NEWSCHANNEL5 (WTVF) — Joseph Padilla was just sentenced to one of the harshest penalties for any Tennessean who stormed our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6th, but it’s less than half of what prosecutors recommended.
Joseph Padilla of Cleveland, Tennessee faced 14 years in prison after being convicted on 10 counts, including assaulting an officer while trying to force his way into the Capitol.
Padilla was sentenced instead to 6 and a half years in prison by Judge John D. Bates.
It’s not clear why Judge Bates chose a much lighter sentence, but we do know that at one point he acknowledged Padilla’s military service with the Army and his remorse after the fact.
CBS reports that Bates did say however that Padilla was “one of the most aggressive rioters” at the barricade.
Prosecutors say it wasn’t the shoving match at the barricades that caught their attention. They say Padilla’s actions before, during and after, left a lasting impression worthy of substantial prison time.
Days before Padilla left for D.C., he left comments on far right-wing social media sites telling people that, “My final line is Biden holding his hand up at his inauguration. After that, it’s the cartridge box for me.”
Cartridge as in bullets.
NewsChannel5 Legal Analyst Nick Leonardo said he wasn’t surprised to see federal prosecutors recommend 14 years.
“The Department of Justice is taking this very seriously. They’re setting a precedence that any attack on the government is certainly going to be treated as a seditious, attempted terroristic sort of act, so it does set a dangerous precedent,” Leonardo said.
Leonardo also says it’s not uncommon for prosecutors to dig into what you wrote on social media to help build their case.
Prosecutors argued that Padilla expected violence and helped incite some of this himself. You can see Padilla wearing goggles and a mask, which prosecutors say was a sign, but read what Padilla wrote a few days earlier.
“I fully plan to incite people to storm the Capitol building and run all the politicians out of it. Belts and whips strongly recommended,” Padilla wrote.
We later see Padilla charging at a barricade, before helping others to throw the same barricade at Capitol Police.
“A lot of times, if you’re charged with the same sort of act in state court, you’d get probation, but because it’s a federal offense, the guidelines mandate a certain amount of jail time at certain offense levels,” Leonardo said.
Prosecutors say Padilla showed no remorse for his actions, contrary to his testimony in court. Padilla testified that he only threw the flagpole in the direction of Capitol Police to distract protestors, so officers could help one of their own.
Prosecutors weren’t buying it and reminded the court that this is the same man who seemed to brag online after the riot saying he..."would have occupied the Capitol if some a**hole hadn’t stalled our momentum after we pushed the cops into the main hallway."
It’s not clear if prosecutors offered Padilla a plea deal as they have with many others. Leonardo says often the courts will consider this if it means the defendant declined an opportunity to take accountability.
"If you go to trial and you get convicted, they’re really going to through the book at you in federal court and we don’t see that so much in state court,” Leonardo said.
Judge Bates ultimately sentenced Padilla to 6 and a half years in prison. Less than half of what prosecutors were hoping for, but Leonardo says federal sentencing is often at the discretion of the judge.
"We have seen in some of these sentencings for Jan. 6 where the federal judge does not agree with the government's theory and doesn't max these individuals out. We’ve seen just as many of those actions as we’ve seen some of them exceed the guidelines with an upward departure,” Leonardo said.
At least 12 Tennesseans accepted plea deals, with another three cases on their way to trial.
Leonardo says if what he’s seen so far is any indication, the time for deals may just be running out.
"The race to get a good deal is on day one at the very beginning trying to get to that US Attorney’s Office. Trying to be the first person there to give information, because if you’re the 20th person there they may have it all figured out by then and there’s nothing you can do to help yourself,” Leonardo said.
The Department of Justice says that since the Jan. 6th riots, more than 1,000 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the US Capitol.
More than 398 individuals were charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
