Central Texas vineyard owner set to stand trial for role in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A Central Texas winery proprietor who claims he merely received swept up by fellow Trump supporters throughout final 12 months’s U.S. Capitol riot and had no intention of harming anybody or the historic image of democracy is ready to face trial Monday in Washington, D.C.

Christopher Grider, 40, proprietor of Kissing Tree Vineyards in Bruceville-Eddy, is charged by authorities prosecutors with three felonies and 6 misdemeanor counts for his position within the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot following a rally for then-President Donald J. Trump.

Grider has waived his proper to a jury and has requested for what is named a bench trial, with U.S. District Choose Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the District of Columbia presiding. Officers anticipate the trial to final not more than three days.

“We consider the choose may be honest and neutral whereas additionally being higher geared up to grasp the advanced utility of the regulation to the information,” Grider’s lawyer, Brent Mayr, of Houston, stated Friday. “Each judges and juries are lastly recognizing that federal prosecutors are overcharging defendants for his or her actions on Jan. 6 and acquitting them of a few of these prices. We hope Choose Kollar-Kotelly will do the identical.”

Grider has rejected plea gives from prosecutors on at the least two events, saying he’s unwilling to plead responsible to felonies that he and his lawyer are satisfied “should not legally or factually sustainable.” If convicted of all the costs, he faces a most federal jail sentence of 39½ years.

Mayr declined remark when requested about Grider’s demeanor on the eve of trial, however reiterated that Grider is sorry for his actions.

“Chris completely regrets what he did that day and desires the choose to acknowledge that,” Mayr stated. “On the identical time, he desires the choose and everybody to acknowledge that he didn’t go there to cease the (election) certification proceedings.”

Grider can been seen in images and capitol safety digital camera footage coming into the capitol by an open door and dashing upstairs with others to an space exterior a foyer adjoining to the place members of Congress had been assembly on the time. He was carrying a purple “Make America Nice Once more” cap and cloaked in a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag.

Plenty of movies, together with photographs from Grider’s personal cellphone, point out that Grider was among the many first to reach exterior the foyer door and was inside a number of ft of fellow protestor Ashli Babbit when she was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer.

Video reveals Grider holding a black onerous had and pushing and kicking the door to the Speaker’s Foyer. One other man is punching the glass window when Grider palms him the onerous hat, seems to point to him that the helmet is sturdy, after which the person makes use of the onerous hat to proceed making an attempt to interrupt the glass.

After the riot, Grider carried out an interview with KWTX by which he described his shock at witnessing Babbitt getting shot whereas she tried to climb by the identical window.

“At that time, we had been all panicked,” Grider advised KWTX. “We couldn’t depart as a result of there have been hundreds of individuals behind us pushing us ahead.”

He stated he and a buddy went to Washington to indicate assist for Trump.

“The president requested folks to come back and present their assist,” he stated. “I really feel prefer it’s the least that we will do. It’s sort of why I got here from Central Texas all the way in which to DC.”

Mayr has stated that Grider served within the Nationwide Guard and within the Air Power. He additionally has labored as a trainer and a safety guard. He surrendered to federal authorities in Austin in January 2021 and remained in custody for a month earlier than former U.S. District Choose Ketanji Brown Jackson granted his request to be launched on bond with an ankle monitor. Brown Jackson is now an affiliate justice on the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.

A superseding indictment towards Grider prices him with felony civil dysfunction, whereas Rely 2, additionally a felony, prices him with obstruction of an official continuing. Rely 3, a felony, prices him with destruction of presidency property, whereas Rely 4 prices him with coming into and remaining in a restricted constructing or floor.

Rely 5 prices Grider with remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds; Rely 6 prices participating in bodily violence in a restricted constructing or grounds; Rely 7 with disorderly conduct in a Capitol constructing; Rely 8 with act of bodily violence within the Capitol grounds or constructing; and Rely 9 with parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol constructing.

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