Two Cumberland County men have been ordered to serve 41 months in federal prison for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
Marshall Neefe, 26, of Newville, and Charles Bradford Smith, 25, of Shippensburg, were both sentenced in a federal court in Washington D.C. Friday after pleading guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers and conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding of Congress, which was convened that day to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the election of President Joe Biden.
According to court documents, Neefe and Smith communicated with each other and others on Facebook in the weeks preceding the rioting by supporters of then-President Donald J. Trump.
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For example, on Nov. 4, 2020, a day after Election Day, Neefe wrote to Smith, “Im getting ready to storm D.C.”
The two subsequently shared their intentions and plans to travel to Washington on January 6, the date that Trump and his supporters were planning a last-ditch public rally in support of his claims that the election had been stolen from him. In one message to Neefe, Smith wrote, “I can’t wait for DC!,” adding, “If it’s big enough we should all just storm the buildings … Seriously … I was talking to my Dad about how easy that would be with enough people.”
In another communication, federal prosecutors said, Neefe wrote, “We goin? ...Cause hot damn son I really wanna crack some commie skulls.” The two discussed bringing “batons” with them, and Neefe sent a photograph of a wooden club he had made to Smith and others, with a caption that called it “The Commie Knocker.”
On Jan. 6, both illegally entered the Capitol grounds, prosecutors said. Neefe carried the wooden club. They both participated in pushing a large metal sign frame – at least eight feet tall and 10 feet wide - into a defensive line of officers attempting to prevent the mob from further advancing on the west front plaza of the Capitol.
Federal prosecutors argued that while no police officers were injured in that part of the riot, the breach of the line did help other rioters who did subsequently harm officers.
Smith, prosecutors said, also encouraged people in the mob to keep forcing a door to the Capitol closed to keep law enforcement officers inside the building so that they could not respond to the riot unfolding outside.
Neefe later entered the Capitol building, including the Rotunda, disregarding commands to leave. He remained inside the building for more than 40 minutes, leaving at approximately 3:17 p.m.
Both men were arrested on Sept. 13, 2021, federal Department of Justice records show. Neefe pleaded guilty on May 3, 2022, to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers. Smith pleaded guilty on June 23, 2022, to the same two charges.
In making a case for leniency, lawyers for both men noted they were not part of some larger conspiracy to overturn the election, but mostly got caught up in the passions of the day.
Neefe’s attorney argued in court filings that his client had no prior criminal record, is sorry for his actions, and added “Mr. Neefe knew next to nothing about the 2020 election and listened to sources of information that were clearly false.”
Attorney Dennis Boyle argued that Neefe, a single father of one who worked in construction at the time of the riot, was heavily influenced by Smith at the time, and noted “Mr. Neefe has never been a person who has been motivated by politics; he has never even cast a vote in any election and is not registered to vote.
“There remain many grifters out there who remain free to continue propagating the “great lie” that Trump won the election, Donald Trump being among the most prominent,” Boyle continued, in asking the court to impose a one-year prison term. “Mr. Neefe is not one of these individuals; he knows he was wrong.”
Smith, who has most recently worked for UPS, was an open Trump supporter who, according to his lawyer, primarily wanted to go to Washington on January 6th to “stand up and be counted” for Trump.
In the hours that followed, Smith’s attorney Peter Cooper argued, Smith did get “sucked in” by the mob mentality that had taken hold, but he also ultimately decided to leave the scene without entering the Capitol once he realized what was unfolding, leaving Neefe at that time and going back to Neefe’s truck to wait for a ride home.
Cooper also asked the court to impose a lesser sentence, asking the judge to “take note that Brad is one of a small group of people who despite having gone down the regrettable road of amassing at the Capitol, realized the gravity of what was happening and disengaged as quickly as possible.”
The sentence imposed falls at the lower end of standard federal sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors were seeking a sentence in line with the guidelines, according to court filings.
Following their prison terms, Neefe and Smith both will be placed on three years of supervised release. They each also must pay $2,000 in restitution.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office and its Capital Area Resident Agency, with help from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Police Department.
In the 20 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 870 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 265 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The investigation remains ongoing.
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