Jury finds Missouri man who bragged in bar about Capitol riot involvement guilty

John George Todd III of Blue Springs was found guilty on Wednesday in the first Capitol riot case involving a Missouri defendant to be tried by a jury.

The verdict came on the third day of deliberations in a weeklong trial in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Todd faced six charges in connection with the Capitol breach, including two felonies. A jury found Todd guilty on all six charges.

Todd, 34, is the 29th Missouri resident of the 36 charged to date to be convicted in connection with the Capitol riot. Most of those defendants pleaded guilty, with two others opting for bench trials before a judge.

Judge Beryl Howell set a May 10 sentencing date. Todd was immediately taken into custody.

Prosecutors said Todd traveled to Washington to block Congress’ certification of electoral votes; that he caused bodily harm to a police officer when a flagpole he was carrying broke during a scuffle with police, slicing the officer’s hand; and that he entered the restricted Capitol building and was disruptive once inside.

Todd’s defense attorneys, led by John Pierce — who has represented more than 20 Capitol riot defendants, including “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley — argued that Todd had no idea he wasn’t supposed to be in the Capitol that day and, because of his lack of intent, is innocent from the charges that he had disrupted the certification of the election and was in a restricted space. They also said the cut on the officer’s hand was minor and self-inflicted.

During their three days of deliberations, the jury had appeared gridlocked over the second count against Todd – allegations that he had inflicted harm against a D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer.

Twice the jury sent notes concerning the second count. One note on the first day asked for clarification on which officer the count applied to and one on the third day asked if they should pay attention to the word “cause” or the word “inflict.”

In his closing argument on Monday, Pierce focused on only the first two counts – obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting an officer. Those two felony counts carry the highest prison sentence — 20 years each — of the six charges brought against Todd.

Pierce said Todd only came to the Capitol to support Trump and that he didn’t intend to disrupt the proceedings. He also argued that the officers were the ones using force against Todd, not the other way around. He said Todd did what people had done in thousands of peaceful protests: “He stood his ground passively.”

Pierce only argued for about 10 minutes, following an hour-long closing argument by Kaitlin Klamann, who went point-by-point through the charges in an effort to prove that Todd knowingly went into the Capitol to stop the certification of the election and that, by holding onto a flagpole while an officer tried to tug it away, he caused harm to the officer.

“He intended to stop the certification and these are words of anger at police who got in the way,” Klamann said.

At one point, Klamann played a video of police attempting to push Todd out of the Capitol building and counted on her fingers how many profanities he used over the course of a short clip.

She challenged Todd’s argument that police had let him in the building and told him he could watch the proceedings if he was peaceful, saying the CCTV video didn’t show any interactions between Todd and the police when he first entered the building. Instead, she pointed out that there was an alarm blaring on the door, since Todd had entered through an emergency exit door.

“Why would a police officer say you can come in and watch a proceeding that has been paused?” Klamann said.

The trial began last week with a prosecution witness who testified that she overheard two men at Big C’s Martini Shack in Blue Springs talking about being at the Capitol on Jan. 6. She started up a conversation with one of them, she said, hoping to get him to tell her more.

He told her his name was John Todd, the witness said, and that he had traveled to Washington because his boss paid for it. He showed her photos and video, proving he’d been there that day. And he told her he’d wanted to “wreak havoc” on the Capitol, she said, before his friend signaled to him to stop talking.

She went home and reported it to the FBI.

After the prosecution rested its case Friday morning — using police officers and experts on Senate procedure to establish the evidence against Todd — the defense called on David Sumrall, a “citizen journalist” who runs Stop Hate, a group that calls the Jan. 6 defendants “political hostages.”

Sumrall said it would have been difficult for the crowd to know the Capitol was closed, because of the large mass of people that had descended on the building under the impression that it was part of a series of rallies Trump supporters were holding in Washington that day. He said the people “were just festive.”

Todd then testified in his own defense, insisting he had no idea he was not permitted inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. He said he went to Washington to see former President Donald Trump speak and even climbed a tree to get a better view.

He said he didn’t see any signs or fences preventing him from going to the Capitol and wondered why police were standing away from him at one point if he wasn’t supposed to be there.

And he claimed that police officers opened an emergency exit to let the crowd into the Capitol and that an officer told him he could watch the certification of the Electoral College votes as long as he was peaceful. The Capitol, however, had been closed to the public for months because of restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prosecutor Barry Disney did not challenge Todd’s account of being let into the building by police. Instead, he focused on what Todd did once inside the building. He asked if Todd’s interaction with officers in the building, where he yelled, “I swear to God, I’ll hip toss your ass into the f---in’ crowd, mother f-----!” was peaceful.

Todd said he had other peaceful interactions with police officers and that he felt the melee in the Capitol wasn’t different from other protests.

Todd said he was a U.S. Marine who received an other-than-honorable discharge over problems stemming from alcohol abuse. He said he has post-traumatic stress disorder, doesn’t like being touched because he had been abused by his stepdad as a child and believed his mental health issues affected him on Jan. 6.

He said he remained in the Capitol in part because of his military experience. He wanted to help people harmed by police, he said, adding that “one thing the Marines taught me is you just don’t retreat.”

After Todd said he “absolutely” takes responsibility for his actions on Jan. 6, Disney asked whether he was guilty of being in the Capitol and of parading or demonstrating.

Todd admitted to being in the Capitol after he was told to leave. He admitted to knowing that Congress was in session to certify the votes of the Electoral College. And as for a scuffle with the officer over the flagpole Todd had brought into the Capitol, he was adamant he did nothing to break the pole. He said he’d bought it and didn’t want to go home without one.

Todd was originally charged May 3, 2022, with four misdemeanors: entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

The government said he twice declined offers to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor. Instead, he opted to take his case to trial, then requested multiple continuances.

Howell, an Obama appointee, had warned Todd that delaying his case would give prosecutors time to keep investigating and possibly come up with more charges against him. And in preparing for the trial, the government uncovered additional video that it said showed Todd assaulting officers.

A federal grand jury then indicted Todd on two felony charges — inflicting bodily injury on an officer and obstruction of an official proceeding — along with the misdemeanors.