Oklahoma participant in Jan. 6 Capitol riot was misled by Trump's lies, lawyer says

A Trump supporter from Oklahoma has become the latest to blame the former president for his involvement in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Levi Roy Gable, 37, of Chouteau, is set to be sentenced Jan. 17 for illegal entry, a misdemeanor.

"At the time, he believed, as did many Americans, the falsehoods about the elections," his attorney told a federal judge in a sentencing memo.

"In hindsight, he sees how misguided he was in this thinking. He is truly regretful and deeply remorseful."

Two years after the riot, more than 950 have been arrested for alleged roles in the attack on the Capitol, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Nine were from Oklahoma.

"Our work is far from over," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday.

"We remain committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for the January 6 assault on our democracy. And we remain committed to doing everything in our power to prevent this from ever happening again.”

Gable, who runs a family excavation company in Tulsa, was charged in May in federal court in Washington, D.C., with four misdemeanors. He pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor in September.

He faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

A prosecutor asked U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb to sentence Gable to 90 days in prison, one year on supervised release and 60 hours of community service. His defense attorney asked for probation.

Gable already has agreed to pay $500 in restitution.

"I was among the first people to make our way into the US Capitol Building," he boasted in a Facebook post.

"Those in the building first were there in protest of Vice President Mike Pence’s statement that he would not stand with the American people and challenge the results of 2020’s stolen presidential election.

"We were there to make our voices be heard."

He spent 34 minutes inside and later lied to the FBI about being there.

Gable went inside the U.S. Capitol six minutes after rioters breached the building and seemed to be "shouting triumphantly" in a video recording, prosecutor Jason Manning wrote in a sentencing memo.

"Gable joined a cohort of rioters who were facing off with Capitol Police officers and chanting, 'Who's House? Our House,' as those officers tried to hold a police line in the Crypt," the prosecutor wrote.

"After the rioters overran the police line, Gable traveled further into the Capitol with a group ... who were chanting, 'Nancy, Nancy, Nancy,' an ominous taunt to Nancy Pelosi, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives."

"Gable did all this despite having previously served years in prison for armed robbery, an experience which should have, but did not, deter him from joining a violent mob and lying to law enforcement."

The defense attorney told the judge Gable made a spur of the moment decision to come to Washington, D.C., to attend a political rally and hear President Donald Trump speak.

He claimed Gable was not one of those extremists whose planning and preparation for Jan. 6 "constituted an insurrection." He characterized Gable instead as one of the many Americans present at the Capitol "who were misled by President Trump's lies about the election" and had no plans beforehand to enter the Capitol.

"Mr. Gable did not damage or destroy property or engage in assaultive or threatening conduct," the attorney, Steve Mercer, wrote in the memo.

"Mr. Gable would ... state that he was 'among the first people' inside the Capitol but the surveillance video shows literally hundreds of people entering well before he did."

Included with the defense attorney's memo were 60 letters of support. One friend revealed that Gable left a vacation resort in the West Indies to attend Trump's rally.

"I can tell you that when he left me in Antigua he was not of any mindset that he was going to be part of anything crazy," the friend, Jeff Wellemeyer, wrote.

"Your Honor, I ask you to please consider Levi's intention," the friend wrote. "He did not force his way into the Capitol, he simply walked in while being waved in by Capitol police. He did not deface, defame, or even disrespect.

"I also ask that you understand that Levi is not anything like the monsters we sat and watched on TV and in the documentaries destroy our Capitol building and deface our country on January 6, 2021."

Dozens of Jan. 6 defendants have brought up Trump either in seeking acquittal or, more often, leniency at sentencing.

An Ohio man, Dustin Byron Thompson, testified at trial he was following presidential orders when he stormed the Capitol and took liquor and a coat rack. He was sentenced in November to three years in prison after a jury rejected his Trump defense.

Three from Oklahoma still face pending federal cases for role in Jan. 6 riot

Still pending in federal court in Washington, D.C., are three other criminal cases involving Trump supporters from Oklahoma.

Army veteran Benjamen Scott Burlew is facing felony and misdemeanor counts accusing him of causing civil disorder, assaulting a news photographer, and assaulting or impeding a police officer outside the Capitol. A jury trial for Burlew, 43, of Miami, is set for December.

Anthony Alfred Griffith Sr., 58, was charged with four misdemeanor counts after admitting he went inside the Capitol. A jury trial for the owner of a Fort Gibson electrical business is set for March.

Dova Alina Winegeart, 49, of Fairview, is facing one felony and four misdemeanors.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoman involved in Capitol riot misled by Trump lies, lawyer says