A Texas man who worked for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ website, Infowars, was sentenced on Wednesday to four months of home detention for joining a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Samuel Montoya, 37, was employed as a video editor for Infowars when he stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and captured footage of a police officer fatally shooting a rioter, Ashli Babbitt.
Before a judge announced his sentence, Montoya called himself “a member of the media” and said he regrets his “approach to filming and reporting on the events that day.”
“Nothing like what happened at the Capitol that day should ever take place again,” Montoya said. “I truly hope my apology offers a bit of closure to my fellow countrymen as we recover and heal together.”
U.S. District Judge John Bates said Montoya “doesn’t get a free pass … just because he considered himself a journalist.”
“He was more than just a reporter,” the judge said before sentencing Montoya. “He was not just an observer. He was a participant.”
Montoya pleaded guilty in November to one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison.
Prosecutors recommended sentencing Montoya to 45 days of imprisonment. Bates instead sentenced Montoya to 3 years of probation, including 120 days of home detention and 60 hours of community service, and ordered him to pay a $1,500 fine plus $500 in restitution. The judge said it was a “close call” in deciding to spare him from incarceration.
A video that Montoya recorded for Infowars showed him celebrating the attack and joining other rioters in breaking through a line of police officers in the Capitol’s Crypt.
“We’re storming!” he said.
Montoya invoked his participation in the riot when he mounted an unsuccessful congressional campaign in the 35th district of Texas last year. His campaign website was capitolsam.com and included a section called “Arrest and Political Persecution.”
Former Infowars video editor Samuel Montoya (circled) has been sentenced to four months of home detention for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. (Justice Department via AP)
Two days after the riot, Montoya appeared on an Infowars show hosted by Owen Shroyer and described the scene of Babbitt’s shooting.
The officer shot Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran from San Diego, as she climbed through a broken door…
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