Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Former Proud Boy guilty of riot charges
Gabriel Garcia, a former member of the Proud Boys who once sat on the Miami-dade Republican Party Executive Committee, was found guilty on Monday of two felonies related to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Garcia was accused of participating in aggressive confrontations with police on Jan. 6 and aiding other rioters to storm the Capitol. Garcia also recorded himself inside the Capitol during the riot, and at one point posted a video in which he can be heard taunting then-u.s. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to “come out and play.”
In a bench trial held in Washington, D.C. on Monday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson found Garcia guilty of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding — two felonies that carry a combined maximum prison sentence of 25 years, as well as potential financial penalties.
A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for March 28, 2024.
Garcia had pleaded not guilty to the two felony charges, as well as four other charges. Reached by phone on Tuesday morning, Garcia declined to comment on the case.
He is one of several South Florida-based members of the extremist white-nationalist group the Proud Boys to face charges stemming from the Capitol riot. In one of the most notable cases, the group’s former leader Enrique Tarrio, a Miami native, was convicted earlier this year on charges of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Garcia has a history in Miami-dade politics. In addition to his former role on the Miami-dade GOP’S Executive Committee, he ran an unsuccessful challenge to Florida state Rep. Daniel Perez in 2020.