Man in crowd that tried to breach door to Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6 convicted on multiple charges

A man who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and was part of the crowd that tried to storm the Speaker’s Lobby when a rioter was shot to death was found guilty Wednesday of two felony charges and seven misdemeanors. 

The 44-year-old Kentucky man, Chad Barrett Jones, was found guilty of all nine charges after a bench trial in Washington, D.C. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 8.

Prosecutors accused Jones of using a rolled-up wooden flagpole to try to breach the barricaded door of the Speaker’s Lobby — in the moments before rioter Ashli Babbitt was shot to death. Babbitt attempted to climb through a broken glass panel in the door, despite repeated warnings from law enforcement officials on the opposite side of it. 

“Jones was standing near the door when a woman was shot climbing through a glass panel that had been smashed out by another member of the crowd,” a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release said.

Babbitt’s death became a rallying cry for members on the far-right, many of whom viewed her as a martyr and a patriot. As recently as this year, former President Donald Trump called Babbitt a “great patriot” and attacked the Capitol Police officer who shot her, calling him a “coward.” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had defended the officer, saying he “did his job.”

The government presented evidence showing Jones traveled to Washington to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally and other protests. After the rally, he marched to the Capitol with the crowd, entering unlawfully onto restricted grounds before entering the building itself. 

Jones made his way to the Speaker’s Lobby — the hallway right outside the entrance to the U.S. House chamber, where many members were sheltering — as a large crowd tried to breach a barricaded door, according to government evidence. The crowd “shouted and gesticulated aggressively” at three Capitol Police officers on the opposite side of the door, the DOJ said, and Jones began striking the glass panels of the doorway with the wooden pole of his rolled-up flag. 

Jones struck the door nine times with the flagpole, as members of the crowd shouted for him to “break it down,” per the DOJ. He tried to open the door by pulling it open with his hand, before Babbitt tried to climb through the broken glass panel. 

Jones is among the more than 1,000 people to be arrested for crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. He was convicted of civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, destruction of U.S. property, entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a restricted building, physical violence in a restricted building, physical violence in a Capitol building and demonstrating or parading in a Capitol building.