N.C. man sentenced to prison for helping breach U.S. Capitol during Jan. 6 riots
A 36-year-old man from the North Carolina mountains was sentenced to prison Tuesday for pushing “with great effort” against police during the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors said.
Brevard resident Alan Michael St. Onge was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison during a federal court hearing in Washington, D.C., according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.
St. Onge pleaded guilty on Jan. 31 to two felony counts of civil disorder, the Observer previously reported.
Held a stolen police shield
St. Onge joined other rioters in breaching the Capitol and disrupting a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors said.
Congress convened the session to count electoral votes, certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election over Donald Trump.
St. Onge helped breach a police barricade on the east plaza of the U.S. Capitol and repeatedly pushed against a police line in an entrance to the Capitol building known as the lower west terrace tunnel, according to court documents.
Some of the most violent attacks against police occurred in the tunnel, prosecutors said.
Over at least two hours, people threw items at police defending the tunnel, sprayed officers with chemical irritants and stole items from them, court records show.
Minutes before St. Onge entered the tunnel, closed-circuit television footage showed another crowd member handing him a stolen U.S. Capitol Police riot shield, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a news release. St. Onge stood near the mouth of the tunnel at the time, prosecutors said.
“He held that shield for a moment and then set it down in the mouth of the tunnel,” according to the release.
Feds: He was everywhere outside Capitol
St. Onge left the tunnel about a minute later, only to return and join the shoving of police, prosecutors said.
Video shows him all around the U.S. Capitol grounds that day.
St. Onge was arrested in Brevard on June 16, 2023.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols also ordered St. Onge on Tuesday to serve three years of supervised release when his prison term ends and pay $2,000 in restitution.
