A second Idahoan, this one from Nampa, has pleaded guilty to U.S. Capitol riot charges
An Idaho man charged with assaulting police during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot in Washington, D.C., has pleaded guilty.
During a hearing Tuesday morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Duke Edward Wilson, 67, pleaded guilty to a single count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees; and to a count of obstruction of an official proceeding. Wilson, a Nampa resident, originally faced several felonies.
According to the plea agreement signed by Wilson and entered into court record Tuesday, Wilson must be interviewed by law enforcement regarding his account of Jan. 6. Wilson must also let investigators review his social media accounts and posts from around that time, and he must pay $2,000 in restitution to the Department of Treasury.
Wilson’s plea agreement indicates that he left his Nampa home on Jan. 3 or 4 to attend the so-called “Stop the Steal” rally in D.C. According to his charging documents and corresponding pleas, Wilson admitted to hitting at least one U.S. Capitol officer with his fist, as well as hitting at least one officer with a pole.
Charging documents included photos of Wilson at the Capitol riot wearing a baseball cap that read “CNN Fake News” and his face covered in pepper spray. The documents referred to videos that showed Wilson grabbing a thin PVC pipe and jabbing police officers with it before throwing it.
Wilson was pictured trying to push his way past a wall of police while he and other Donald Trump supporters tried to gain access to the U.S. Capitol. Investigators alleged that Wilson helped other rioters pull a shield away from police and push two officers to the ground.
The riot occurred two weeks before President Joe Biden’s inauguration day, on the day that Congress was confirming his elction victory over Trump. The uprising left several people dead, including a Capitol Police officer.
The riot — which court records say caused over $1.4 million in damage to the Capitol and caused the evacuation of the Senate chamber — temporarily delayed the certification of the election results.
In April, Wilson was arrested without incident by Salt Lake City-based FBI agents. At that time, he was the fourth Idahoan arrested and charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot.
During Wilson’s initial appearance in court, an Idaho federal judge said the charges were much more serious than those of other Capitol riot defendants he had seen, referring to the allegations that Wilson had assaulted police officers.
“What is described here is qualitatively different in a serious way,” Chief Magistrate Judge Ronald Bush said on April 16.
On Tuesday, Senior District Judge Royce Lamberth told Wilson that while entering guilty pleas may have been difficult, Wilson’s actions were a step forward.
The plea agreement indicates that the charges are Wilson’s first in federal court, although he does have a 2010 DUI charge in Canyon County. Because it’s his first federal offense, his potential sentence could be between 41-51 months in prison, according to federal sentencing guidelines.
However, a judge is not mandated to issue Wilson a sentence within those boundaries. He faces a maximum potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison and up to three years of supervised probation.
Five Idaho residents have been arrested and charged in connection with the the Capitol riot, with four being Treasure Valley residents. Wilson is the second to plead guilty. Ada County resident Josiah Colt — photographed jumping onto the floor of the U.S. Senate during the attack — pleaded guilty to charges in July and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 1:00 PM with the headline "A second Idahoan, this one from Nampa, has pleaded guilty to U.S. Capitol riot charges."
