Prosecutors say North Carolina woman deserves prison for bringing 14-year-old to Capitol riot

A North Carolina couple who brought their 14-year-old child into the U.S. Capitol amid the Jan. 6 riot is being slammed by prosecutors, who recommend the child’s mother receive a prison sentence, according to The Associated Press. 

Virginia Marie “Jenny” Spencer and her husband, Christopher, brought their child with them as they pushed past police officers and invaded the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. 

The couple also had their child with them when they broke into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and attempted to enter the House chamber, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo, according to the AP’s report. 

Prosecutors recommended a three-month prison sentence for Jenny Spencer, as she pleaded guilty to multiple charges in September related to the attack on the Capitol. 

Christopher Spencer has pleaded not guilty, so prosecutors have not yet made a sentencing recommendation. 

Jenny Spencer is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 7 of next year, according to the AP. 

The latest filings from the prosecutors is their first mention of the child being “in tow” during the Spencers invasion of the Capitol, according to the AP. The child’s presence factored into prosecutors’ recommendation of imprisonment for Jenny Spencer. 

“Although Jenny Spencer was not at the front of this group and not vocal, for approximately nine minutes, she was part of this particular mob, who were chanting ‘Stop the steal!’ and ‘Break it down!’ in reference to the House Chamber door,” prosecutors wrote in their memo, according to the AP, also writing that Jenny Spencer smoked a cigarette while in the Capitol. 

Jenny Spencer is a stay-at-home mother to five children and was arrested in Durham, North Carolina, in February, reports the AP. 

Although prosecutors conceded that Jenny Spencer was among the first of the prosecuted Jan. 6 rioters to accept responsibility, she was also compared to the case of a man named Boyd Camper of Montana who brought his 10-year-old to the Capitol, but left his son outside, supervised, before storming the building. 

While a number of Capitol rioters appear set to avoid jail time, Jenny Spencer’s recommended sentence is well below some of the harshest penalties being handed down, particularly for violent offenders among the crowd. 

Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman,” was sentenced last month to more than three years in federal prison. Scott Fairlamb, a former MMA fighter who assaulted a police officer during the riot, was sentenced to 41 months in prison.