Jan. 6 defendant who said ‘this is war’ on social media sentenced to 45 days in jail

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a California woman to 45 days in jail after she pleaded guilty to breaking through a window at the U.S. Capitol and live-streaming the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. 

In her live stream, she could be heard shouting, “This is war!”

During the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton accused Mariposa Castro, who also goes by the name Imelda Acosta, of being “gleeful” during the Jan. 6 insurrection, NBC News reported.

“I’ve been reading a couple books about how civil war starts, and so much of history is repeating itself in our country,” Walton said, according to NBC. “I love this country, this country has been good to me, and to see what people are trying to do to this country … is just very concerning.”

Before she pleaded guilty in November, the Justice Department charged Castro with several counts, including entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building for her role on Jan. 6.

On that day in 2021 a mob of former President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to halt the certification of the 2020 election results.

After she live streamed the event on Facebook, Castro posted that she had “sooooo much proof of what happened” and that she would “post all these vids,” according to a complaint filed by the Justice Department. 

“I might be taken out of FB but it will be worth it!!!” she wrote. “Everyone needs to watch what happened. I made it out but for a while I thought I was going to die.”

On the Capitol grounds, Castro allegedly climbed through a window using the staging grounds for the inauguration ceremony for then-President-elect Biden, the complaint says. As she climbed through the building, Castro narrated the events of the siege.

She continued to record the riot, the Justice Department says. When police deployed chemical irritants outside the Capitol grounds, Castro said: “This is too much,” and “I’m getting out.”

In another video, Castro is chatting with an unknown subject in a location that appears to be away from the Capitol. She references former Vice President Mike Pence and says, “This is war.”

According to a memo filed by her attorneys, Castro was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. when she was just two years old. She and her husband met Trump in 2006 at Pebble Beach, Calif.

Castro became a supporter of Trump’s after the meeting and sought to portray the events of Jan. 6 without media bias, the memo says.

“Looking back, she realizes that she got caught up in the fervor of the moment,” Castro’s attorneys wrote in the memo.

NBC News reported that a “tearful Castro” apologized to the judge and expressed remorse.

“I don’t glorify my actions,” she said, according to NBC. “I got caught up on the energy, and if I could go back and change things over, I definitely would have brought more peace.”

More than 750 defendants have been arrested in all 50 U.S. states in connection to the Jan. 6 riots.