WASHINGTON — A Nevada man who attacked multiple police officers while dressed as a character from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday on two felony counts.
Josiah Kenyon, 35, of Winnemucca, Nevada, was ordered to serve 72 months in prison and pay $43,315 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols. Kenyon pleaded guilty in September to two felony counts of assaulting police with a dangerous weapon, including one count with an enhancement for causing bodily injury.
According to a statement of facts in Kenyon’s plea agreement, he first attended former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 before joining a crowd of thousands of people that marched to the U.S. Capitol Building. There – while dressed as Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” – Kenyon used his fist and a flagpole to damage a window and also repeatedly assaulted officers inside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel by throwing multiple objects, including a large plastic pylon, and then attacking them with a table leg with a protruding nail.
“At approximately 5:01:24, JOSIAH KENYON begins striking officers with what appears to be a table leg,” prosecutors wrote in Kenyon’s statement of facts. “He first strikes MPD Officer K.H. in the leg after Officer K.H. falls to the ground. Officer K.H. suffered bodily injury in the form of pain and swelling to his right ankle. JOSIAH KENYON then hits MPD Officer C.L. in the head with the chair leg. Officer C.L. is wearing a helmet and as he is struck, a part of the table leg becomes momentarily lodged in the opening between the top of the officer’s face shield and the helmet.”
Prosecutors asked Nichols to sentence Kenyon to 88 months in prison, or more than seven years behind bars. Keyon’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Ubong Akpan, asked for a lower sentence of four years. In her memo, she highlighted the unfortunate circumstances of his life – including the long period of time he lived on the streets beginning as a teenager. She also argued by late 2020 he had been “continually bombarded with conspiracy theories” and was propelled to action against what he saw as a corrupt government.
“For Josiah, the corruption he believed he witnessed, along with the impact it had on dashing his hopes of stability for his family, propelled him to action,” Akpan wrote.
Perhaps most dramatically, Akpan argued by Jan. 6 Kenyon had given up on his life.
“He admitted to trying to raise the violence level, but in the end, he was emotional when talking to the police and stated that his ultimate goal was to get shot, believing that he failed his family and that they would be better off without him,” she wrote.
On Tuesday, Nichols ordered Kenyon to serve 72 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Kenyon was also ordered to pay more than $43,000 in restitution to one of the officers he attacked.
More than 1,000 people have now been charged in connection with the Capitol riot, including more than 330 who have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding police. Of those, more than 100 are accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon or of causing serious bodily injury.
We're tracking all of the arrests, charges and investigations into the January 6 assault on the Capitol. Sign up for our Capitol Breach Newsletter here so that you never miss an update.