Oath Keeper convicted of Jan. 6 sedition plot faces up to 17 years in prison

An Orange County native convicted of one of the most serious charges against rioters who besieged the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 is set to be sentenced next week for seditious conspiracy and three other felonies.

Roberto Minuta, a 38-year-old Newburgh Free Academy graduate who owned a Newburgh tattoo shop until recently, is one of nine members of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia convicted by federal juries in Washington, D.C., in two trials for their parts in the riot. His turn for sentencing comes on June 1.

Prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta to sentence Minuta to 17 years in prison, near the upper end of what sentencing guidelines suggest. His lawyer has proposed a much lighter penalty: a year of home confinement, minus the four months he has been confined to his home in a Dallas suburb since his conviction in January.

Minuta faced the rare charge of seditious conspiracy for plotting with fellow Oath Keepers to keep then-President Donald Trump in power when Congress met to formalize Joe Biden's election victory. The plans started weeks in advance and included stockpiling weapons at a Virginia hotel where they stayed overnight before the 2021 riot.

"These defendants were prepared to fight," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo. "Not for their country, but against it."

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Minuta, who spent the morning of the riot acting as bodyguard for Trump ally Roger Stone, later raced to the Capitol in a golf cart with other Oath Keepers after hearing that rioters had forced their way in, according to prosecutors. Dressed for combat with a ballistic vest, gloves and goggles, Minuta was later seen in videos berating police outside the building before pushing past them to join the mob inside.

Prosecutors note in their sentencing argument that Minuta bought 5,500 rounds of ammunition before his group descended on D.C.

"Justifying his actions as a war against 'tyranny,' Minuta warped the words of the Founding Fathers to impose his preferred outcome in the election on the rest of the country," they wrote. "His actions deserve significant punishment."

Minuta's attorney, William Shipley, dismisses those claims as overblown. He argues in his sentencing argument that Minuta went to Washington solely to provide security for Roger Stone and wound up following another Oath Keeper into the Capitol, staying inside for less than 15 minutes without committing any violence.

"Mr. Minuta did not assault or otherwise make contact with any law enforcement officer," Shipley wrote. "He was not charged with assault or any other crime of violence. He took no firearm to Washington D.C. even though he lawfully owned many."

Minuta, who graduated from Newburgh Free Academy in 2002, owned a tattoo parlor on Broadway in Newburgh for almost 10 years. It was there that he first made headlines in 2020, staging a media-invited protest outside the shop as he reopened Casa Di Dolore in defiance of New York's pandemic shutdown of businesses.

Fellow Oath Keepers joined him for the rally. Among them was the Oath Keepers founder himself, Stewart Rhodes, who traveled from his Texas home to join the demonstration. Rhodes left with a permanent memento: Minuta brought him inside and inked "We the People" from the Constitution preamble on his forearm.

On Thursday, Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his part in the Jan. 6 riot. Prosecutors had asked for a 25-year term.

Minuta continued to own and work at his Newburgh shop after moving to Texas in 2020, making periodic trips there to tattoo customers even after his 2021 arrest. He finally sold the business in December, according to a Feb. 16 post on Casa Di Dolore's Facebook page.

Minuta is one of around 1,000 people - more than 50 of them from New York - who have been arrested in connection with the 2021 attack on the Capitol, including about 320 who have been charged with assaulting or impeding police officers.

In one high-profile Jan. 6 case involving a New Yorker, Dominic Pezzola, a Rochester man who led the surge into the Capitol by smashing a window with a riot shield, was convicted this month on some charges but acquitted on seditious conspiracy after a trial with four other members of the Proud Boys, another right-wing group. No sentence date has been set yet.

Other convicted New Yorkers include Thomas Webster, a retired New York City cop from Orange County who is serving 10 years in prison for assaulting an officer outside the Capitol. That was the longest sentence in a Jan. 6 case until this month, when a Kentucky man who pepper-sprayed police was sentenced to 14 years.

Still awaiting trial is Edward Lang, a Sullivan County native who has been held in custody for more than two years because of the severity of the charges against him. Lang, accused of swinging a baseball ball at police in a two-hour binge of violence at a Capitol entrance, was set to face trial this month but the case was moved to October.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Oath Keeper Roberto Minuta to be sentenced for Jan. 6 sedition plot