Jose Luis Magana / AP
Capitol police officers in riot gear push back demonstrators who try to break a door of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.
Friday, Jan. 5, 2024 | 2 a.m.
More than 1,200 people have been charged nationwide in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, rioting at the U.S. Capitol — when a mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump converged on the halls of Congress and temporarily halted the counting of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election — with authorities saying earlier this week federal investigations still are ongoing.
That includes at least seven with ties to the Silver State who have either been arrested or were convicted for their involvement in the attacks, which ultimately left five people dead and caused millions in damages. Three Nevadans have been charged since the second anniversary of the insurrection, including one who earned the moniker of #Spidernazi by online sleuths who helped officials identify the man, 39-year-old Brandon Dillard of Las Vegas.
Most notably, former UNLV student Stewart Rhodes, who founded the far-right militia group known as the Oath Keepers, was sentenced in May to 18 years in prison after he was convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding and tampering with documents and proceedings. The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locater lists Rhodes as an inmate at its Cumberland, Md., medium-security prison. Rhodes’ sentence, which continues through April 23, 2037, is the longest related to the insurrection to date.
The attack triggered the largest sweeping criminal investigation in U.S. history, as well as congressional hearings and a grand jury indictment of the former president in August on four charges related to an overarching plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which came to a head with the insurrection.
Trump has also been indicted on federal charges related to the retention of classified documents and state charges in New York for alleged hush money payments made to an adult film actress during the 2016 campaign, and a racketeering case in Georgia for efforts to overturn the 2020 race there. The former president is also a defendant in two pending civil trials.
Following are capsules on the other six Nevadans other than Rhodes charged in connection to Jan. 6, including the latest information on their respective cases.
Brandon Kelly Dillard, 39, of Las Vegas
Dillard was arrested March 3, 2023, in Las Vegas on counts of entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct and parading, demonstrating or picketing on Capitol grounds. According to an NPR database that tracks Jan. 6 defendants, Dillard pleaded guilty to one charge of disorderly conduct and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8.
Court documents filed in December 2022 reveal that state authorities received a nearly 90-minute video from an anonymous tipster of the events that occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Roughly an hour into that video, a man wearing a distinctive spider web-patterned hoodie is seen climbing down the wall from the Upper West Terrace to a window frame of a Senate conference room. The man was later identified as Dillard.
That conference room is immediately to the north of a tunnel entrance to the Capitol, according to the criminal complaint against Dillard, and that tunnel was the scene of a “prolonged attack” by rioters against U.S. Capitol Police, who the document said were attempting to prevent rioters from entering the building.
The complaint goes on to state that because so much of the Jan. 6 footage was posted online, multiple online sleuths created websites to help identify individuals who may have committed crimes during the Capitol breach. As the video of Dillard climbing down the terrace circulated, “the individual described and pictured … was given the hashtag name of #SpiderNazi,” based upon the distinctive spiderweb design of his sweatshirt.”
Authorities were able to use security footage to later compare images of Dillard to his driver’s license photo, and were further able to pinpoint his cellphone to the Capitol at the time of the riot, according to the complaint. Law enforcement was also able to obtain travel records showing Dillard traveled from Las Vegas to Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia on Jan. 5, 2021, and returned back to Nevada three days later.
Further, authorities used a photo of Dillard and his mother that was posted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2017 for a story about a local swap meet to identify Dillard. Federal agents also interviewed a former associate of Dillard in October 2022 who was able to positively identify Dillard.
Derek Jaccob Dodder, 31, of Las Vegas
Dodder was arrested Oct. 4, 2023, and charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing on Capitol grounds.
The complaint against Dodder states that cellphone records place Dodder’s phone at the Capitol at the time of the attack. In July 2021, Dodder voluntarily went to the Las Vegas FBI Field Office to participate in an interview for an unrelated matter, and during that interview, Dodder confirmed to agents the ownership of the email address used by authorities to track his phone to the Capitol.
After that interview with the FBI, authorities were able to further identify Dodder at the insurrection from videos publicly available on the internet, as well as closed circuit security cameras from inside the Capitol, prosecutors said.
Footage from Jan. 6 allegedly shows Dodder and an associate inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda wearing goggles and respirator masks and taking part in crowds that pushed past U.S. Capitol Police for further entry into the building.
Federal court records show a preliminary hearing is scheduled Jan. 16 in Washington.
Bradley Scott Nelson, 59, of North Las Vegas
Nelson was arrested March 20, 2023, on charges of entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct and parading, demonstrating or picketing on Capitol grounds. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, per the NPR database.
Nelson, who is identified in court documents as a commercial truck driver from North Las Vegas, was identified in the U.S. Capitol building Jan. 6, 2021, and a video on the social media site Parler showed he was among a mob near some scaffolding on the Capitol grounds and can allegedly be heard saying, “We’re at the gate. We’re coming through this (expletive) tonight.”
Prosecutors allege Nelson used his employer’s truck to drive to Washington on Jan. 6 and went into the Capitol twice for a total of about 30 minutes, and took part in a group that pushed past a police line inside the building. Nelson was identified through phone records and social media posts, including three posts of his own to X (formerly Twitter), that were included in the criminal complaint against him.
“Mr. President I’m begging you I’m begging you (sic) please fight let’s do this we took the capital,” the account @nelson_bradley replied to a Jan. 8 post from Trump. “If we wanted it we could’ve kept it do you understand that I was the first through the door and I am a patriot Mr. President.”
Josiah Kenyon, 36, of Winnemucca
Kenyon was arrested Dec. 1, 2021, and indicted nine days later, according to federal court documents. He pleaded guilty in September 2022 to charges of assaulting a law enforcement officer with a dangerous weapon, and he was sentenced in April to 72 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release and was ordered to pay more than $43,000 in restitution.
Kenyon entered the Capitol that day wearing a Jack Skellington costume from the Tim Burton movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” In the aftermath, he went on the lam for nearly a year before he and his family were discovered living out of an unheated travel trailer in the mountains northwest of Reno.
Prosecutors say Kenyon was wearing the Jack Skellington costume in addition to a red “Make America Great Again” hat when he shattered an exterior window at the Capitol with what officials described as a table leg with a protruding nail, causing at least $43,000 in damages.
From there, prosecutors said, Kenyon attacked several law enforcement officers with the table leg and, later, a large white plastic pylon. After the attack, the FBI asked the public for help identifying Kenyon. The FBI ultimately were able to do so after witnesses at the hotel Kenyon was staying at in Virginia remembered his distinctive costume. A family member also confirmed to the FBI the photo of the man in the costume was Kenyon.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons lists Kenyon as an inmate at its medium security prison in Victorville, Calif. His release date is listed as Feb. 18, 2027.
Nathaniel DeGrave, 32, of Las Vegas
DeGrave was arrested Jan. 28, 2021, and indicted Feb. 5 of that year. He pleaded guilty in June 2022 to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. He was sentenced in May to three years in prison, along with 36 months of released supervision and fined $25,000.
DeGrave, along with 36-year-old Ronald Sandlin, were arrested by FBI agents outside DeGraves’ Las Vegas apartment less than a month after the attack.
Arresting documents for Sandlin and DeGrave show that in December 2020, Sandlin posted on social media he was looking for individuals to go with to attend Trump’s Jan. 6 rally. That’s where he found DeGrave, and it led Sandlin to offer to travel with DeGrave, along with two other individuals, to Washington from his residence near Memphis.
As Jan. 6, 2021, drew closer, messages sent by Sandlin, DeGrave and others showed the group discussing bringing guns, tactical face shields, elbow and shin pads and bear mace. Once at the Capitol, Sandlin and DeGrave are seen on security footage shoving past officers to make entry into the Senate chambers mere minutes after lawmakers were evacuated from the floor, prosecutors say.
DeGrave is listed as an inmate at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Reentry Management field office in Phoenix. His release date is listed as Sept. 6.
Ronald Sandlin, 36, of Memphis, Tenn.
As previously stated, Sandlin was arrested along with DeGrave outside DeGrave’s Las Vegas apartment Jan. 28, 2021. Sandlin had grown up in Southern Nevada before moving to Tennessee. He pleaded guilty in September 2022 to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers.
Sandlin was the first from Las Vegas to be sentenced, on Dec. 9, 2022, and was ordered to serve 63 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and pay a $20,000 fine along with $2,000 in restitution.
At one point, prosecutors say, Sandlin and DeGrave were among a group of 20 to 30 rioters approaching a group of officers inside the Capitol, forcing the officers to flee. As the officers tried to move out, DeGrave raised his fists like a boxer and engaged with one of the officers trying to escape. Sandlin, meanwhile, attempted to rip a riot helmet off an officer’s head.
“Your life is not worth it today,” Sandlin shouted at officers as he and DeGrave approached from inside, according to court records. “You’re going to die, get out.”
Before exiting, Sandlin smoked a marijuana joint inside the Capitol Rotunda and claimed, “We made history.” He also stole a book from a Senate office and brought it back to Las Vegas, prosecutors said.
Sandlin is listed as an inmate in Forrest City, Ark., at the Bureau of Prisons’ low-security correctional facility.
