‘He was your prey’: Jan. 6 rioter who assaulted officer gets 90 months

A Jan. 6 rioter who committed one of the day’s most brutal assaults against a police officer has been sentenced to 90 months in prison, the second-longest sentence yet for a member of the mob that stormed the Capitol.

Albuquerque Cosper Head of Tennessee pleaded guilty to yanking Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone away from police lines — shouting “I got one!” before other violent actors in the crowd dragged him away, tased him and robbed him of his badge and radio. Head engaged in a prolonged confrontation with police in the Capitol’s lower west terrace tunnel, the site of the day’s worst violence.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson described Head’s attack on Fanone as among the most chilling moments of violence on a dark day for the country.

“He was your prey,” Jackson said. “He was your trophy.”

Head is the latest Jan. 6 defendant to face a lengthy jail sentence for physically assaulting police. Jackson recently sentenced Kyle Young — who also pleaded guilty to his role in the assault on Fanone — to 86 months. And in her sentencing, she made waves by calling out congressional Republicans for being “afraid" to challenge Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election even amid rising threats to democracy.

Jackson delivered a similarly stark warning at Head’s sentencing.

"The dark shadow of tyranny unfortunately has not gone away,” she said. “Some people are directing their vitriol at Officer Fanone and not at the people who summoned the mob in the first place."

Only Thomas Webster, a former NYPD officer who was convicted at trial of brutally assaulting a Metropolitan Police officer attempting to hold the line outside the Capitol, has faced a longer sentence so far. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta sentenced him to 10 years in prison last month.

Nearly 900 people have been charged for their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and more than 400 have pleaded or been found guilty, primarily to misdemeanor offenses. But the number of defendants facing sentences for more serious crimes, like assaulting police officers or seeking to disrupt Congress’ session to count electoral votes and affirm Joe Biden’s presidency, has begun to climb as those slower and more complicated cases near their conclusions.

In delivering her sentence, Jackson noted that Head — unlike Webster — pleaded guilty and accepted responsibility for his crime. She also acknowledged his fiancee, who was in the courtroom, and the hardship his lengthy incarceration would cause for her and their three daughters. Head battled addiction for much of his life and appeared to overcome it seven years ago, in part after meeting his now-fiancee, she said.

“By all accounts, you are a committed and involved father, a loving and loyal and attentive son,“ she said, also acknowledging that his father passed away while he was incarcerated. “I respect that your conduct that day and this sentence are not all there is to you as a human being.”

Jackson also acknowledged the defense’s concerns that Head’s absence would create a hardship for his fiancee and children, who relied on his financial support and presence.

“Whether someone commits a robbery in an urban alley or a rural minimart … It is the partners who love them, the daughters and the sons … who bear the burden of carrying on for a while without them,” she said, but added, “It was the defendant who made the decision to leave them behind and face the real risk he could get arrested.”

Jackson also noted that many of the police officers assaulted on Jan. 6 lost their livelihoods as well.

“The people who are upset need to understand that no matter how outraged they are … when they decide to do battle with the officers who are doing their duty, they will be held accountable,” she said.