Man’s 63-month prison term matches longest for Capitol riot

A man who attacked police officers with poles during the U.S. Capitol riot has been sentenced to more than five years in prison.

The sentence that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan gave Mark Ponder on Tuesday matches the longest term of imprisonment so far among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions.

Ponder, a 56-year-old resident of Washington, D.C., asked the judge for mercy before she sentenced him to five years and three months in prison.

He told the judge that he “got caught up” in what transpired on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol building.

That’s the same sentence that Chutkan gave Robert Palmer, a Florida man who also pleaded guilty to assaulting police at the Capitol.

Thirteen riot defenders have come before Chutkan, all of whom have been sentenced to imprisonment.

More than 200 other Capitol riot defendants have been sentenced so far, approximately 100 of whom have received a prison sentencing.

Ponder is now the 15th Capitol riot defendant to receive a prison term of more than a year.