Proud Boys member armed with axe handle during Jan. 6 riot gets over 4 years in prison

A Proud Boys member from Kansas was sentenced Friday to over four years in prison for his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol.

William Chrestman, 51, was sentenced to 55 months in prison with 36 months of supervised release and was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. He pleaded guilty in October to obstruction of an official proceeding and threatening a federal officer.

Chrestman, an Army veteran, wore a tactical vest and protective gloves and carried a gas mask and a wooden axe handle with a flag attached to it to the Capitol on the day of the insurrection, prosecutors allege. He was also accused of bragging about harassing police.

“We had the cops running through the f— State Building… dude, trying to slam the emergency doors, like, the big garage door-type ones that segregate off the rooms, and we were throwing f—ing chairs under there to block it dude, to keep going down,” the defendant said about his actions, according to attorney’s office. “The cops were legitimately scared for their f—ing lives.”

Prosecutors said he remained on the premises for more than an hour after law enforcement tried to hold the perimeter, encouraging other rioters to “go” into the building and using his axe handle to prop open the doors.

In another interaction, Chrestman was accused of gesturing toward the police officers with his axe handle, shouting “If you shoot, I’ll f—ing take your ass out,” per the release.

Prosecutors originally recommended a five years and three months prison sentence, arguing that he “played a significant role” in the insurrection, The Associated Press reported.

Attorney Michael Cronkright, who is representing Chrestman, argued that his client didn’t use his axe handle “to do anything remotely violent.”

“To date, the worst thing that the government has asserted is that he used it to touch a security gate that was already going up,” the attorney wrote.

The defendant has been jailed since his arrest in February 2021 and will receive credit for the nearly three years he’s already been in custody.

Three years after the Jan. 6 insurrection, more than 1,200 people have been charged for their actions related to the riots. Around 900 have pleaded guilty or have been convicted after trials, according to an Associated Press database. Only two defendants were cleared of all charges.