NC man who slashed at cops with flagpole, gave Nazi salute, gets 38 months for Jan. 6 crime

Matthew Beddingfield fought the law in and around the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, using a metal pole topped by an American flag to slash and stab at the legs and genitalia of police officers protecting the building from an angry mob.

On Tuesday, the law won.

Beddingfield, 23, a convicted felon from Nash County, due east of Raleigh, was sentenced to 38 months, three years of probation and $2,000 in restitution.

He becomes the 11th North Carolinian sent to prison for their roles in the Jan. 6 violence, in which hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked police, smashed doors and windows, then marauded through the Capitol in an effort to stop congressional certification of Trump’s election defeat.

The unprecedented political assault, fueled by Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen election, has been tied to five deaths, injuries to some 140 police officers and almost $3 million in damages to the Capitol.

At least 30 N.C. residents have been swept up in the massive federal prosecution that has led to some 1,070 arrests. More than a third of the defendants — including Beddingfield — have been charged or convicted of assaulting, resisting, or impeding police or other employees.

Beddingfield, who was 20 when he and his father drove to Washington on Jan. 6, initially was indicted on nine counts. As part of a plea deal he signed in February, federal prosecutors dropped eight of the charges. He still faced up to eight years in prison for the single felony assault charge.

In a sentencing memo filed last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Murphy recommended Beddingfield serve 42 months, the midpoint of the defendant’s sentencing range.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, lowered that by four months. The judge’s reasoning is unknown. The federal courthouse in Washington no longer operates courtroom audio feeds that were set up during the pandemic.

Other N.C. defendants who already have been sentenced have received prison or jail time ranging from 15 days to 44 months.

Several, like Beddingfield, were in their teens or early 20s when they committed their alleged crimes. North Carolina’s youngest defendant, Aiden Bilyard of Cary, was sentenced in July to 40 months.

On the day of the riot, Beddingfield was out on bond on an attempted murder charge tied to the 2019 shooting of a minor in a Kmart parking lot in Smithfield. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser felony charge and received probation.

At the Capitol, prosecutors say Beddingfield was one of the first members of the mob to breach police lines on the west side of the Capitol and fought with officers inside and outside the building.

He used his flagpole like a lance.

“You need to back up. This is not the way to do it,” one officer told him, according to an account presented earlier in court.

“F--- you!,” Beddingfield replied before again slashing the cop with his flagpole. “You’re on the wrong side.”

When his flagpole broke — and with “vitriol still in his tank,” as prosecutors described it in their filing last week — Beddingfield tore off a broken piece and hurled it at another officer.

Later during the melee and while still holding his American flag, Beddingfield stopped to face the Capitol and gave a Nazi salute, a video screen grab included in court documents shows.

A year after the riot and shortly before his arrest, Beddingfield was still espousing violence online, posting as “@rightwing.dissident” on Instagram that he’d like “to reclaim America and it is fine if a few of my peoples enemies are ‘hurt’ in the process.”

He since has expressed remorse.