Rioter who made Nazi salute at Capitol sentenced to 3 years in prison

A federal judge sentenced a North Carolina man to more than three years in prison Tuesday for assaulting police with a flagpole on Jan. 6.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said 22-year-old Matthew Beddingfield’s relatively young age compared to other Capitol riot defendants and mental health issues submitted in a sealed sentencing memo were mitigating factors, but that he believed prison time was necessary to ensure Beddingfield didn’t reoffend. In particular, Nichols highlighted the fact that Beddingfield was already on pretrial release in connection with a shooting in North Carolina when he assaulted police and entered the U.S. Capitol as part of a mob on Jan. 6.