‘I can’t believe I participated in such chaos.’ NC man pleads guilty to Capitol riot charges

Over the last month, U.S. Capitol riot defendant Matthew Wood had mounted a particularly vigorous defense.

In a series of rapid-fire court filings, the 25-year-old Greensboro-area man, who is charged with six crimes tied to the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, had asked a judge to:

▪ Move his trial moved out of Washington, arguing that he could not get a fair hearing from a D.C. jury;

▪ Suppress some comments he made to the FBI as well as the information agents scraped from his cell phone;

▪ Throw out all or some of the charges.

On Friday, however, Wood dramatically changed course. He pleaded guilty to all counts listed on his indictment, including a felony — obstruction of an official proceeding — that carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.

Wood, of Reidsville, faces a range of possible sentences — from as low as 10-15 months to as high as 41-51 months, depending on where he lands on the federal sentencing guidelines and what U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta decides on Sept. 23 when he announces Wood’s punishment.

In a pointed exchange at the end of the 50-minute hearing, Wood’s attorney, Kira West of Washington, told Mehta that the government has raised the possibility of indicting Wood on another unspecified charge. She described the government’s “pursuit” of her client as “unprecedented.”

West said she has asked for a written promise from government prosecutors that Wood would not be indicted for another Jan. 6-related crime.

“They declined,” West said. “In all my years as a federal prosecutor and defense attorney, I’ve never experienced anything like this.”

Wood’s lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Henek of Washington, objected. Since Wood gave a “straight plea” to the charges on his indictment, there was no plea agreement, and the government made no promises about future prosecution, if warranted, Henek said.

Wood is one of at least 23 North Carolinians charged in connection with the riot, in which supporters of now-former President Donald Trump fought police, smashed windows and doors marauded through the Capitol — all in a vain attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral win.

According to a Thursday court filing by his attorney, Wood went to D.C. with his grandmother on Jan. 6 to hear Trump’s speech, in which he baselessly claimed the election had been stolen from him by voter fraud.

Three days before the trip, Wood foreshadowed the coming violence in a text message to an acquaintance.

“If they want to raid Congress, sign me up,” he wrote. “I’ll be brave heart in that b----!”

Federal prosecutors say Wood was one of the first of the rioters to climb into the Capitol through a smashed window on the Senate side of the building, carrying a Trump flag throughout his stay. He made it as far as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s second-floor conference room.

He later falsely claimed to the FBI that he entered the building only to avoid being trampled. The filing by his attorney states otherwise: “When (Wood) entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, he did so with the intent to disrupt the certification proceedings.”

Once inside, according to court filings, Wood never took part in the violence, though the government claims he egged others on to battle with police.

Afterward, Wood appeared to be of two minds about what had occurred.

“Our election was stolen. The system is against us. I stood up to a tyrannical government,” Wood wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post that the FBI later recovered. “You can keep sitting or you can do something about it like we did today.”

“This is the PEOPLES house,” he boasted in another post. “We sent those politicians running. We the PEOPLE will fight for our country ... When diplomacy doesn’t work and your message has gone undelivered, it shouldn’t surprise you when we revolt.”

The next day Wood expressed remorse in a text message to a unidentified acquaintance.

“I’m not okay with my actions yesterday. I took a stand but it was extremely inappropriate ... I can’t believe I participated in such chaos,” Wood wrote, according to his attorney’s filing.

“I was merely there as a citizen to make a point. I didn’t assault anyone ... I didn’t participate in the destruction of property ... While most of the people in there were just like me, everyday American citizens, there were some that disgraced our entrance and it associated me with them and that churns my stomach.”

The riot by the mob of Trump supporters is tied to at least five deaths as well as injuries to some 140 police officers. More than 815 arrests have been made in a sweeping Justice Department investigation that continues to grow, as does the role of North Carolinians who the government says participated.

The state’s delegation of Capitol defendants include a former police officer, military recruits, members of two right wing militia groups, organic farmers, an avowed white supremacist and a couple that took their 14-year-old son into the Capitol as the violence unfolded.

Wood becomes the eighth to plead guilty. He’ll return to Washington for the first time since the riot for his sentencing.