Jury deliberates fate of Rochester man accused of sedition in Capitol riot

After a four-month trial, the fate of Dominic Pezzola, a Rochester-area man accused of sedition in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, is now in the hands of a federal jury.

Pezzola, 45, is one of five Proud Boys on trial in a federal court in Washington D.C. He and the others are charged with sedition and other crimes, accused of trying to derail the transfer of power in January 2021 to newly elected President Joseph Biden.

On Jan. 6, thousands gathered at the Capitol, clinging to the falsehood of a stolen election by Biden. According to estimates and evidence, about 2,000 rioters pushed into the Capitol, forcing federal lawmakers into seclusion for safety and temporarily blocking the electoral count to declare Biden president.

Sedition, a Civil War-era law, has been rarely used.

Prosecutors have contended that Pezzola was among the Proud Boys planners of the assault on the Capitol, and that he smashed a window with a riot shield. Pezzola was on the front line of those who charged the Capitol, and that he cleared the way for others, prosecutors allege.

Pezzola is being tried with Enrique Tarrio, considered a Proud Boys leader, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zach Rehl.

The defenses have varied, with Tarrio holding former President Trump to blame for spreading the lie that he had won the election and all contending that there is not evidence of a coordinated plot to interfere with the electoral count.

In an interview last year with the Democrat and Chronicle, Pezzola's lawyer, Steven Metcalfe said, "How many of them were just trying to figure out what even happened on that day because it got completely out of control? They're making these guys out to be far more intelligent and far more technologically savvy than they were."

Prosecutors relied on hundreds of messages between the accused in the days leading up to the riot as evidence of coordination.

According to Associated Press, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday during the first day of closing arguments that the Proud Boys were ready for “all-out war” and viewed themselves as foot soldiers fighting for Trump.

"These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it," said the prosecutor, Conor Mulroe.

Pezzola, a Marine veteran, last week testified on his own behalf. He said he became fearful during the chaos. "I should’ve stopped. I should’ve turned and went home,” he said, according to Politico. "For some reason I felt I didn’t have total control of my actions."

He maintained that his military training kicked in as he faced rubber bullets, so he did not retreat.

At one point during cross-examination, Pezzola grew angry with prosecutors. According to the New York Times, Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson asked Pezzola: “You wanted to stand first on the line to protect who you love and what you stand for?”

Pezzola answered testily, saying, "That’s correct, but that’s in line with standing against this corrupt trial with your fake charges."

A graduate of Aquinas Institute of Rochester, Pezzola served in the Marines from 1998 to 2005 and was an infantry assaultman.

When arrested he owned a flooring company. Some former friends said he had become racist and extremist on social media postings in the months before the insurrection.

Pezzola was a late-comer to the Proud Boys, joining in late 2020. His partner, Lisa Magee, testified that he grew isolated during the pandemic lockdown; he had been working long hours beforehand to provide for his family, she said, according to WUSA-TV.

"He started drinking very heavily and inundated himself with Fox News day and night," she testified.

Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that the accused often embraced debunked conspiracy theories in their defense, such as claims that agent provocateurs were in the mix of the crowd and helped foment the Capitol breach.

Those same defenses, a reliance on "clearly discredited conspiracies," have been tried unsuccessfully by defendants at earlier trials of Jan. 6 rioters, Lewis said.

The Proud Boys defendants "are to a member as extreme as ever, as deep in these conspiracies as ever," said Lewis, who sat in on the trial for some days and followed media daily who were diligently Tweeting the proceedings. "They are as keen to embrace these narratives and grievances as they were before Jan. 6."

The Proud Boys were "the tip of the spear" with the attack on the Capitol, Lewis said. "Obviously Pezzola is there at the very first breach with the riot shield," he said.

Pezzola maintained that he found the shield and used it for self-protection from rubber bullets.

Jury deliberations began Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Dominic Pezzola fate in hands of jury in Capitol riot case