Nathan Entrekin, Jan. 6 raider from Arizona in gladiator costume, sentenced to 45 days in jail

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect date of one of Nathan Wayne Entrekin's previous run-ins with law enforcement. Entrekin in 2001 pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of copyright infringement.

A Cottonwood man who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, raid on the U.S. Capitol clad in a gladiator costume, intending to portray Captain Moroni, a figure from the Book of Mormon, was sentenced on Friday to 45 days in jail.

Nathan Wayne Entrekin, 49, had pleaded guilty in January to a single count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol. In exchange, the government dropped four other criminal counts it had filed against him.

The judge ordered that Entrekin be on probation for three years after his release from federal custody.

Entrekin, like thousands of other supporters of former President Donald Trump, had gathered in Washington, D.C., on the day that Congress was set to officially certify Trump’s loss in the 2020 general election.

Entrekin drove himself to D.C. from the northern Arizona city of Cottonwood with the aim, he would write in a letter to the judge, of trying to halt the certification of President Joe Biden's victory.

"I was there with the others to protest the election results, which I still believe were tampered (with)," Entrekin said during Friday's hearing.

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After Trump spoke at The Ellipse park near the White House, the crowd marched to the U.S. Capitol and stormed inside. The breach halted the counting of the Electoral College votes as U.S. Senators and Representatives were hustled out of the chambers and into safe quarters.

Entrekin entered the U.S. Capitol twice, staying inside for a total of 13 minutes, prosecutors said, based upon a review of photos and videos. Some of those videos were on Entrekin's cell phone, which court documents say he voluntarily handed to an FBI agent who interviewed him at his Cottonwood home weeks after the melee at the Capitol.

Entrekin stood out from the crowd because he was clad in the black leather, red cape and gold headband of a gladiator costume, worn over denim shorts and a T-shirt, according to photos filed with the court. Entrekin wore black bands on his wrists and studded leather shin guards over his legs.

Entrekin, in his letter to the judge, said he marched to the Capitol hoping to “somehow, someway, sway the minds of Congress. It was in vain.”

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He said that by the time he reached the Capitol, the entryways had been breached by people he called “bad actors.” He likened his entry into the U.S. Capitol to a sports fan who storms the field while swept up by emotion.

“Most of us were distracted by sheer adrenaline or bewildered by the ease of entry,” Entrekin said, noting that he passed officers with arms folded who didn’t try to stop him. “The violent ones had already made their mark and now it was, for lack of better words, a ‘free-for-all’ for the rest of the crowd.”

Entrekin also told Judge Florence Pan in his letter that he entered to stay warm, noting his sparse attire on the winter D.C. day.

Entrekin intended to portray Captain Moroni, who, according to the Book of Mormon, led a battle for democracy, leading a fight against a group that wanted to install a king.

Entrekin, in videos filed with the court, was seen trying to explain this story to passers-by at the U.S. Capitol, including one man who addressed him in a shout as Julius Caesar.

Entrekin, in his letter to the judge, noted how difficult it was to explain his costume.

“The challenge for me was to illustrate the analogous nature of the Moroni story to our present day, in such an enormous and energetic crowd,” he wrote.

An unnamed informant tipped off the FBI that Entrekin was the man dressed in the gladiator costume captured in photographs taken at the U.S. Capitol. The FBI talked to Entrekin at his Cottonwood home in February 2021. He was arrested in July 2021.

During his FBI interview, an agent reviewed videos on Entrekin’s phone. During some, Entrekin narrated his actions at the U.S. Capitol and addressed his mother, who he intended to show the videos later.

“I’m here, Mom!” he said in one video, according to prosecutors.

Entrekin lives with his mother in Cottonwood. She wrote a letter to the judge asking him to be allowed to stay with her.

Entrekin earned a master's degree at Northern Arizona University after earning his bachelor's degree at University of Arizona. He has worked various jobs, court documents say, including graphic design, information technology support, a rideshare driver and substitute teacher. He most recently worked as a notary public.

Entrekin’s attorney, Dani Jahn asked the judge during Friday's hearing for a sentence of probation.

"In all candor, I think he got caught up," Jahn said during Friday's hearing.

She said Entrekin was remorseful and cooperated with the investigation against him. Much of the evidence in the case, she said, came from Entrekin's own phone, which he voluntarily turned over to the FBI.

The government had asked that Entrekin serve 105 days in jail. In a memorandum filed with the court, prosecutors said Entrekin had entered the Capitol twice, knowing both times he was wrong, and rummaged through private offices.

"You can hear flashbangs going off, you can see the plumes of smoke," assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Murphy said during Friday's hearing, referencing videos of Entrekin's actions. "Yet he continued onward."

Murphy also said that Entrekin, in his own video, said he was leaving the Capitol only so others could enter. "We've got to respect that," Entrekin said on video taken on his phone.

Prosecutors also noted Entrekin's previous run-ins with the law: his 2001 guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of copyright infringement and a 2015 incident that involved him yelling threats at neighbors and his mother.

Entrekin told the judge on Friday that the incident was the culmination of a conflict with a neighbor that he believed was using "directed energy weaponry"  and "electronic harassment" against him.

Entrekin, in his letter to the judge, did not make a request for leniency. He only apologized and said he was awaiting the decision with “contemplative optimism.”

Entrekin, in his letter, told the judge that neither the nation’s founding fathers nor Moroni would have approved of his actions.

“My going about inside this consecrated edifice was unbecoming of the ancient character I had hoped to personally portray,” he wrote. “If time could return me to the green grass of the large lawn to the west, beyond all barricades and steps, that should be the place I'd have stayed.”

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jan. 6 Capitol 'Captain Moroni' raider from Arizona sentenced to jail