Lonnie Coffman, 72, parked his truck — stuffed with 11 Mason jars stuffed with fuel and Styrofoam, a number of unregistered firearms, loads of rounds of ammo, a stun gun, machetes and a crossbow with bolts — a couple of blocks from the Capitol on January 6.
“He had nearly a small armory in his truck, able to do fight,” Pass judgement on Colleen Kollar-Kotelly stated ahead of sentencing Coffman to a number of months above what prosecutors had really helpful.
All the way through the sentencing, Kollar-Kotelly stated she did not assume “in all my years as a pass judgement on I have had any such selection of guns” in a case, including that Coffman “spent two excursions in Vietnam so he surely is aware of what napalm can do,” in connection with the blended Styrofoam and fuel discovered within the mason jars.
Coffman, who has been in prison since his arrest on January 6, 2021, gets credit score for time served. He was once additionally sentenced to a few years probation and necessary mental-health remedy. (Coffman struggles with despair in addition to a chain of fitness problems, together with power ache all the way through his frame.)
On January 6, Coffman’s automotive was once parked within a safety perimeter established after pipe bombs have been found out at each the Republican Nationwide Committee and Democratic Nationwide Committee structures. After hitching a trip with a lady he had met that day and shared a pizza with in Pentagon Town after the Prevent the Thieve rally, Coffman returned to his car and was once in an instant arrested through cops who had discovered the truck all over the fringe seek.
When Coffman was once arrested at the night time of January 6, cops found out that he was once sporting two loaded, unlicensed handguns and had a touch card for a armed forces in Texas.
Coffman have been at the FBI’s radar since a 2014 travel with the armed forces, American Patriots, the place he taken a shotgun and pistol with him to Camp Lonestar, the place teams patrol the US-Mexico border, in step with court docket paperwork.
Investigators additionally discovered handwritten lists from Coffman’s truck and residential, the place he recognized sure politicians, political operatives in addition to a federal pass judgement on with titles like “traitors,” “Obama’s lap canine” or just put them beneath a “unhealthy” class.
“Lists are all the time regarding despite the fact that further threats are not made,” Kollar-Kotelly stated.
After dealing with seven fees from the Division of Justice, Coffman pleaded responsible to 2 in November: bringing damaging units — the Molotov cocktails — and an unlicensed gun to Capitol Hill at the day of the rebel. All the way through the hunt of his house, officials discovered 12 extra Molotov cocktails, which Coffman was once charged with and pleaded responsible to possessing.
Prosecutors say Coffman was once dwelling out of his truck for a number of days in Washington, DC, ahead of attending the January 6 rally however haven’t any proof that he illegally trespassed on Capitol grounds or entered the development.
“From my standpoint, you are going to nonetheless have a existence forward of you,” Kollar-Kotelly informed Coffman all over the sentencing. “Do not shake your head, you continue to will.”
