McAbee wore reinforced motorcycle gloves, not brass-knuckle gloves.“The government has repeatedly referred to Mr. McAbee’s motorcycle gloves as ‘brass knuckle gloves’ or ’reinforced steel gloves,’” Mr. Schiffelbein wrote. “They are neither. The items are manufactured out of cheap plastic and are commercially available for around $20. They are not prohibited weapons nor are they inherently dangerous.”
Prosecutors sought a sentencing enhancement because Mr. McAbee wore a blue ballistic vest with a “sheriff” patch on it. They dismissed his claim that he primarily wore the armor to protect against being stabbed. Sentencing guidelines allow for enhanced penalties for suspects who wear body armor with the expectation they could encounter gunfire.
Mr. Schiffelbein said his client “did not wear the vest to an event where he expected gunfire. He wore it to protect himself from counter protestors. And the general belief was not that the counter protestors would use firearms, but rather makeshift weapons.”
Ms. McAbee said as soon as the judgment is formally signed by Judge Contreras entered on the court docket, the case will be appealed.
