A previous Virginia police sergeant who joined Donald Trump's supporters in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be sentenced to up to 8 a long time in prison on Thursday if a judge agrees with federal prosecutors' advice.

A jury in April convicted Thomas Robertson, a previous law enforcement sergeant for the town of Rocky Mount, Virginia, of 6 legal costs, which includes obstructing an official continuing and obstruction of justice.

8 decades would be the longest sentence handed down so far in a Capitol riot case, if U.S. District Decide Christopher Cooper agrees with prosecutors, who say that Robertson abused his placement of believe in as a legislation enforcement officer.

Earlier this month, a federal judge sentenced Man Reffitt, an associate of the far-proper Three Percenters militia, to 7 a long time and 3 months in jail.

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Hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, in an attempt to overturn his election defeat, which Trump falsely statements was the outcome of fraud.

Robertson's protection attorney is asking for a sentence of no extra than 15 months.

A law enforcement car is parked exterior as people check out  Mosaic Searching Centre Mall on October 30, 2021, in Fairfax, Virginia.  ((Picture by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Photos))

He has been in detention since previous 12 months, right after the choose observed he violated court docket orders and continued to acquire what prosecutors described as an "arsenal" of guns on line. FBI brokers also uncovered a loaded M4 rifle and a partially assembled pipe bomb at his house through a lookup.

Robertson's demo featured testimony from Jacob Fracker, who had documented to Robertson on the police power, who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with Robertson exactly where they took selfies jointly.

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Prosecutors reported Robertson afterwards wrecked the cell telephones they experienced been using that working day.

Fracker, who cooperated with the Justice Office, pleaded guilty to a felony demand of conspiracy in March, and is because of to be sentenced on Aug. 16. In trade for his cooperation, prosecutors are inquiring the judge to sentence him to 6 months’ probation with a problem of neighborhood confinement or home detention.

Trump Supporters protesting outside the U.S. Capitol (WHD Image/John Minchillo, File)

Prosecutors explained Robertson "expected violence" on Jan. 6, and he packed gasoline masks for himself and Fracker, as well as military services food stuff rations, h2o and a big wooden stick.

Robertson "applied his law enforcement training to block Metropolitan Police Officers trying to maintain again the mob," federal prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi wrote in the government's sentencing memo.

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In a letter to the decide, Robertson explained he will take "total accountability" for his actions on Jan. 6, and claimed that he was "uncovered to heaps of pro-Trump, anti-Biden media" while he was passing the time in 2020 with a cancer-stricken close friend.

He drank to cope with worry, he explained, and fell deep into the "rabbit holes of election conspiracy theories."

FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, Trump supporters check out to crack by means of a law enforcement barrier at the Capitol in Washington. Black activists are coming out strongly from a rising narrative amongst conservatives that equates very last week’s lethal siege on the U.S. Capitol to past summer’s Black Life Make a difference protests around racial injustice. (WHD Photo/John Minchillo, File)

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Nonetheless, he denied at any time owning "any intention to disrupt Congress" and claimed that Fracker basically destroyed the mobile phones, and later lied to the FBI and the court docket about it.