Before Jan. 6, 18-year-old Bruno Cua was best known in his small town of Milton, Ga., as a great builder of treehouses. These were big, elaborate creations with ladders and trapdoors and framed-out windows. They were so impressive, neighbors paid Cua to build them for their kids.
The world outside Milton, Ga., met Cua in a rather more dramatic way. He was allegedly seen in multiple videos standing in the Senate Chamber of the U.S. Capitol with a handful of other rioters. The videos have since gone viral: There's a man in combat gear, now identified as Air Force veteran Larry Brock, Jr., chiding rioters, including Cua, about why they shouldn't sit in Vice President Mike Pence's chair. Cua seemed confused. "They can steal an election, but we can't sit in their chairs?" he asked.
In a defense motion filed on Friday, Bruno Cua's lawyers said their client "is an impressionable 18-year-old kid who was in the middle of finishing his online coursework to graduate from high school when he was arrested."