Prosecutors seek jail time for Swanton residents charged in Jan. 6 riot

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Federal prosecutors are asking for jail time for two Swanton residents charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Sentencing is scheduled Thursday for Gabriel Burress and Madison Pettit. Both pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count each of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in the Capitol building.

The Department of Justice is asking for 14 days incarceration (split sentence for Pettit), 36 months probation, 60 hours of community service and $500 restitution for Burress and Pettit.

In new court filings, prosecutors said Burress and Pettit were in the initial crowd who breached the metal barriers outside of the U.S. Capitol building. They said Burress grabbed a metal barrier and moved it further back into the crowd and away from U.S. Capitol Police, while Pettit argued with a woman who prevented them from taking a metal barrier.

Prosecutors said they were inside the capitol for 14 minutes each and “minimized (their) culpability” when talking with agents. One of Pettit’s text messages the government uses as evidence that she sent on the day referenced “stupid ass Capital police part of the swamp bad cops.” Another sent after they left the Capitol said, “We already stormed the building and went through it we are back in the car.”

Lawyers for Burress and Pettit are asking for 12-months of probation and community service. They said the two didn’t extensively plan their actions on the day and called it a “spur-of-the-moment thing.”

Burress and Pettit traveled to the Capitol with Jodi Wilson and her son, Cole Temple, also from Swanton. The case against Wilson and Temple remains pending.

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