Georgians continue to be arrested and prosecuted on Jan. 6 charges

ATLANTA — With two weeks to go before America chooses its next president, the wounds from the last disputed election and its aftermath remain open.

Two Georgians are awaiting sentencing for crimes related to their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. A trial for another started Monday, and yet another was arrested last week on charges that he assaulted police by using a giant Donald Trump campaign sign as a battering ram against police.

Last week, the FBI arrested Cylester William Maxwell, 42, of Milton, and charged him with assaulting police officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon and obstruction of police during a civil disorder, both felonies. He also was charged with several misdemeanors relating to his alleged role in the riot.

According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, investigators identified Maxwell as part of a crowd of rioters who used an 8-by-10-foot metal-framed Trump campaign sign as a battering ram to break through a line of police officers on the West Plaza. Once the police line was breached, Maxwell is accused of pulling down barricades, allowing a flood of rioters to advance on the Capitol.

If convicted, Maxwell, who owns a custom audio visual installation company, faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

According to court records, investigators received a tip in May 2023 alleging Maxwell took part in the riot and records from a cellphone number assigned to Maxwell show numerous calls made from the Capitol grounds during the riot. The court records include nearly two dozen photos that purport to be Maxwell on the Capitol grounds.

Maxwell’s arrest — the 34th among those with Georgia ties — illustrates the U.S. Department of Justice’s pursuit of those accused of participating in the Jan. 6 riot, even as Trump vows to pardon those he has called “political prisoners” if he is returned to the White House.

Last week, Dominic Box, a 34-year-old Savannah-area activist and conspiracy theorist, was found guilty of two felony counts of civil disorder and four misdemeanor charges relating to his participation in the riot. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly handed down the verdict in a 15-page order last week following a bench trial in June.

In her order, Kollar-Kotelly noted that Box admitted to joining with other rioters to push through a line of police officers who were blocking the entry into the Capitol Crypt, a central room under the rotunda lined with statues. Box’s admission to that and other acts while inside the Capitol came after federal prosecutors provided video evidence.

Box, who faces up to five years in prison for the most serious charges, won’t be sentenced until late January at the earliest. In the meantime, he is in custody in the Jacksonville, Florida, jail while awaiting trial on unrelated traffic offenses, including DUI.

Also awaiting sentencing is Phillip “Bunky” Crawford, a 48-year-old Douglas County resident who pleaded guilty to six charges, including one count of felony civil disorder and four counts of assaulting police. Crawford was involved in some of the most vicious fighting with police in a tunnel entrance to the Capitol on the Lower West Terrace, although he has maintained that he was trying to save a woman in the midst of the scrum from being beaten by police.

While Crawford pleaded guilty to six charges, he took to trial charges that he used a deadly or dangerous weapon during the riot. He was found guilty of those charges, but U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg found that the gas mask Crawford hurled at the police line did not constitute a dangerous weapon.

Crawford was scheduled to be sentenced Monday, but the court moved his sentencing to Jan. 10 after he had a falling out with his court-appointed defense team and was assigned a new lawyer. According to court documents, Crawford is using the time to consider withdrawing his earlier guilty pleas.

Finally, a jury trial commenced Monday in the case of Tonya Webb, a massage therapist from Stockbridge charged with entering a restricted area, two counts of disorderly conduct, and one count of illegally demonstrating inside the Capitol, all misdemeanors.

According to court records, Webb spent a total of about 30 minutes inside the Capitol, walking through the Senate wing and into the Capitol Crypt taking video with her mobile phone. Multiple photos included in court records show a woman identified as Webb surrounded by other rioters in multiple places inside and outside the building.