WASHINGTON — A federal judge sentenced a California man who drove a stun gun into the base of former DC Police Officer Mike Fanone’s neck during the Jan. 6 riot to more than 12 years in prison on Wednesday, calling him one of the "most serious offenders" from that day.
Daniel Rodriguez, 39, of Panorama City, California, pleaded guilty in February to four felony counts of conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, tampering with documents and inflicting bodily injury on an officer with a dangerous weapon. On Wednesday, he appeared before U.S. District Judge Amy B. Jackson for sentencing. Prosecutors asked for 14 years in prison — arguing he brought a group of people to D.C. with weapons on Jan. 6 for what he expected to be a violent conflict. Rodriguez's public defenders asked for a much lower sentence of six years in prison. Jackson quickly made clear that request wouldn't hold water,
"Your messages were all blood, war, weapons, hanging," Jackson said. "You never even anticipated a peaceful gathering."
Jackson previously sentenced two other men in connection with the brutal assault on Fanone, during which he lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack. Albuquerque Cosper Head, the Tennessee construction worker who grabbed Fanone in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel and dragged him into the mob, was sentenced in October to more than seven years in prison. A month earlier, Kyle Young, an Iowa man who helped restrain Fanone during the assault – and also handed Rodriguez the stun gun he used on Fanone – also received more than seven years in prison.
On Wednesday, Jackson ordered Rodriguez, who repeatedly drove the stun gun into Fanone’s neck while others were holding him down – leaving permanent scars – to serve 151 months, or approximately 12.5 years, in prison. She also ordered him to pay $96,927 in restitution to the DC Police Department to cover Fanone's hospital bills and medical leave.
"[Rodriguez] was a one-man army of hate, attacking police officers and destroying property," Jackson said.
Rodriguez gave a lengthy statement before his sentencing Wednesday. He spoke in great detail about his childhood growing up in L.A. and his single mother's struggle to provide for him, but expressed little if any remorse for his actions on Jan. 6. He mentioned Fanone only once.
"I hope Officer Fanone will be OK one day," he said. "It sounds like he's still in a great deal of pain."
Rodriguez spent more time talking about the community of fellow supporters of former President Donald Trump he met at rallies before and after the 2020 election, and what he expected to find in D.C.
"By the time of Jan. 6 I had been to so many protests and rallies I really thought a civil war was coming," Rodriguez said. "I thought President Trump was going to stay in power and his supporters were going to protect D.C."
Rodriguez showed little reaction to the lengthy sentence he received — one of the longest handed down yet in a Capitol riot case. Afterward, he smiled and hugged his attorneys and, while being led out of the courtroom by U.S. Marshals, yelled emphatically, "Trump won!"
Fanone, who spoke at the hearing and urged the Justice Department to prosecute Trump for his role in the riot, told reporters outside the courtroom he wasn't surprised to hear little remorse from Rodriguez.
"I think this is becoming the rule, rather than the exception, of defendants feigning responsibility or acceptance," he said. "These are zealots."
He said the sentencing, the third time he's had to give a victim impact statement in connection with his assault, had little impact on how he feels about Jan. 6.
"I'm still holding out hope that I'll be delivering a victim impact statement at the conclusion of Donald Trump's trial," Fanone said.
'Not Just a Follower'
After former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, prosecutors said Rodriguez began planning for “revolution” in a Telegram group chat he administered titled “PATRIOTS MAGA Gang.” The group included Rodriguez’s co-defendant Edward Badalian who was convicted in a bench trial in April of felony counts of conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. Rodriguez used the chat, prosecutors said, to urge others to prepare for violence to keep Trump in power.
“The reason for this violent rhetoric and extensive planning was also clear: Rodriguez believed the 2020 Presidential election had been stolen, and those responsible should be in prison or dead,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall wrote in her sentencing memo. “And this mistaken belief gave him the authority, in his mind, to plan an assault on anyone who stood in his way.”
Paschall said Rodriguez’s commitment to the cause was clear in the hundreds of messages he wrote in the group, including one on Dec. 14, 2020 – the day electors meet in all 50 states and cast their votes for president.
“We won’t allow criminals to run this country anymore,” Rodriguez wrote. “1776 Forever! If it’s the last thing some of us ever do.”
In another message, Rodriguez wrote, “Congress can hang. I’ll do it. Please let us get these people dear God.”
Rodriguez ultimately traveled to D.C. on Jan. 6 with a group of people he had encouraged to bring weapons – including knives, bear spray and axe handles. He then made his way to the front lines on the west side of the Capitol where rioters were attacking badly outnumbered police. At the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, Rodriguez shoved a long wooden pole at the police line. It was there when Young handed Rodriguez the stun gun and showed him how to use it. A short time later, Rodriguez used the stun gun on Fanone.
“With his electroshock weapon in hand, Rodriguez reached his arm towards the side of Officer Fanone’s neck, landing the device on the side of Officer Fanone’s neck, below the left ear of Officer Fanone’s helmet,” Paschall wrote. “Officer Fanone screamed in pain. Officer Fanone then jerked his head back, recoiling from the shock, and pulled his face away from Rodriguez briefly. Despite Officer Fanone’s efforts to get away, Rodriguez struck again, placing the electroshock weapon on the back of Officer Fanone’s neck, below the ‘M’ of the ‘MPDC’ logo on his helmet. The electrical spark of the weapon rang out… and Officer Fanone screamed again.”
Fanone, who testified before the January 6th Committee that he believed he was going to die during the assault, spoke during Young’s sentencing hearing in September about the assault’s lingering effects on him.
“The assault on me… cost me my career,” Fanone said. “It cost me my faith in law enforcement and many of the institutions I spent two decades of my life serving.”
After the assault on Fanone, and while still on the grounds of the Capitol, Rodriguez wrote to his Telegram group and bragged about what he’d done.
“I did so much f***ing s*** rn and got away tell you later,” he wrote, adding later, “Tazzzzed the f*** out of the blue.”
In their sentencing memo, Rodriguez’s attorneys said he had been preyed on by the former president’s “incendiary lies.” Like other rioters, they said, Rodriguez – who grew up without a father – “deeply respected and idolized Trump.”
“He saw the former president as the father he wished he had,” Rodriguez’s attorneys wrote.
Rodriguez’s attorneys, assistant federal public defenders Rebecca A. Levy, Margaret W. Lambrose and Katherine Tanaka, said Rodriguez found meaning and community in Trump’s MAGA movement that he hadn’t before had in his life. Rodriguez in fact “trusted Trump blindly” and admired him so much he referred to him as “dad” in his social media chats.
“Dad’s big day,” Rodriguez wrote in one message about Jan. 6. “Gotta get ready to save America.”
Rodriguez’s attorneys also quoted Fanone, who wrote in his book, “Hold the Line,” that Rodriguez was “so desperate for a sense of belonging that he became an easy mark for a cult.”
Despite Rodriguez's attorneys depiction of him, and even Fanone's own description, on Wednesday, Judge Jackson pushed back against the idea that Rodriguez was somehow "compelled" by Trump's words. She said he'd made his decisions willingly.
"As you read these messages, you can't escape the conclusion that Mr. Rodriguez is not just a follower," she said.
Rodriguez's 12.5-year sentence places him among the most serious offenders to date from Jan. 6. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted at trial last year of seditious conspiracy, was sentenced in May to 18 years in prison. One of his lieutenants who was convicted of the same charge, Kelly Meggs, received 12 years. Also last month, Peter Schwartz, a Pennsylvania man with a lengthy criminal history who assaulted multiple officers during the riot, was ordered to spend 14 years behind bars.
Rodriguez will receive credit for the approximately 27 months he spent in detention since his arrest. His attorneys requested he be recommended for placement at the low-security federal correctional facility at Terminal Island in Los Angeles to be close to his mother.