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N.Y. men who pepper-sprayed officers on Jan. 6 sentenced to 44 months

The men led the first wave through police barricades, then body-surfed to a Capitol entrance to cause more mayhem

July 15, 2022 at 6:34 p.m. EDT
Cody Mattice of Greece, N.Y., stands at the Lower West Terrace entrance to the Capitol and fires pepper spray at police on Jan. 6, 2021. He was sentenced to 44 months in prison for assaulting police. (USAO/DC/U.S. Attorney's Office for District of Columbia)
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Two New York state men who led a mob that overwhelmed police at the perimeter of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — then bodysurfed over the top of the crowd at a building entrance and pepper-sprayed officers — were both sentenced Friday to 44 months in prison.

Cody Mattice, 29, of Greece, N.Y., and James Mault, 30, of Brockport, N.Y., both wept as they stood before Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell and asked for leniency, apologizing for their actions and saying they hoped to return soon to their families and young children. But Howell noted that prosecutors had already cut them a reasonable deal by dropping charges that could have led to far more prison time, and she imposed the sentences requested by the government. Only four other Jan. 6 defendants have been sentenced to longer prison terms.

Text messages obtained by the FBI showed that Mattice and Mault planned for violence on Jan. 6, initially expecting resistance from antifa. They texted family members during the mayhem, and then congratulated each other in the days after the riot, which temporarily halted the certification of the presidential election.

Howell read from many of the messages, using the same profanity the men had. She noted that even after Mattice and Mault were aware of the impact of the riot, “they maintained some form of delusional belief that they were the patriots.”

“They were not patriots on January 6, and no one who broke the police lines and stopped the democratic process was a patriot that day,” the judge said.

Mattice was a stay-at-home dad and Mault was an iron worker when they began texting on Jan. 2 about driving to President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, discussing taking pepper spray, helmets, a baton and a high-powered fire extinguisher with them. Once in D.C., court records show, Mattice recorded video of Mault on the National Mall saying they were “getting ready to go march on Capitol Hill. … It’s about to be nuts.”

At the West Plaza near the Capitol, Mattice recorded Mault shouting at officers to join the mob, prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum. “What we’re doing is right,” Mault yelled, “or there wouldn’t be this many … people here.” Soon, the two men began snatching bike racks the police were using as barricades, pulling them away from police officers and helping push the mob through the police line up to the Capitol, photos and videos obtained by the government show.

Mattice was pepper-sprayed during this encounter, and the two men briefly retreated to clean up, prosecutors said. During this time, Mattice texted his fiancee to say, “me and james literally just got everyone to push, I fought off like 4 or 5 cops and we stand … victorious,” according to court records. His fiancee, Ashley Choate, replied, “omg babe glad you’re having fun and are okay.”

During the sentencing, Choate stood to address the judge. But Howell immediately challenged her on the texts, reading her the one in which Mattice claimed he stood victorious. “Were you cheering him on, with all these events on Jan. 6?” the judge asked.

“That was not my intention,” Choate said. “I know it sounds like that.”

“It certainly does,” Howell said.

The two men decided to return to the fray, with the mob now pounding away at police on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol. Mault and Mattice both climbed over the shoulders of protesters to reach the front, photos and videos show. Howell said she had to look up the term “crowd surfing,” and said she was amazed that they had made it through the mob to the heart of the melee.

Once there, both men were handed small canisters of pepper spray by other rioters and aimed them at police officers defending the Capitol, photos show. When questioned later by the FBI, Mattice denied using pepper spray, and Mault said officers were “letting people into the Capitol building.” They also denied taking any violent action against the police at the West Plaza, and claimed they had been swept up to the Capitol by the massive mob, court records state.

The men returned to the Rochester area and were soon questioned by agents but not immediately charged. Mault was fired from his job as an iron worker. He re-enlisted in the Army in May 2021, where he had served as a combat engineer in Kuwait for four years and then four more years in the Army National Guard. The Army has said it was unaware he was being investigated when he was accepted back into the service. He was arrested while serving at Fort Bragg, N.C.

A soldier charged in the Capitol riot enlisted months after FBI interviews

Both men pleaded guilty in April to felony assault on police officers, with a sentencing enhancement for spraying chemical agents at police. Mattice and Mault both apologized to a D.C. police officer who was hit by the spray. Both men have been held in jail since their arrests in October.

“I was very stupid and ignorant, and I lost myself that day,” Mattice said through tears. “And I’m extremely embarrassed.”

“My friends and I went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 with the best intentions,” Mault said. “What happened was our protest got terribly out of hand, I fell into the mob mentality, and I didn’t think about what I was doing.”

Howell said the sentence had to serve as a deterrent to “future malcontents disappointed with the outcome of an election, and planning for and obstructing the peaceful transition of power after an election, especially by directly participating in violence as these two defendants did.”