‘I don’t even know the words to be honest with you about how insane this is,’ Sarah McAbee said of the proposed sentence for her husband, Ronald Colton McAbee.
By Joseph M. Hanneman
Sarah McAbee said she wasn’t shocked that federal prosecutors used sentencing “enhancements” to develop a recommendation that her Jan. 6 defendant husband be sent to prison for 14 years for the roughly seven minutes he spent outside the tunnel entrance at the U.S. Capitol.
“I don’t even know the words to be honest with you about how insane this is,” Ms. McAbee said about the ongoing case against former sheriff’s deputy Ronald Colton McAbee, 30, of Unionville, Tennessee. “You know, there’s just no words when you sit back and think about it as a whole.”
Mr. McAbee was found guilty by a jury in October of five felony charges including inflicting bodily injury on Metropolitan Police Department Officer Andrew Wayte, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
In September, he pleaded guilty to two other charges, including assault on MPD officer Carter Moore. Mr. McAbee swiped at and shoved the officer after he struck Mr. McAbee’s shoulder, which had recently been broken, with a riot stick.
Federal prosecutors want U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras to sentence Mr. McAbee to 14 years in prison, which would rank in the top 10 punishments doled out among the more than 1,260 Jan. 6 cases. Sentencing is set for Feb. 29 in Washington D.C.
Prosecutors have not yet filed their sentencing memorandum with the court explaining the rationale for the recommended sentence. Ms. McAbee said she learned of the prison term through her husband’s defense attorney.
“It’s sad to say that I wasn’t surprised in a way, because of the other sentences that they have tried to give individuals specifically at the Lower West Terrace tunnel,” Ms. McAbee told The Epoch Times in an interview. “It’s disheartening because this man shouldn’t have spent a day in jail, let alone going on three years now.”
Mr. McAbee’s case was featured in The Epoch Times documentary, “The Real Story of Jan. 6 Part 2: The Long Road Home.” Ms. McAbee spoke at a Jan. 9 Capitol Hill screening of the film.
Defense attorney William Shipley, who represented Mr. McAbee during part of his criminal case and also appeared in The Epoch Times film, called the verdicts in the McAbee trial a “horrendous miscarriage of justice.”
Posting on the social media channel X on Jan. 29, Mr. Shipley wrote: “This is the most egregious case of over-zealous prosecution I’ve ever been involved with.”
Plea Deal Refused
Prosecutors had offered Mr. McAbee a plea deal carrying a prison term of seven to nine years. He did not take it, Ms. McAbee said, in large part out of a desire to expose the death of protester Rosanne Boyland, who lay dying at the tunnel entrance while violence raged above and around her.
Ms. Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia, wandered into the tunnel during a lull in an otherwise violent afternoon at about 4:18 p.m. Police dispersed an unknown gas that displaced the oxygen in the tunnel atmosphere.
Just as the crowd panicked and turned to run, Ms. Boyland was shot in the chest by a pepper ball fired from a police rifle some 15–20 feet away. She collapsed and became trapped under a pile of bodies.
Protesters begged police to render medical aid to Ms. Boyland, who lost consciousness before the bodies were pulled off of her. The crowd grew more frantic as those pleas were ignored and Ms. Boyland’s face turned purple from cyanosis.
Mr. McAbee and others witnessed MPD Officer Lila Morris pick up a wooden walking stick and hit Ms. Boyland’s head and face twice and ribs once. Blood was visible coming from her nose and one eye.
Mr. McAbee, who had just been hit in his broken shoulder by Mr. Moore and swiped back at him in response, pleaded that he was trying to assist Ms. Boyland, according to video and audio evidence at trial.
After being hit in the head with a steel riot stick, Mr. McAbee adjusted his ball cap and said: “I need to give help. I’m trying to give help. I know how to do that,” according to defense evidence.
He then pointed at Officer Morris and shouted, “Stop [expletive] killing that girl!”
Mr. McAbee then placed his foot between the legs of Mr. Wayte, who had fallen onto his back at the tunnel mouth. While prosecutors contend Mr. McAbee grabbed Mr. Wayte by the body armor in order to drag him into the crowd, Mr. McAbee said he was trying to help the officer up before they were both pulled down the steps by two rioters.
Mr. Wayte’s bodycam footage shows Mr. McAbee above him as they slid down the steps. According to trial evidence, Mr. Wayte said, “Let go of me, man,” to which Mr. McAbee responded, “I’m helping you.” Mr. Wayte acknowledged the help: “I know, I know. Help me up.”
Rioters in the crowd shouted insults at Mr. McAbee for assisting the officer, calling him a “traitor,” the bodycam revealed. As they tried to grab at the officer, Mr. McAbee bellowed, “No!” and “Quit!” the video showed.
When he took the stand for the prosecution and on cross-examination by the defense, Mr. Wayte told the court he didn’t hear Mr. McAbee’s statement.
“It was played over and over and there was no denying that there was a voice saying, ‘I’m helping you,’” Ms. McAbee said. “He [Wayte] said he could not hear it, that it was too loud. He never acknowledged that he acknowledged that day that Colt was helping him.”
Gloves a Deadly Weapon
The sentencing recommendation is boosted by enhancements that turn several charges into felonies because Mr. McAbee wore reinforced motorcycle gloves, which prosecutors contend are a “deadly or dangerous weapon.”
No evidence was brought out at trial that Mr. McAbee used the reinforced face of the gloves against anyone.
“One of the bigger arguments at trial were the gloves,” Ms. McAbee said. “The jury saw them, passed them around. In the very beginning, the prosecution tried to say that the gloves were brass knuckles. And then over time, the filing started to change to where they were just reinforced gloves.
“Brass-knuckle gloves are not allowed in D.C.,” she said. “Motorcycle gloves are. The biggest thing was did he ever use the reinforced side of the gloves? And the answer is no.”
Mr. McAbee retreated down the steps to the location where bystanders began performing CPR on Ms. Boyland. Shortly after, he helped to carry her back up to the police line and implored, “Get a medic!” video showed.
After briefly attempting CPR on Ms. Boyland before she was pulled into the tunnel by police, Mr. McAbee stood hunched over, leaning against the tunnel wall, barely able to speak.
“Thank you,” MPD Officer Steven Sajumon told Mr. McAbee, according to bodycam footage. “Hey, thank you, man. Appreciate you.” A short time later, Officer Sajumon twice said, “I got you, alright?” according to video evidence.
At the time of that exchange, rioters were flinging objects at the police line and shouting profanities. A stereo speaker, an office desk drawer, two flagpoles, two metal cans, and a water bottle sailed over Mr. McAbee’s left shoulder and struck the police line, bodycam videos showed.
One enraged man—after shouting, “You [expletive] killed her!”—wildly swung a pole at police in between middle-finger salutes, video showed.
Luke Coffee, a Jan. 6 protester who stood next to Mr. McAbee at the mouth of the tunnel, said he’s convinced Mr. McAbee was motivated only by a desire to save lives. Mr. Coffee’s bench trial on Jan. 6 charges wrapped up on Jan. 25. He is awaiting verdicts.
“God providentially chose our paths to cross that day in the tunnel, and I know it was for the same righteous intent to bring peace to a chaotic and traumatic situation where we, along with other good men, believed American citizens were dying,” Mr. Coffee told The Epoch Times in a statement.
“God will continue to reveal the truth about deputy McAbee as He has promised, and the heroic actions which led to the attempt to both rescue and give medical attention to Rosanne Boyland,” Mr. Coffee said. “God is the final judge and knows the intent of our hearts that wanted to bring peace to that now infamous day.”
Ms. McAbee said she was surprised by the plea deal and sentence given to one of her husband’s co-defendants, Clayton Ray Mullins, 54, of Magnolia, Kentucky. Judge Contreras sentenced Mr. Mullins to 30 months in prison on Jan. 30, less than the 51 months recommended by the DOJ.
Mr. Mullins was shown on video pulling the right leg of Mr. Wayte while a man in a grey coat pulled on his left leg. The force sent Mr. McAbee and Mr. Wayte sliding down the steps into the crowd.
Mr. Mullins pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. As part of his plea, Judge Contreras dismissed 22 other charges at the request of prosecutors. The judge also imposed $32,166 in restitution and a fine of $49,764. Mr. Mullins remains free on personal recognizance until self-surrender for his prison term.
