SC alleged Capitol rioter has 90 more days to decide on plea deal, judge agrees

A Trump supporter from South Carolina who was part of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will have 90 more days to decide whether to accept a prosecution’s offer of a plea deal or go to trial.

That was the upshot of a hearing Tuesday involving Derek Gunby, 41, of Anderson County, held remotely with a federal judge in Washington, D.C. Gunby, his defense lawyer and the prosecutor attended.

“The government did offer Mr. Gunby a plea agreement on or about Dec. 1,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Amore told Judge Paul Friedman. “I have not received word whether he has any intention of accepting that offer.”

The offer’s contents were not disclosed.

According to the government’s evidence, Gunby was motivated by former President Trump’s baseless claims that the Democrats committed voter fraud to rob Trump of victory in the November 2020 presidential election. Gunby went to Washington to try to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s election win, according to evidence.

Gunby faces four charges related to disorderly conduct with the intent to impede Congress and being in restricted areas. He is not accused of assaulting officers or destruction of property.

Typically, the government has been dropping most charges in such nonviolent cases and offering a short prison stint.

Gunby’s lawyer, federal public defender Lora Blanchard of Greenville, said she needs the 90 days to study the evidence against her client.

The evidence includes Gunby’s social media postings, photographs and videos and government reporters, according to the government.

According to an FBI complaint in Gunby’s case filed last year, Gunby posted on Facebook the day before and of the Jan. 6 riot that he traveled to Washington the day before the Jan. 6 riot to counter what he called “leftist terrorism. ... We know you, we know what you are and what you bring to play with. We’re also smarter and are willing to die for our beliefs whereas you are not.”

On Jan. 6, he posted on Facebook, “Up at Zero Dark Thirty to stop this steal.” He later posted photos of himself at the rally for President Trump later that morning and a photo of rioters outside the Capitol in the afternoon.

Surveillance cameras inside the Capitol captured his image entering the building and in the hallways.

The FBI has arrested more than 725 people who stormed the Capitol. Prosecutors contend they were part of a Trump-motivated effort to stop the nation’s more than 200-year practice of peaceful transfer of power in presidential elections. After the mob breached the Capitol, members of Congress fled to safe spaces. More than 100 police officers were injured while trying to protect the building. After five hours, lawmakers returned to finish the election certification process.

Although many in the mob who broke into the Capitol, such as Gunby, did not commit violence, prosecutors are taking even those defendants seriously.

“Although the facts and the circumstances surrounding the actions of each rioter who breached the U.S. Capitol and its grounds differ, each rioter’s actions were illegal and contributed, directly or indirectly, to the violence and destruction that day. A mob isn’t a mob without the numbers. The people who were committing those violent acts did so because they had the safety of numbers,” prosecutors noted in a recent memo involving another South Carolina-related case.

Eleven people from South Carolina, including a Citadel student, have been arrested so far in the Capitol riots. Six of the 11 have so far pleaded guilty. One of those six, Andrew Hatley, was sentenced to probation.