WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WAVY) – A Williamsburg man, who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement during the Jan. 6 attack of the U.S. Capitol, has been sentenced to prison.
On Dec. 20, 35-year-old Jonathan Mellis was sentenced to 51 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release and was also ordered to pay $20,000 in fines by U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss. On June 12, 2023, Mellis pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding certain officers.
Officials say that Mellis attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, and later joined a large crowd marching towards the Capitol.
Mellis recorded and posted multiple videos on Instagram of himself making his way onto the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol. In one video, Mellis can be heard saying, “We’re getting up, we’re going up, baby!”
According to officials, at 4:26 p.m., Mellis encountered another rioter named Justin Jersey at the Lower West Terrace Tunnel and Archway, who moved towards the front of the crowd carrying a large, gnarled wood stick. Jersey handed the wooden stick to Mellis after Mellis urged Jersey to “knock their masks off.”
Jersey then charged at the officers, knocking one officer to the ground. Documents say that this attack, prompted by Mellis, encouraged the crowd to further resist law enforcement.
Mellis, utilizing Jersey’s stick, lunged at the officers, attempting to knock their protective face and head coverings off. Mellis then used the stick to stab at the faces and heads of officers, later throwing it at the officers located in the Tunnel.
At approximately 4:41 p.m., Mellis threw a three-foot piece of plywood at officers. The plywood bounced off of the officers shields, striking the ceiling with enough force that it cracked in two, collapsing on the officers in the Tunnel.
Mellis made a statement on Parler, a former social networking service marketed as free-speech focused, claiming that the violence towards the officers guarding the Capitol was justified, saying:
“Everybody, everybody, everybody on the podium, I’m telling you, look, don’t even bullsh–, ANTIFA might have been in there, and doing a little thing, I don’t give a sh–, it was Trumpers, we were there and we were there to be heard. For sure. They will ignore us any other time. They will make excuses for the riots and the violence that BLM and ANTIFA do, and ANTIFA and BLM get everything they want every sing time they throw a hissy fit and burn innocent buildings. We had a goal, to occupy that f–king Capitol Building…”
Mellis was arrested on Feb. 16, 2021, by the FBI in Williamsburg.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 1,230 individuals have been charged for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol.
