WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 defendant dubbed "Conan O'Riot" for his resemblance to comedian Conan O'Brien was sentenced this week to 75 days in federal prison for his role in the U.S. Capitol attack.
Derek Nelson, a former Marine, was arrested in October, over two years after he was first identified by online "sedition hunters" who have aided the FBI in hundreds of arrests of Jan. 6 defendants. Nelson pleaded guilty to a count of entering and remaining in a restricted building in March.
Federal prosecutors had sought six months in prison for the Nelson, 31, who entered the Capitol alongside his friend and fellow former Marine Derek Dodder, who told federal authorities that Nelson wore his Revolutionary War costume to be a “rabble rouser.”
The duo bought respirators from a local hardware store and were part of the breach of police lines, with Nelson grabbing one officer's shield and trying to body-check another and then helping a fellow rioter pick the shield up after the officer dropped it. In one video from Jan. 6, 2021, Nelson told a videographer he was in Washington “to start a revolution.”
“Who do they work for?” Nelson yelled inside the Capitol while pumping his fist into the air. “Us!”
Nelson soon joined the mob trying to breach the main door to the floor of the House of Representatives, where rioters shattered windows and had a stand-off with members of Congress while armed law enforcement officers pointed guns through the broken glass. In total, he spent about 48 minutes inside the building.
Nelson spoke with the government twice pursuant to his plea agreement, but federal prosecutors said he gave many explanations that "were either internally inconsistent or did not stand up to serious scrutiny." He later said he thought his revolutionary clothing was a "fitting symbol for the occasion" and admitted that when he shouted “To protect the Constitution of the United States against enemies, foreign and domestic," he was referring to members of Congress as "enemies."
Nelson's lawyer wrote in a sentencing memo that Nelson, a former Marine, regretted his actions on Jan. 6 and that he was a "foolish and impressionable young man" when he came to Washington "lured by a guileless but misguided sense of patriotism."
"Derek Nelson was steeped in the language of division, and fed a diet of discourse that demonized the other side," his lawyers wrote. "It’s no wonder that he came to the Capitol deluded by a line of thinking that had been served ad nauseum."
Now, they wrote, Nelson is a devoted husband and father whose "remorse and acceptance of responsibility for his criminal conduct is manifest and sincere."
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, whose ruling against the government's use of the statute barring obstruction of an official proceeding made its way to the Supreme Court and is now having a ripple effect on many Jan. 6 cases, sentenced Nelson to 75 days in prison Wednesday, ordering him to surrender within 60 days. Nelson will also have to serve a year of supervised release.
The FBI has made more than 1,400 arrests in the 3½ years since the Capitol attack, and federal prosecutors have secured more than 1,000 convictions. More than 540 defendants have been sentenced to prison, from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy. Hundreds of other rioters have sentenced to probation. The statute of limitations for crimes committed on Jan. 6 expires in less than 1½ years, in January 2026.
