First rioter to enter U.S. Capitol sentenced to 53 months

A Kentucky man who was the first rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress by Donald Trump supporters was sentenced to 53 months in prison on Tuesday.

Michael Sparks, 46, a factory supervisor, was convicted in March of civil disorder and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 57 months while Sparks’s defense attorneys asked that he be given 12 months of home detention. District Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced Sparks to 53 months in prison and a $2,000 fine.

In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said Sparks was “the very first rioter to enter the United States Capitol building” and “helped light the fire that day.”

Sparks jumped through a broken window, they said, “ignoring the warnings of the rioters behind him and the pepper spray (from US Capitol police) that hit him squarely in the face.”

Capitol police sergeant Victor Nichols, testifying at Sparks’s trial in Washington, said he “acted like a green light for everybody behind him, and everyone followed right behind him.”

Nearly 1,500 people have been charged for their roles in the storming of Congress by supporters of former Republican president Trump.

David Dempsey, 37, of Santa Ana, California, described by prosecutors as one of the “most violent” members of the mob, was sentenced to 20 years in prison this month.

The sentence was the second longest handed down so far.