Man who bragged he ‘fed’ an officer to mob gets 5 years
WASHINGTON — A Georgia business owner who bragged that he “fed” a police officer to a mob of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Thursday to nearly five years in prison for his repeated attacks on law enforcement during the insurrection.
Jack Wade Whitton struck an officer with a metal crutch and dragged him — head first and face down — into the crowd on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. Whitton later boasted in a text message that he “fed him to the people.”
Roughly 20 minutes later, Whitton tried to pull a second officer into the crowd, prosecutors say. He also kicked at, threatened and threw a construction pylon at officers trying to hold off the mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters.
“You’re gonna die tonight!” he shouted at police after striking an officer’s riot shield.
Whitton, of Locust Grove, Georgia, expressed remorse for his “horrible” actions Jan. 6 before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced him to four years and nine months in prison. The 33-year-old will get credit for the three years that he has been jailed since his arrest.
“I tell you with confidence: I have changed,” Whitton told the judge.
Whitton, who pleaded guilty to an assault charge last year, told the judge that he has never been a “political person.”
“I’ve never been a troublemaker. I’ve always been a hard worker and a law-abiding citizen,” he said.
The judge said the videos of Whitton attacking police are “gruesome.”
“You really were out of control,” the judge told him.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of eight years and one month for Whitton, who owned and operated his own fence building company before his April 2021 arrest.