'Live with that shame': Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump gets 17-year state prison sentence

29 January

One participant in the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was still unable to avoid jail time despite getting a pardon from President Donald Trump.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday that Franklin County Judge Ryan Helfrich sentenced Emily Hernandez — who was one of the roughly 1,500 January 6 defendants Trump pardoned — to 17 years behind bars for a fatal drunk driving incident roughly a year after the Capitol siege. Hernandez had a blood alcohol content of 0.20% after she crashed into a Buick SUV while driving the wrong way on Interstate 44 on January 5, 2022. The fatal crash happened just days before Hernandez was scheduled to plead guilty to federal charges relating to her participation in the insurrection. That's nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08%.

Hernandez killed 32 year-old Victoria N. Wilson in the crash, and severely injured 36 year-old Ryan E. Wilson, who now walks with a cane. Judge Helfrich handed down a 10-year sentence for Victoria Wilson's death, and a seven-year sentence for injuring Ryan Wilson.

"What I did was ungodly and I will live with that shame for the rest of my life," Hernandez said at her Wednesday sentencing. "I am sorry for what I did and if I could take it all back, I would."

"Probation is not appropriate given the nature of what happened," Helfrich said, with the Post-Dispatch reporting that he handed down close to the maximum sentence.

Hernandez pleaded guilty in 2022 to one federal charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building, which is a misdemeanor offense. An archived version of her Department of Justice charging document (which has since been removed from the internet) shows that she was sentenced in April of 2022 to 30 days in jail, $500 in restitution and one year of supervised release, which includes 80 hours of community service.

According to the Post-Dispatch, Hernandez traveled to Washington D.C. with her uncle and a friend to watch Trump's speech at the Ellipse, and then marched with the crowd of thousands of his supporters to the U.S. Capitol. She was later photographed holding then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) nameplate from her office.

Click here to read the Post-Dispatch's full article (subscription required).

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