Two men who were active duty Marines on January 6, 2021 pleaded guilty on Monday to crimes related to the deadly insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
Joshua Abate and Dodge Dale Hellonen are scheduled to be sentenced in September after pleading guilty to misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes will sentence the pair in Washington DC.
While many of the rioters on January 6 were military veterans, Abate and Hellonen are among a handful were were actively serving when they joined the rioters’ deadly attempt to overturn the 2020 Presidential election.
A third active-duty Marine, Micah Coomer, whom the Department of Justice charged along with Abate and Hellonen, pleaded guilty in August to the same crimes. He’s scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Reyes on August 30.
All three face a maximum penalty of six months in prison.
Witnesses identified Abate and Coomer from Capitol surveillance footage of the January 6 attack.
According to the DOJ, Abate said during a June 2022 security clearance that he and two “buddies” had walked through the Capitol on January 6 “and tried not to get hit with tear gas.”
Less than a month after the riot, the DOJ says Coomer posted to another user on Instagram that he believed “everything in this country is corrupt,” adding, “We honestly need a fresh restart. I’m waiting for the boogaloo.”
When the other user asked what that term meant, Coomer wrote, “Civil war 2.”
According to the Justice Department, more than 1,033 suspects have been arrested in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia related to the assault on the U.S. Capitol. A reported more than 500 of them have been sentenced, with more than half receiving prison terms ranging from a week to over 14 years.
Four people died during the insurrection, and five police officers died of various causes following the attack.
PHOTO: Abate circled in green, Hellonen circled in blue, Coomer circled in red; per DOJ
