Jury selection for first Capitol riot trial begins

Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The first trial for a defendant charged with participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol begins Monday with jury selection.

Guy Reffitt, 49, faces five felony counts in a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and is the only alleged Capitol rioter known to have been turned in by his own children who are expected to testify against him.

More than 750 people have been charged in connection with the deadly insurrection while more than 200 of them have already pleaded guilty, data from the Justice Department shows. More than 100 people have already been sentenced.

Reffitt was arrested last January for allegedly bringing an AR-15 rifle and a Smith & Wesson pistol on his drive from his home in Wylie, Texas, to the Capitol and has remained in custody, according to his criminal complaint.

His wife told investigators that Reffitt is a member of the Three Percenters militia, a group of extremists who believe the modern U.S. government infringes on civil liberties like the British during the era of the American Revolution.

Reffitt was caught on news footage during the Capitol riot dousing his eyes with water while wearing a tactical vest and helmet after he is believed to have been pepper-sprayed when passing police lines, prosecutors said in the complaint.

After returning home from the insurrection, Reffitt told members of his family that he had brought his weapons with him to protect the country and that he "stormed the Capitol," prosecutors said.

Reffitt later told his son, identified by WUSA as Jackson Reffitt, that he would "do what he had to do" if his son were to report him to the police. Jackson Reffitt told investigators he believed his father was threatening his life.

Peyton Reffitt, his daughter, told investigators that her father had threatened to "put a bullet" through her phone if she were to post about his participation in the riot on social media.

"If you turn me in, you're a traitor and you know what happens to traitors. Traitors get shot," Reffitt allegedly told his children.

Reffitt's wife Nicole told investigators that she spoke with her husband about his comments to his two children but that he did not indicate regret or walk back his comments.

"It might be my fault that I talked to authorities, but, I don't want to think that. He's an adult and he made his own decisions," Jackson Reffitt told WUSA.

"What he was doing, he thought was right. But in the end, what he was doing was not right for him or his family or the country, even."

Jackson Reffitt did not testify at his father's bail hearing last March but Peyton Reffitt told the court that her father "says things that cross the line all the time," Politico reported.

Former U.S. attorney Neama Rahmani told WUSA that Reffitt's case is unique because both of his children will be called as witnesses.

"Not only did they turn their father in to law enforcement," he said, "their testimony puts him at the scene of the crime. It forms the basis of the obstruction of justice charge with respect to the witnesses."

Reffitt's charges include two counts of civil disorder and one count each of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and obstruction of justice.