CASPER — A man who entered the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot after traveling from Wyoming to Washington D.C. was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail. A federal judge in Washington also fined Andrew Galloway $1,000 and ordered him to pay another $500 in restitution.
Galloway, 34, is the first person with Wyoming ties to be criminally punished in connection to the attack on the Capitol. He was living in Cody at the time, but now resides in Tennessee.
Galloway pleaded guilty in March to a single charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing inside the Capitol. During the attack, he climbed through a broken window about 11 minutes after a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol as Congress worked to certify the presidential election.
He did so, federal prosecutors say, even after he saw blood drops and police officers using pepper spray.
Those prosecutors recommended a sentence of 30 days in jail and three years of probation. In their sentencing memorandum, they noted he made false statements to FBI agents about his participation in the riot and loudly expressed his support for the riot after leaving.
Prosecutors also noted Galloway is a former Navy serviceman and should have known a mob would likely cause serious injuries to Capitol Police officers. More than 100 officers were injured that day.
“Galloway’s actions and those of his fellow rioters enabled the breach of the Capitol, threatened the lives of the police officers, legislators, and their staff , and disrupted the certification vote for several hours,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memo.
Galloway’s attorney, Allen Orenberg, argued 12 months of probation alone was the more appropriate sentence.
In his sentencing memo, Orenberg said his client traveled to Washington with the intent to support Trump and was fixated on the process rather than the results of the election. “Mr. Galloway followed the large crowd there that day with no intention of doing anything but having his voice join those of thousands of other peaceful protesters,” Orenberg wrote. “Now, after seeing what really happened that day by watching film on numerous platforms, Mr. Galloway regrets that he was part of it, albeit a small part of it compared to the many violent protesters who assaulted police officers and caused damage to the U.S. Capitol building and grounds.”
Galloway, according to his attorney, was not violent during his time inside the Capitol, which lasted about 10 minutes.
Authorities say the FBI received a tip about Galloway’s participation in the Jan. 6 riot. He was later identified in surveillance footage.
Investigators obtained a video that showed Galloway saying, “Yeah, that was us today; no that wasn’t antifa,” court documents state.
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