Rachel Marie Powell

A former Butler County resident dubbed the “pink hat lady” for the brightly colored hat she wore during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington, D.C., was sentenced Tuesday, Oct. 17, to 57 months in federal prison.

Rachel Marie Powell, 42, a former West Sunbury resident who now lives in Sandy Lake, Mercer County, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to serve concurrent terms in prison for the nine charges she was convicted of in February.

Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Powell to concurrently serve 57 months on five of the charges, 12 months on one charge and 6 months on three charges. In addition, she was ordered to pay $2,753 in restitution, a $5,000 fine and special assessments for each charge totaling $555.

Lamberth ordered Powell to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on Jan. 5, but allowed her to remain free on personal recognizance until then.

Powell was seen on video at the riot wearing a pink hat that helped authorities identify her, prosecutors said.

On the Capitol grounds, she was part of a crowd that pushed against police and police barriers. She spent more than two hours in the archway of the Capitol Building before using a bullhorn to tell rioters inside about the floor plan and saying, “coordinate together if you’re going to take this building.”

Later, Powell told the group inside they “have another window to break,” the government said.

She crawled through an already-broken window and entered office space near the archway and used an ice ax and a large pipe to break a window.

The riot disrupted a joint session of Congress that was convened to certify the vote of the Electoral College for the 2020 presidential election.

The riot resulted in the assault of more than 80 members of the Capitol Police and nearly 60 members of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department.

A Capitol Police officer shot and killed a female rioter as she tried to enter the House chamber through a broken window. Two people in the crowd on the capital grounds died from natural causes and another died from an accidental overdose.

One Capitol Police officer died from natural causes the day after the riot, and several other officers died by suicide in the weeks after the riot.

Powell received 57 months for charges of civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, entering a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct in a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and engaging in violence in a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

She received the 12-month sentence for destruction of government property and the six-month sentence for disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, act of violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.