Two Jan. 6 rioters sentenced to four years in prison

Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The founder the Proud Boys' Hawaii chapter and another man who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the Capitol in Washington D.C., have received four-year prison sentences, prosecutors said.

Nicholas Ochs, 36, of Honolulu, and Nicholas DeCarlo, 32, of Fort Worth, Texas, were sentenced to 48 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release, the Justice Department said in a statement issued Friday.

The pair pleaded guilty on Sept. 9 in Washington to obstruction of an official proceeding.

Both men are accused of illegally entering the Capitol building and throwing smoke bombs at police officers. The men filmed themselves smoking cigarettes inside the Capitol and Ochs filmed DeCarlo as he scrawled "Murder the Media" on the Chestnut-Gibson Memorial Door to the Capitol.

"Ochs' conduct targeted the police and Congress -- and like the conduct of every rioter that day, threatened democracy itself," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.

DeCarlo's defense team claimed he left the Proud Boys in 2019 and is being unfairly linked to the group by prosecutors.

Ochs ran for office in 2020 but lost by to Adrian Tam, who became the first openly LGBTQ member of Hawaii's state legislature.