Accused Jan. 6 rioter faces new charge in Sacramento of receiving child pornography
A Citrus Heights man charged in December with taking part in the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot is now facing new federal charges of receiving child pornography, officials said Tuesday.
Kyle Travis Colton, 36, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury on a charge of receiving one or more images of “children engaged in sexually explicit conduct” between July 2022 and December 2023, U.S. Attorney Phil Talbert’s office said after the indictment was unsealed Tuesday morning. The charge could result in a prison sentence of up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine.
Colton is accused in the indictment of involvement in child pornography through Dec. 14, the day before he was arrested in Folsom on charges from federal court in Washington, D.C., in the Jan. 6 case filed there.
Colton’s federal defender, Doug Beevers, declined comment Tuesday.
Colton originally appeared in Sacramento federal court on the Capitol Riot charges on Dec. 15 and was ordered released on his own recognizance. A week later, a magistrate judge in Washington, D.C., also ordered Colton to remain free pending the outcome of that case.
Online booking records for the Sacramento County Main Jail show Colton subsequently was booked Friday and is being held without bail pending a court hearing Tuesday afternoon on the pornography charge.
He is charged in Washington with obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, entering or remaining in a restricted building without authority, disorderly conduct in a restricted building and on Capitol grounds and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
Colton came to the FBI’s attention in the Jan. 6 case after receiving a tip that he bragged to passengers on a plane returning to California on Jan. 7, 2021, that he was in the “second wave” of protesters who breached the U.S. Capitol building that day, court records say.
The FBI confirmed that Colton had purchased an airline ticket Jan. 2, 2021, to travel to Washington on Jan. 5 and return on Jan. 7, court records say, and agents interviewed two other passengers on the return flight, court records say.
“These interviews revealed that Colton discussed with Witness 1 and Witness 2, who were sitting near Colton on the flight, entering the United States Capitol Building in the ‘second wave,’” court records say. “Colton also showed Witness 2 pictures from the rally at the Ellipse and a video depicting other rioters pushing and struggling with law enforcement taken from inside of the U.S. Capitol building.”
Court documents filed in Washington say video footage from inside the Capitol shows Colton “not obeying orders by the officers to leave the Rotunda and Colton standing in line with rioters as these other rioters had confrontations with the officers.”
“These officers had initiated crowd clearing measures to include forming a police line, giving loud verbal commands, and using batons to move persons towards the exit door,” court records say. “Colton only moved when the crowd was physically pushed towards the exit.
“Furthermore, Colton remained standing side-by-side with these other rioters who were combating law enforcement officers. At one point, Colton grabbed a flagpole that was being used by a rioter to assault (Metropolitan Police Department) Officer K.D. “Colton gained control of the flagpole, which Officer K.D. had also grabbed, and then gave it back to this rioter, who then fled into the crowd of rioters with the flagpole.”
