A North Carolina man who became a fugitive after his conviction for assaulting police officers during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison. David Joseph Gietzen, 31, of Sanford, North Carolina, struck a police officer with a pole during a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Last August, a jury convicted Gietzen of eight counts, including assault and civil disorder charges. After his trial conviction, Gietzen disregarded a court order to report to prison on Oct. 20, 2023, while awaiting sentencing. He missed several hearings for his case before he was arrested at his mother’s home in North Carolina on Dec. 12, 2023.
Gietzen told U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols that he didn’t intend to hurt anybody that day. However, he did not express any regret or remorse for his actions on Jan. 6, when he joined a mob of Donald Trump supporters in interrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Prosecutors recommended a prison term of 10 years and one month for Gietzen, who worked as a computer programming engineer after graduating from North Carolina State University in 2017 with bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering and electrical engineering. Gietzen’s attorneys requested a four-year prison sentence.
The judge said Gietzen made it clear during his trial testimony — and his sentencing hearing — that he clings to his baseless beliefs that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump. Gietzen previously bragged about participating in the riot in messages to friends and relatives, saying he had “never been prouder to be an American.” More than 1,350 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds getting terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
