Olathe Proud Boy who carried ax handle into Capitol on Jan. 6 pleads guilty to felonies

William Chrestman, the Kansas City-area Proud Boy charged with multiple felonies in the Jan. 6 riot — including threatening to assault a federal officer and carrying an ax handle inside the Capitol — pleaded guilty Monday to two counts.

Chrestman, 49, of Olathe, entered guilty pleas to obstruction of an official proceeding and threatening a federal officer. The hearing was held before Judge Timothy J. Kelly in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The Army veteran and former sheet metal worker has been held without bond since his arrest in February 2021. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 12, 2024, and faces a maximum 20 years in prison, $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. He also must pay $2,000 restitution for damage to the Capitol, which the government says totaled about $2.9 million.

The federal sentencing guidelines will likely recommend around 5 years in prison and a fine between $20,000 and $200,000. He has already spent more than two-and-a-half years in jail.

“It’s been a long process, your honor,” Ed Martin, one of Chrestman’s attorneys, told the judge. “He’s been here for a while and he’s come to this conclusion with a lot of thought.”

Chrestman, who prosecutors allege was a key player in the attack, could be seen on numerous videos alongside other Proud Boys on Jan. 6, 2021, dressed in tactical gear, leading chants and at one point using the ax handle to obstruct metal barriers that had been deployed to prevent the mob from advancing further into the Capitol.

Chrestman was indicted by a federal grand jury on Feb. 26, 2021, along with three other Kansas City-area Proud Boys — Christopher Kuehne, who at the time lived in Olathe; Ryan Ashlock, of Gardner; and Louis Colon, of Blue Springs — and Arizona siblings Cory and Felicia Konold.

The Proud Boys is an organization of self-described “Western chauvinists,” known for street-level violence and confrontations with anti-fascists at protests.

Its members, with the help of another right-wing extremist group called the Oath Keepers, played a pivotal role in the attack on the Capitol, overwhelming Capitol Police and breaking windows to let throngs of Trump supporters into the building.

The six with the Kansas City group were charged with conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Chrestman also was charged with threatening to assault a federal law enforcement officer and carrying a wooden ax handle while in the Capitol building and on the grounds.

Chrestman could be seen on numerous videos alongside other Proud Boys during the riot, dressed in tactical gear, leading chants and at one point using the ax handle to obstruct metal barriers that had been deployed to prevent the mob from advancing further into the Capitol.

In denying Chrestman’s request to be released on bond at a July 2021 hearing, Kelly went through a laundry list of Chrestman’s alleged actions on the day of the riot that the judge said were captured by dozens of photos and videos. The actions, Kelly said, included Chrestman wielding an ax handle, encouraging the crowd to storm the Capitol and confronting law enforcement, telling an officer that “You shoot and I’ll take your f------ ass out!”

Kelly said that “Mr. Chrestman was much more — much, much more — than someone who merely cheered on the violence or who entered the Capitol after others cleared the way.”

Chrestman is the eighth of the 10 Kansas residents charged in connection with the Capitol riot to plead guilty. Six of those eight have been sentenced, and the cases of the other two are ongoing.

All members of the Kansas City Proud Boys group except Chrestman were released on personal recognizance bonds pending trial. Colon pleaded guilty in April 2022 to one count of civil disorder, a felony. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Ashlock was sentenced to 70 days in jail and 12 months of supervised release in November 2022 after pleading guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, a misdemeanor.

Kuehne pleaded guilty on Sept. 7 to obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, a felony. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 23. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

The Konolds are scheduled to plead guilty on Nov. 1.

A “statement of offense” signed by Chrestman and filed Monday described him as a “second-degree” member of the Proud Boys’ Kansas City chapter. In December 2020, it said, he and other members of the chapter began planning to travel to Washington to show their support for then-President Trump and protest Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote.

The group sent electronic communications that included discussions about engaging in violence with Antifa and Black Lives Matter supporters, bringing two-way radios, medical supplies, weapons and concealing their identities, the document said.

“Upon being advised that firearms could not be carried in Washington, D.C., the defendant replied, ‘OK…But wood flag staffs are cool!?’”

Chrestman drove to the Washington area on Jan. 4 and 5, 2021, and stayed at a house the KC Proud Boys group rented in Arlington, Virginia, the statement said. On Jan. 6, the group met with other Proud Boys at the Washington Monument, then marched with them to the Capitol. Chrestman wore a tactical vest and protective gloves and carried a gas mask and wooden ax handle with a flag attached to it.

Chrestman moved forward with other Proud Boys during the initial breach of barriers outside the Capitol, it said, which allowed the crowd to push past multiple lines of barricades and make its way onto the Lower West Plaza. Chrestman moved to the front of the crowd, encouraging rioters and shouting, “Go! Go! Go!”

He eventually entered the Capitol through the Senate Wing Door about 12 minutes after the initial breach, the document said. Upon entering, he led rioters in a chant of “Whose house? Our house!” and used his ax handle to block a metal barrier that was being lowered from overhead, allowing more rioters to enter.

“In a subsequent recorded phone call,” it said, “the defendant described this episode as follows: ‘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------ chairs under there to block it dude, to keep going down…The cops were legitimately scared for their f------- lives.’”

Chrestman’s family and other supporters have long complained that he continues to be held without bond. He and other Jan. 6 inmates in the District of Columbia jail are referred to as political prisoners by former President Donald Trump and other GOP hard-liners.

A fundraiser set up by Chrestman’s family on the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo continues to bring in donations, but the $71,359 sent from more than 1,200 donors is far short of the $450,000 goal.

Chrestman was originally scheduled for a status conference on his case on Sept. 18. But four days before it was to take place, the conference was converted to a change-of-plea hearing.

The notice of Chrestman’s change of plea came one week after Kuehne pleaded guilty.

Just days before Kuehne’s guilty plea, Kelly — a Trump appointee who has handled numerous Proud Boys cases — sentenced the organization’s former national chairman Enrique Tarrio, of Miami, to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges involving his role in organizing a mob of Trump supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6. Tarrio’s sentence is the longest to date in connection with the riot.

Three other Proud Boys leaders found guilty of seditious conspiracy — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl — were sentenced shortly before Tarrio to prison terms of 15 to 18 years. Another member, Dominic Pezzola — who broke a Capitol window with a stolen police riot shield — was acquitted of the seditious conspiracy charge but sentenced to 10 years for other felonies.

Members of the far-right group have been prime targets of the federal investigation into the Capitol attack. Authorities rounded up dozens from around the country on charges including assault of law enforcement officers, civil disorder and sedition.

The group received national attention in September 2020 when, during the first presidential debate, Trump was asked if he was willing to condemn “white supremacists and militia groups.” Trump responded that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by.”

During a CNN town hall with Trump in New Hampshire in May of this year, the former president called Jan. 6 “a beautiful day” and said many of the detainees “are just great people.”

If elected in 2024, Trump said he would be “inclined to pardon” many of the rioters convicted of federal crimes.