A Chicago man who entered then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s private office during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and stole a staffer’s wallet as well as a cherished photo of the speaker with the late civil rights icon John Lewis was sentenced Friday to more than four years in federal prison.
Kevin Lyons, 40, an HVAC technician from the Gladstone Park neighborhood, was convicted in a stipulated bench trial earlier this year of all six counts against him, including disorderly conduct, entering a restricted building, unlawful demonstrating in the Capitol and obstructing an official proceeding.
The 51-month sentence handed down in Washington, D.C., by U.S. District Chief Judge Judge Beryl A. Howell was the harshest punishment yet for the more than three dozen Illinoisans who have been arrested on charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
According to a statement of facts signed by Lyons, he publicly posted his car route from Chicago to Washington the day before the riot, writing, “I’m heading to DC to STOP THE STEAL.”
On Jan. 6, he recorded himself throughout the day and texted updates to others while weathering tear gas and flash-bangs as rioters broke into the building after a rally hosted by then-President Donald Trump, according to the statement.
“We’re storming the Capitol building,” he said, according to the statement. “I guess we’re all going to jail.”
He called the riot an “(expletive) revolution” as he ascended stairs to the Capitol’s Senate Wing doors, court records show. Once inside, the man goaded politicians hiding nearby while sharing chants with the mob.
“Nancy, where are you?” he said, referring to the California representative who then led the Democrat House majority.
He then found her ransacked office on the second floor and called out her name again, stopping to take a photo of the plaque outside the door, the statement said. He posted the photo to Instagram with the caption, “WHOS HOUSE?!?!? OUR HOUSE!!” but took it down after about an hour.
Inside Pelosi’s office, Lyons walked around and caught his own image reflected in a mirror, screenshots shared on the court records show. He saw a gray, wool coat hanging from a coat rack as a news show on a television screen covered the mob storming the Capitol.
“Anyone need a coat?” he said.
According to court records, he reached into the coat’s pockets and pulled out a brown, leather wallet belonging to one of Pelosi’s staffers. The wallet contained about $50, a TSA PreCheck card, two bank cards and a driver’s license. Lyons never returned it, according to the statement.
Lyons entered Pelosi’s personal office next, the statement of facts said. There, he removed a framed photograph of Pelosi with Lewis, the late U.S. representative. He texted a friend a picture of the photograph to someone else, telling them he was now a felon.
“I took this off Pelosi’s (expletive) desk,” he said. He then snapped another picture of himself with the stolen photo as he left the Capitol in an Uber, according to the statement.
When Lyons was interviewed by the FBI in Chicago two days after the riot, he was “evasive” about whether he’d been at the Capitol, saying he’d had a “dream” where people were being herded by a mob and there was “a lot of banging on doors” and “paper being thrown about,” court records show.
Agents then confronted him with a photo he’d posted to Instagram and then deleted showing the nameplate outside Pelosi’s office.
“Wow you are pretty good, that was up for only an hour,” Lyons said to investigators, according to the complaint.
At the request of the agents, Lyons uploaded the videos he’d taken of the incident to YouTube and later sent a link to investigators.
“Hello Nice FBI Lady,” Lyons emailed a special agent on Jan. 9, 2021, according to the complaint. “Here are the links to the videos. Looks like Podium Guy is in one of them, less the podium. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Podium Guy” was an apparent reference to Adam Johnson, who was charged with participating in the riot after he was allegedly caught on camera carrying the House speaker’s lectern.
In asking for a sentence of home incarceration, Lyons’ attorney, Lawrence Levin, wrote in a recent court filing that his client is a father of two boys with no significant previous criminal record.
“The defendant is a good, hardworking man who made an extremely poor choice and regretfully participated in a serious criminal offense,” Levin wrote. “He knows his conduct was wrong and he is ashamed of what he has done.”
Prosecutors, however, asked for an enhanced sentence of 56 months, writing in a court filing that Lyons’ actions inside the Capitol “were of the utmost seriousness,” particularly the theft of the photograph, which had enormous sentimental value to Pelosi and was stolen while she was forced to shelter in place due to the mob Lyons was participating in.
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The photograph was never found.
After the attack, Lyons “repeatedly made light of the events” on social media, “including multiple repulsive references to the Nazi regime and the Holocaust, which he consistently directed at police officers who were protecting the Capitol Building, the lawmakers and staffers inside of it, and the democratic process in operation on that day,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean McCauley and Jason Crawford wrote.
“Lyons, as a member of that mob, was not merely disrespecting the law, he was an active participant in an attack on the bedrock principle of our republic: the peaceful transition of power between democratically elected commanders-in-chief,” the prosecutors wrote.
At least 38 Illinoisans have been charged so far in the Capitol breach, an ongoing investigation that has been described by prosecutors as the largest criminal investigation in the country’s history.
Last month, a different judge gave a little more than three years in prison to James Robert Elliott, of Aurora, a former member of the Proud Boys militia group who assaulted police outside the Capitol with a flagpole.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested, including arrests in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
