Woman sentenced for role in Capitol riots
A mother, wife and nail salon owner from Ellwood City was sentenced Tuesday to serve a year of probation for entering the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
In addition to probation, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper sentenced Julia Sizer, 39, to pay a $2,000 fine and $500 restitution. She was sentenced through video conferencing from the court in Washington, D.C.
The sentence is lighter than the sentence of 60 days of home detention, three years of probation, 60 hours of community service and paying $500 in restitution that federal prosecutors recommended Monday.
Sizer pleaded guilty in January to a charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing the Capitol building, one of four charges the FBI filed against her following the attack on the Capitol. The charge carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment and a fine up to $5,000. Three other charges were dismissed at sentencing.
Sizer and her husband traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally. On Jan. 6, Sizer, her husband and her parents, who traveled separately, listened to speeches, including that of former President Donald Trump.
She and her husband followed the crowd from the Washington Monument to the Capitol and lost track of her parents at some point. Sizer saw rioters scaling the walls of the Capitol and told her husband that she wanted to go inside, knowing former Vice President Mike Pence was inside the building and the certification of the 2020 presidential election was taking place, according to court documents.
Sizer made her way through rioters to the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol, where she snapped selfies with her husband and took pictures of the crowd.
She entered the Capitol through the parliamentarian door at approximately 2:48 p.m. On her cellphone, Sizer recorded her entry into the building and her walking a short distance. Sizer appears to get stuck in a bottleneck in the crowd, but she makes her way back out of the parliamentarian door at approximately 2:50 p.m. She sent the video to about six people and did not post the video publicly, according to court documents.
She barely made it past the threshold of the building, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a sentencing memorandum. She told prosecutors she thought law enforcement had let the protesters enter the building. After watching news of the riot, she said she felt sick and wished she hadn't entered the building.
In a letter of support to the court for Sizer, a friend said she called Sizer during the incident to see if she was OK. After Sizer said she was fine, her friend told her to turn on the news.
"I had no idea this was happening. I feel sick," Sizer responded, according to the letter.
Sizer initially denied being in the building when agents contacted her Jan. 29, 2021, but she later admitted to being inside, and pleaded guilty in November.
