During the deadly January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Florida business owner Robert Palmer cheered on the violence as before he joined the fray. Screaming obscenities, he hurled a wooden plank and a fire extinguisher at police officers trying to ward off the mob. Now, he is paying the consequences for his actions.
Nearly a year later, Palmer reportedly sobbed as he faced a federal judge, saying that he was “horrified, absolutely devastated” by what he had done.
“I’m just so ashamed that I was a part of that,” Palmer told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan before sentencing, accordion to the Associated Press. But his excuse quickly imploded in the face of overwhelming evidence. Hours of videos from surveillance cameras, mobile phones and police body cameras captured him boasted about his crime on social media in the days after the deadly attack.
The judge then proceeded to sentence him to more than five years in prison, the toughest sentence yet for any Capitol rioter.
